5th Batch - Slower Cooker and Powdered Milk

For our fifth batch, my wife and I tried the recipe in the slow cooker video we posted, and which can also be found at Every Day Food Storage. My wife grew up eating mostly yogurt made from powdered milk so she was pretty excited to try this out. I prefer using 'real' milk (I still haven't tried raw) because it tastes better(to me). I feel in past days powdered milk was the poor mans way of having milk, but now a days it seems it can be just as expensive as 'normal' milk and in some cases more expensive. At any rate, we do keep some powdered milk for a food reserve and we are always keen on finding recipes that will help rotate our supply. The details for the batch are below.
Ingredients:
Milk:

• Amount: 2 quarts
• Brand: Stop-n-Shop Instant Nonfat Powdered Milk (We aren't 100% sure, I took my detailed notes after the trash went out).
• Notes: We used the measurements from the website to make 2 quarts, which is 3 cups of mix for 2 quarts of water. Additionally we added 2 and 2/3 cups additional mix. In total that is 5 2/3 cups of powder mix to make 2 quarts of milk. (This was significantly more than what the box recommended)

Yogurt Starter:

• Amount: 1/2 Cup
• Brand: Old Home All Natural Plain Yogurt (Local MN yogurt)
• Ingredients: Cultured pasteurized grade A milk & Nonfat milk
• Other Facts: Live & Active cultures (Acidophilus & Bifidus)

Incubator Used:

We used a slow cooker or Crock-Pot

Steps & Notes:

Again, we followed the directions on the Food Storage Yogurt from Everyday Food Storage:

1. Mix Milk: We mixed our powdered milk using the measurements recommended on the website. This might have been a mistake as the ratio of powder to milk was significantly higher than what the packaging recommended. In retrospect it might have been wiser to go with the ratio on the box.
2. Heat Milk: After mixing the milk and pouring it into the slow cooker, we set the slow cooker onto 'Low' heat and left if for 2.5 hours. 'Low' on our slow cooker got the milk to about 188 degrees. The milk got frothy and there was some 'light browning' around the edge of the pot.
   
3. Cool Milk: After 2.5 hours we turned the cooker off and let it sit for 3 hours. This allowed the milk to cool to about 125 degrees. We had a thin 'film' form on the top of the yogurt that we scooped off before mixing in the starter.
4. Stir in Starter: We stirred in  1/2 cup of starter and mixed it well.
5. Incubate: We put the lid on and wrapped towels all around the cooker and left it to incubate.
6. Timing: We let it sit out for 7 hours.

Results:

• Mixed reviews, I think it's okay, my wife doesn't like it.
• Taste: It doesn't really taste that great. I don't think it has that good tart yogurt taste, it's bearable though and as I will talk about below, the texture and consistency help it. My wife feels like it tastes too salty. She was also hoping it wouldn't taste like powdered milk, but to her it tastes like "super condensed powdered milk".
• Consistency: It is very thick and firm, as seen in the video and pictures we took. I'm one of those people who when they taste foods is swayed a lot by the texture of the food. For some reason the fact that this yogurt is so firm and smooth it helps the flavor and is the one redeeming quality.
• Overall Rating: 2 out of 5
• Other observations:
•  My wife really liked this approach to making the yogurt because, for her, it is low maintenance and easy; meaning you don't have to worry about watching the temperature of the milk over the stove. You just have to have the time and a regime to wait 2 hours for it to warm remember to turn it off, wait 3 hours to cool, then remember again to come back to it, then have time to let it sit and incubate for 6-8 hours. For me that would be more work.
• I didn't like that it took so long, and the yogurt wasn't that good. Since I usually make yogurt in the evening after coming home from work, I like that I can heat the milk up relatively quickly, cool it quickly (putting the pot in some water helps, as long as you don't let it cool too much), and then let it incubate overnight while I sleep.

Possible Improvements:

• Use less Instant Powdered Milk in the original mix.
• Try part 'real' milk and part Powdered Milk. If we could get a similar consistency using milk that would be the best of both worlds.