Yogurt Success! {Cultures for Health Review and Giveaway!!}

I FINALLY made yogurt!!!  Well, yogurt that I like anyway.  I’ve made plenty of yogurt, but 99% of the time, it came out runny.  Really runny.  And I like my yogurt thick.

A friend had an extra gallon of raw milk that was going to go bad before they could drink it, so I volunteered to turn it into yogurt.  This was the perfect opportunity to try out my direct-set yogurt cultures from Cultures for Health, and I am thrilled at the results!

I used the Healthy Home Economist’s method for making yogurt with raw milk.  She heats the milk to a max temperature of 115 F, just enough to help the cultures set.  Then she adds the culture, mixes it up, and places the jars in the microwave, wrapped in a towel for 24 hours.  The microwave is turned off, just in case you wondered.  I followed her directions, using Culture for Health’s cultures, and voila, thick yogurt!

I’ve tried various other methods in the past including heating it on the stove for hours on end (and checking the temperature every 5 min and then readjusting the heat on a gas stove…it was annoying!), the crockpot, and wrapping it in a towel and sticking it in an ice chest.  Using these direct-set cultures made yogurt-making a slam dunk for me.  It took only a few minutes to make, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

I also like that Cultures for Health offers both a traditional yogurt flavor and a mild flavor.  I’m not a huge fan of the plain yogurt taste, so the mild flavor was right up my alley.

Cultures for Health is so awesome that one of you will win THREE of your own direct-set yogurt cultures!!   You get to choose your own 3 varieties!   Enter the giveaway by signing up for their email newsletter!  This giveaway will close next Thursday, March 15th at 11:59pm CST, so get your entries in!

Disclosure: Cultures for Health sent me the cultures to review, but all opinions are solely mine.