Thanks to our friend Tagan, we have found a fabulous way to make beautiful yogurt with our abundance of goat milk on applewood farm.
Up until now, we’ve made chèvre (it was fine) and ricotta (good, but with limited uses), but our attempts at yogurt just weren’t successful.
We started sending all of our goat milk, every week, down to our Brooklyn restaurant, applewood, where Chef Sam and his team of culinary wizards did beautiful things with it… think goat milk ice cream and clarified goat milk cocktails, to name just two.
But when Tagan posted her Super Easy-No Fuss yogurt recipe that (for us) would provide unlimited, free yogurt, we couldn’t resist trying our hands at it.
We’ve done it twice now, and it’s turned out perfectly both times. Here’s what you do:
1. Milk your goat (cow/sheep/pig/cat… whatever’s handy) and collect the milk until you have at least 1/2 gallon.
2. Over high heat, bring your milk up to 180 degrees.
3. Move the pot of milk off the heat and set it aside to cool down to 110 degrees.
4. While the milk is cooling, bring a pot of water to boil and sterilize your jars and lids.
5. Boil some more water and fill two or three quart-sized glass jars with the boiling water. Secure lids onto these.
6. Line a cooler with bath towels and place the hot water jars inside. Close the lid.
7. When the milk has cooled to 100 degrees, mix in 1/2 cup of plain yogurt (once you’ve made one batch, you should reserve at least 1/2 cup to use for your next batch).
8. Pour the milk-yogurt mixture into sterilized jars, secure with tight-fitting lids, and place into the towel-lined cooler with the hot water jars.
9. Wrap everything with the towels, close the lid, and let sit for 8-12 hours.
10. Cool for 12-24 hours (the longer it cools, the better the consistency) and enjoy!