Homemade Shire Yogurts & Whey

At 5pm yesterday evening, I began the process of making homemade yogurt.

Milk and a little Yogurt - heat milk to right at boiling -
remove from heat and add a little yogurt, mix - let sit covered in warm spot.
4 to 12 hours later should have yogurt - quite a large bit of it.

I was frustrated in the beginning because after 4 hours I didn't have a yogurt as some others did. I thought I failed completely. I did some trouble shooting: thinking I had the water in the big bowl too warm around the smaller bowl and harmed/killed the culture OR that I may not have used the right yogurt for it - you want to see the words "active" on the back of the container you get at the store but better if it says "live and active". 

Anyway -- What I did was to add more yogurt and take the small bowl out of the water bath for another 4 hours. After those 4 hours I noticed only a few small curds and drained it - got soft yogurt from it. 

The soft yogurt
Similar to the average stuff you find in the stores.

I was still upset that I didn't have a thinker yogurt - I wanted the Greek-styled. So I put the small bowl back into the bigger bowl with very warm water - again! Let it sit for 2 more hours and checked it - noticed I had some nice large curds but still not a lot of them. I was tired and frustrated by this time -- I decided (in a last ditch effort) to put the milk and curds back into a pot and got it warm (medium heat)  - to my surprise when I checked it,
I had yogurt and whey!! 

Thick Greek-styled yogurt

I  can take the Greek-styled and strain off more whey
and make a soft cheese from it if I wish. 

(Acid) Yogurt Whey

Many uses for the Yogurt Whey: Buttermilk Substitute,

use it in Baking (in place of water), cook rice or pasta in it, make a Ricotta Cheese from it,

and the list goes on. It is very healthy -- a probiotic.

"Food writer Paula Rhodes suggests making ricotta cheese with reserved strained whey from yogurt. For every 2 cups of whey, use half of a gallon of whole or reduced-fat milk. After the combination is heated, curds will form as the mixture cools. Strain these curds, store them in the refrigerator and use them wherever you would use ricotta cheese. Combining cream instead of milk with the whey can yield mysost, a soft whey-based, Scandinavian-style spreadable cheese."

In the end - I have 3 products: healthy whey, a soft yogurt plus a thick creamy Greek-styled yogurt that I can strain further to make a cheese with - or use just a little to make a cheese - then I'll have 4 products from it. Not bad from a quart (4 cups) of whole milk and about 1/3 cup of yogurt total.

I may try this again - now that I've learned a few things this first time trying to make this.