That’s probably going to be too hot. I made my first lightbox with a foil lined cardboard box and an incandescent lightbulb, but nowadays I just fill a small ice chest with warm water and check it through the day.
Do you remember seeing those cast iron stoves pioneer women used to slave over? The top thingy was for making yogurt and rising bread.
That’s how easy and common yogurt was and still is.
You can do this whole thing in your sink if you want to.
Always start by sterilizing your work area, tools and containers. Do this first so you don’t need to stop later. While you probably don’t need to bother with this for yogurt, good habits are better than bad ones. We use Star San but there are many other food friendly ones out there.
Start by mixing half a gallon of whole milk and a cup of cream in a pot, then gently heat it to 180F. GENTLY! This should take at least half an hour with you stirring it when you walk by. (Use an up and down motion whenever playing with milk, it helps move the heat up from the bottom of the pan.)
Once it’s at temp, cover and hold for 5 to 25 minutes depending on how thick you want it to be. This is the ripening process.
Pour the warm milk into a jar and give it an ice water bath to cool it to 115 as quickly as possible. Pour half a cup of the warmish milk into a bowl and mix the starter and milk until combined. You are doing this because you don’t want to shock your good bacteria. Now pour the milk and starter into the jar and stir for 20-30 seconds. Seal the lid and put it in it’s warming place for 8-10 hours, or longer if needed. You will need to play with this as well.
When it’s ready, it will be slightly firm and you will be able to see some pulling away from the sides of the jar.
It’s ready to drink now, or you can put it in the fridge and chill it for 6-8 hours to thicken.
You can make it even thicker with powered milk but it’s really hard to get whole fat powdered milk so you probably won’t want to mess with that. You can also drain the curds through a cheese cloth lined colander for 4-10 hours if you want to play with Greek style yogurt.
Do be careful with this. Playing with milk is kinda addicting and causes even normal people to start speechifying.
We lurves you too!!! How’s the new dawg search going?