Yogurt maker

I first came across Easiyo in New Zealand where it originates. You can use the powder sachets or you can use live yoghurt added to milk. You can get all the information by googling Easiyo. It's available at Lakeland, QVC and several other outlets.

I used a yoghurt maker many years ago when my children were young, flavouring with whatever fruit was to hand, or a little jam (the kids didn't like it plain). However, like all similar kitchen equipment, it eventually fell by the wayside, cluttering up the cupboard. It was very easy and cheap to use with live yoghurt as a starter.

I regularly use a yogurt maker I bought from Lakeland - it's not the Easiyo one but has a container into which you put longlife milk, a couple of spoons [spoon provided] of dried milk and a couple of dollops of natural yogurt, switch on and leave over night and there's the yogurt next morning. I use yogurt for dressings instead of mayonnaise and wherever it says creme fraiche as I can't eat cream and I've been really pleased with it. My only gripe is that the container is quite large and it would be nice to have smaller pots. Many moons ago I did have one with small pots but I've not seen it advertised for years. Recommend having a yogurt maker though I still buy coconut or nut yogurts from time to time.

I also used to make yoghurt in a wide-mouthed Thermos flask, using a yoghurt thermometer which regrettably disappeared when I moved house.

I used to make it in used yoghurt containers, just heating the milk up , mixing in a couple of tablespoons of ordinary yoghurt, and standing it on the radiator for a day. You could do 2 or 3 daughter and grand-daughter lots before it failed to set and you had to start again with a (small) pot of bought yoghurt. That was in the days before they routinely killed off the culture in most of the bought pots, and we were not as bothered by the possibility of food poisoning - which never seemed to happen.

I've got a yogurt maker lurking, unused in the back of a kitchen cupboard. It's one that has 6 smaller pots on a heated base. You've all inspired me to try again with it, thank you!

I make it like Elegran, except I boil the milk to reduce by a third to make it thicker. Wait until it is cool enough to leave your finger in and count to ten, then add half a tub of live yogurt. We leave ours near(ish) to the wood burning stove to set, but I guess a radiator would work. We just use it straight from the stainless steel bowl, which we leave in the fridge once it has set. Delicious!

I also invented a home-made yogurt-maker, which was a cardboard box lined with expanded polystyrene, holding four biggish yoghurt cartons and the spaces filled with polystyrene packaging chips. Another sheet of expanded polystyrene covered the top, the cardboard flaps were closed and the heated yoghurt stayed warm long enough for the culture to develop.

Soon after that, two of the children moved out, and the other decided he did not really like yoghurt. I think it still around somewhere.

I love my easiyo. We do get through about a litre of the stuff a week so it is worth it. I love the science - cold mixture in the middle, hot water in the jacket, insulating container and lid, 12 hours later, voila. I use dried milk. I find starting over with a pot of Yeo Valley every few weeks gets the best results.
Maybe a whole day of incubation might be a bit slow elegran - what i am thinking about is that the yoghurt bacteria and the lactic acid they produce inhibit the breeding of other bacteria (and there are plenty that might take advantage of all that milk). If it takes 24 hours I wonder if other bacteria might be getting a bit of a head start? I feel more comfortable with a faster process myself.

I've not done it in years, JessM, and even then it would mostly be ready in a few hours, not all day. I was making the point that it can be done without a gadget - after all, Mongolian herdsmen used to fill a goatskin with milk and then carry it on their horse's back until it was time for a snack. Warmth and agitation - must have worked pretty efficiently. No record of how many of them died of botulism though.

Or a goats stomach even

Probably tasted of goat, anyway.

can anyone recommend a good yogurt maker?

I've got this one, which I've had for years. www.lakeland.co.uk/3440/Lakeland-Electric-1L-Yogurt-Maker

I use full-fat long-life milk (I don't bother with milk powder). To start it off, I use a small Yeo plain yogurt, for about 50p. After that, I use some of the yogurt to start off the next batch. I've found leaving it up to 24hrs makes it thicker.

Lakeland also has this on sale but I have no experience of it. www.lakeland.co.uk/70491/EasiYo-1kg-Red-Yogurt-Maker

I used one when the children were small, it had little glass pots and I tried to time it so that the pots were clean out of the dishwasher just when I started the culture, so they were absolutely sterile. The yoghurt seemed to take ages to grow and after a short time, it went red round the edges.

If I then went on to use the home-made yoghurt to start the next culture, it got weaker and weaker and hardly worked at all, and the red colour got worse, so I had to buy a pot of yoghurt every time I wanted to make some.

I never found out what this red stuff was and the yoghurt machine has now been appropriated by my middle DS who is using it and doesn't seem to have any trouble with it.

I used long life milk at hand warm temperature, with yoghurt stirred into it and then filled into the jars. The "machine" just kept this at a constant warm temperature to encourage the growth, but putting it in the boiler room or on a radiator would have had the same effect.

Used to make it all the time with the red flask kit from Lakeland. Never had any problems with it. These days we use Aldi full fat Greek yoghurt which is truly delicious and the kit is languishing in a cupboard somewhere. I think the decision to change originally came from OH as he was unhappy using the packets imported from the other side of the world and wanted to support UK farming as much as possible. No doubt we ought to have used a culture from a fresh yoghurt.

I used to have the same one as goldengirl from the sounds of it. I never quite got mine to set, but it was lovely to drink, warm first thing in the morning.

Yes we had one as well with the little pots. When you can buy wonderful and inexpensive Greek yogurt in the supermarkets now it's not worth it. I can eat the full fat greek yogurt straight out of the pot.

The small fruit commercial pots have a lot of additives which include starches to act as stabilsers, they leave an odd texture.
ASDA plain greek style yogurt is just under a pound for 500ml. It is made by Yeo Valley (you can see their logo on the little trays they deliver them in.)

I had an easiyo yogurt maker but gave it away, I got bored of having to eat the same flavour every day, I found it quite expensive to.

We have the Easy-yo setup. Works a treat , plenty of choice of type of yoghurt and flavours.

Our grandkids like to set it off if they have a sleepover so there is the fresh yoghurt of their choice at breakfast time .

I see that this thread goes back almost six years. I am still using the same Easiyo kit that I was using when I posted all those years ago! However, Lidl does a huge pot of Greek style yoghurt which, I think. is about the most cost-effective available.

I now have the EasyYo maker and it works a treat, you just use cold water to mix the sachet of stuff and bouiling water to fill the outside container and leave it overnight. One sachet makes a litre, enough to last me about a week with my muesli.

I mostly use the Greek yoghurt with honey, which is absoloutely delicious, but I vary it from time to time with other flavours. They cost about £12.50 for five or six sachets, depending on the variety, so there is no need to eat tghe same flavour all the time, you could change it weekly if you wanted to (more often if there are two of you eating it)

I buy it online from Lakeland every ten weeks or so. Delivery is free above a certain level (can't remember whether it is £30 or £35) and two boxes come to £25 or £26. The extra is easily made up with cling film, foil, cleaning products and so on.

The Lidl big pot of greek style yogurt is delicious, and last one I bought was only 99p.

Mine is Cuisinart Pure Indulgence Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, and Ice Cream Maker Review (review: zaineysyogurt.com/cuisinart-pure-indulgence-review/ ) it was not cheap, but Im happy with this model