Back in the States I have a yogurt maker that I love. It makes a whole quart of yogurt at a time and it’s pretty straightforward to use. Preparation of the milk solution with which to make the yogurt takes about a half-hour if I’m really focusing on it, otherwise it can take closer to 45 minutes. The “incubator” for the yogurt cultures is electric, so after you make the milk and cultures you just leave it alone in the heated jacket for about 4 hours and voila! home-made plain yogurt. You do have to let the yogurt cool in the fridge overnight, but that seems trivial.
Leave it to that old “Kiwi ingenuity” to come up with a yogurt maker that’s even easier to use. Making yogurt with my new maker takes only about 5 minutes of hands-on time, and I can make several different flavours and varieties – something I haven’t mastered with the one I have in Redlands.
In the picture, you’ll see the large white container that is the incubator, a 1-liter sized container (far right) that is the yogurt container, a smaller container that’s designed to go in lunch boxes, and several powdered yogurt mixes. The mixes come in over 30 different flavours and varieties. The powder is simply added to cold water in the 1-liter container, shaken to mix, and then made up to the correct volume. Simple! The incubator is not electric, but merely an insulated container which has a baffle 2/3 of the way down. You add boiling water to a marked level in the incubator, place the 1-liter container in the incubator, screw on the lid, and let the whole thing sit undisturbed for about 8 hours. The incubation time is longer, but typically I make it at night and it’s done in the morning. I still have to cool the mixture in the fridge for a little bit, but again, that’s pretty trivial.
The kids love the vanilla and caramel flavour. The natural is great for eating and cooking with, and I’m going to try Greek-style next to see what makes it different. I’m already trying to figure out how I’m going to bring back lots of the mixes with me in August. Anyone have any extra cupboard space I could borrow?
1 comment:
Brigid, I was intrigued by this. So I went online to this website: http://www.easiyousa.com/. Check it out to see if its cost effective. Perhaps you can just order it when you come home.
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