Yogurt in an Electric Skillet

Yogurt is easy and inexpensive to make yourself and homemade yogurt can be sweetened with fresh fruit or even your own homemade jam just to your taste. 

1 quart of 2% or skim milk 

1/2 cup instant nonfat dry milk 

3 Tbs. plain yogurt (with cultures), room temperature 

Put 1 cup of milk in small bowl, add dry milk, and stir until dissolved. Rinse a 2-quart saucepan with water to help prevent the milk from sticking and pour in remaining 3 cups of milk and dissolved dry milk. Mix well. Heat milk over low heat to 200 degrees F. Remove from heat and cool to 108 degrees F. Remove protein film from the top of the milk. In a small bowl stir yogurt until creamy. Mix about 1/3 cup of warm milk into yogurt. Blend until smooth. Stir yogurt-milk mixture into remaining milk. Mix well. Pour into 4 10-oz custard cups. Cover each with plastic wrap and arrange evenly in electric skillet. Pour warm water one-inch deep around custard cups, adjust lid onto skillet, and turn thermostat to lowest heat that turns light on. Let yogurt remain undisturbed 4 to 6 hours or until set. Remove and refrigerate.

Basic Cheese

This recipe can be made with 1, 2 or 3 gallons of milk. I find the larger the batch, the better the cheese is.

1 gallon of whole milk (you can use whole milk, skimmed, powdered, instant, or a combination. If you use powdered or instant milk, mix it and then let it stand 24 hours before using. Also, with powdered or instant milk you need 1 cup of cream to 1 gallon of milk to have enough butterfat. Remember the more butterfat the more cheese you will get.
1/4 cup buttermilk per gallon
1 rennet tablet dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water (Make sure it is dissolved completely. Add it to the milk and stir well to make sure it is completely mixed in. Do not dissolve tablet until just ready to use. They will lose their strength if dissolved and you let it stand.

In a heavy pan heat milk and buttermilk to 90 degrees. Take it off the heat. Add rennet tablet and let the milk set undisturbed for approximately 1/2 hour (or until the curd is well formed. The curd will break away from the sides of the pan when tilted). Do not get excited ted if it takes longer even up to 6 or 8 hours. It will coagulate.

Take a long stainless steel knife and cut the curd in 1/2 inch strips one way and then turn the pan and cut the other way. (It will look like a checker board). Heat the mixture to 100 degrees while stirring with your hand, breaking curd apart.) Be careful at this point because the cheese won't stick together if it is heated too fast. Turn off the heat and let it stand undisturbed for 15 minutes, during which time the curds will sink.

Line a colander with 2 layers of cheese cloth. Strain the curds and whey. Press the curds to squeeze out the whey. Do not press hard enough to compress. Dump the curds into a large bowl and salt to taste (about 1 1/2 to 2 Tbs per gallon of milk.) Reline the colander with the same cheese cloth and put the curds in. Draw the four corners of the cheese cloth together and twist. Tie a string around it and place it on your breadboard in the sink. Place a plate on top of the cheese and put a gallon jug filled with water or some other weight on the plate. Let it stand about 12 hours. This will make a nice round piece of cheese. Caution: If the whey is left in the cheese it will mold.