An Ode to Yogurt

I started making my own yogurt over 6 years ago. Back when we first moved to Taiwan.

As a newbie expatriate I was rather dismayed—heartbroken, really—to discover that plain, unsweetened yogurt is not to be found on this island. (Although, they do have it in some shops here in Taipei. For the tidy sum of $8 a quart. But back then we lived in Taichung, which is a touch less…international.)

Praises be! A wonderfully dear, seasoned missionary from England taught me how to make yogurt by mixing milk powder with 1 part boiling water, three parts cool water, stir in a bit of yogurt and wrap the whole thing in blankets to keep warm while it incubates for 12 to 24 hours.

When we moved into the seminary I didn’t have room for my blanket-wrapped yogurt making scheme. And so I broke down and bought a “yogurt maker” and started making my yogurt with regular milk instead of the powdered kind. I use quotations because while it is labeled a yogurt maker, but it is essentially just a small cooler. I fill up a jar with some milk, add in the starter bacteria or just a bit of yogurt, and sit the jar in my yogurt maker that is filled halfway with boiling water (you want the hot water high enough to warm your milk, but not so high it covers your jar). Again you wait 12 to 24 hours for your little bacterias to turn the milk to lovely yogurt.

For anyone who has wanted to try making yogurt but felt overwhelmed, feel overwhelmed no more. 1. You don’t need any special equipment. An old blanket or a cooler (even a styrofoam cooler) will suffice. 2. You don’t need to heat your milk. 3. You don’t need special yogurt starter. Just a small spoonful of regular old yogurt will do the trick. 4. It is really not difficult. There is an incredibly huge margin for error.

In our house we go through a quart of yogurt a day.

Perhaps that isn’t really true. The truth is that I only make a quart a day. Then we ration it out to make sure everyone gets some. I’m fairly positive that Abram could eat the entire quart by himself if we let him have as much as he wanted. And I know I could.

Of course, John Amos has joined the ranks of yogurt lovers.

These pictures reminded me of another cheeky baby boy enjoying his favorite snack.

Which kind of, but didn’t really, remind me of this baby girl and her yogurt.

Ellie always has been one to go for it with gusto.

(Although, Abram has also been caught doing the very same thing…)