CKSTYM1001 Mykonos Greek Manual Yogurt Maker, 1-Quart

I've had this for a couple months and I'm really impressed. The yogurt maker is essentially a thing that warms up to the temp the yogurt culture works best at. Its simple and does the job well. And the yogurt is better than any I've bought at the store. But it took a few tries to get the yogurt to this point so I'm writing out what I do in stupidly basic detailed instructions that I would have appreciated at first. I use a pyrex 11 cup dish, whole milk, a 4 quart metal mixing bowl, a flat bottomed wisk, a large sause pan, a digital cooking thermometor and a single serving of unflavored, plain greek yogurt from the store. A note about the 11 cup dish. It holds exactly 11 cups, so put 10 in it because liquid expands as it warms and you want some space at the top of the dish so it doesn't spill and so you can get the lid on. And a note about the thermometer. I got one from ikea for fairly cheap that has a probe that can go in the oven that has a heat proof long cable that connects to a digital contoller where you read the temp and set the temperature you want the thermometer to alarm at. This is nice for yogurt because you leave the long probe in the double boiler while warming up the milk and it doesn't get in the way of stirring but you can still read the temp on the display. First, I run hot tap water until it gets up to about as hot as it can get and I fill up the saucepan half way with that. Then I add the 10 cups of milk to the metal mixing bowl. I put the bowl on top of the saucepan and turn on the heat to high (basically just a double boiler). I put on the probe of the thermometer and set the thermometer alarm to go off at 175 degrees Fahrenheit. I begin to stir the milk once the water in the saucepan gets close to boiling, and I stir continuously throughout the rest of the heating process to avoid scalding. Scalding results in grainy yogurt :( Once the milk reaches 175 I turn the heat off and pull the mixing bowl off of the saucepan. I fill the sink with cold water about half the height of the mixing bowl and I place the mixing bowl with milk into the cold water. I make sure to do this transition as quickly as possible and to stir as much as possible. I often throw ice cubes into the water to speed up the cooling process. You want to stir while the milk is cooling so the thermometer reads accuratly. Once the milk reaches 110, remove the mixing bowl from the sink. At this point, I put the single serving of plain greek yogurt in a bowl and stir it up a bit with the wisk. Then, add in about a cup of the warm milk to the yogurt and wisk to break apart the yogurt into a consistent, even mixture. Add this into the rest of the warm milk. This tempering step prevents grainy yogurt by keeping the milk that goes into the yogurt maker as smooth as possible. Now just pour this mixture into the 11 cup pyrex dish, put the lid on and place in the yogurt maker. Turn on and leave for 10 hours (generally overnight). Once time is up, move the dish with your freshly made yogurt to the fridge for several hours to cool. Once cool, fill up the strainer with as much yogurt as you can while reserving a single serving of unstrained yogurt for the next batch. I actually use the glass jars that came with the yogurt maker for this. I let the yogurt strain for several hours until the strained off liquid whey level reaches the base of the strainer. It won't strain more than this unless you pour off the whey because once the whey reaches the strainer it can move both out of and into the strainer. But at this point I actually combine the strained yogurt back in with the remaining yogurt that didn't fit into the strainer. This gives you a reasonably thick consistency (somewhere between yoplait and greek yogurt) without loosing too much of your yogurt. Of course you can strain all of the yogurt or none of it depending on what you like. My parents mix pectin into their yogurt to thicken it instead of straining it. I like straining it because you loose a lot of acidity in the whey and it takes less sugar or fruit to make it paletable. And that is the last step for the yogurt is to mix in flavor into a single serving right before you go to eat it. I initially tried making yogurt with 2% because thats what we drink. I prefer the whole milk because it makes a much richer, thicker, and creamier yogurt. You leave it.in the yogurt maker for 2 hours less which results in a less acidic yogurt, and it is still thicker than 2% left in for 12 hours. This also means less straining needs to be done to get a good yogurt and that you don't loose as much of your yogurt as whey. So this is what I do and it makes a yogurt I really like. This is obviously not the only way to make yogurt so play around and see what works best for your tastes.

I love yogurt, but had to go vegan a few months ago and seriously miss my Fage yogurt for breakfast. So I dove in, and bought this machine to try and use soy milk to make my own at home. First time was a disaster, though it was edible it was too much like cottage cheese. Second time was a total disaster, THIRD time was the charm. None of this has anything to do with the machine, because that has been the easiest part of the whole process. My mistake was using the wrong milk - so I hope I can help someone else! I used Silk Unsweetened Soy the first time, but it was NOT smooth and not tangy at all. Second time I used Silk Almond/Cashew and that was a really bad mistake. Tasted awful. So I read and read and figured out the best milk to use (doesn’t really matter what type) is a brand that has water + nut/soy/oat/hemp only. NO other ingredients, no additives or preservatives. Works perfectly, and if you buy shelf stable containers (I have been using WestSoy Unsweetened) then you do not have to heat the milk at all. (1) open the container (2) add your starter (3) close container and shake to make sure the starter is dissolved (4) add to the machine and turn it on for 10-12 hours. **the above works for shelf-stable containers only, since they are sealed and do not need heating to kill off bacteria that may interfere with the fermenting process. Another recommendation, since I bought a starter in a box (4 packets) and just recently switched to probiotics (http://a.co/dyLMwVa) which means I can make like 25 batches of yogurt now. Much cheaper than the supermarket, so much cheaper than buying a pre-packaged starter. Just get your own preferred company probiotics, in capsule form, and you are all set to go. Hope this helps someone else looking at buying this machine. The machine is great, makes a perfect batch everytime, and is super easy to use. I just never realized the importance of using milk that was free and clear of unnecessary things to make sure each batch comes out tasting perfect and straining it with the machine is easy and gives me thick, creamy 100% vegan yogurt everytime.

La yourtera funciona perfectamente, contiene todos los accesorios necesarios para hacer yogurt griego. Recomendada 100% El proveedor súper confiable, el producto llego en el momento prometido.

I used a few times and it worked very well. Their recipe said to boil the milk, which I did the first time and it turned out grainy. When I heated the milk to 185F, the yogurt turned out perfect.

Works like a charm. Amazingly simple to operate. The yogurt turned out perfect. It was exactly what I was hoping it would be.

Me encanto, muy fácil de usar , deja el yogurt muy cremoso , debería venir él instructivo en español y debí haber comprado el más grande

Made quite a few batches of yogurt in the few days I got it and it I ask myself why I did not buy this earlier.