easiyo yogurt maker any good? or make your own? (merged)

Former_MSE_Andrea

I'm planning to start making yogurt tonight.

I've never done it before but I've been trying to reduce plastic for a while and my family gets through quite a lot.

I thought I'd bump this thread to see if anyone else is doing it since it was last posted on

Primrose

Afraid I gave my EasiYo Yogurt maker away as I found I wasn't making enough yogurt to justify the cupboard space it took up. Rather wish now, in view of the fact that China have refused to accept any more of our plastics for recycling, that I'd hung onto it as although I don't eat a lot of it, every plastic container saved is one piece of plastic less to clutter up our own landfill!


Must start looking out for another one in charity shops. A lesson in how external circumstances over a period of time should sometimes dictate what we so readily throw out in one of our decluttering moments!

pol098

I'm planning to start making yogurt tonight.

I looked into the economics of it, reported in a post a while ago, and came to the conclusion that there was no worthwhile saving over buying it, though of course you don't accumulate plastic waste. I was given an Easiyo maker some years ago, and find it expensive to use with the sachets. It can be used with raw milk and a starter; I sometimes got good results, but not always.

I have an improvised sous-vide cooking setup, a waterbath with controlled temperature, and have had 100% success using it to make yoghurt with milk, and a starter from a previous batch, at 48C (hot enough to inhibit most bad bacteria but not the hardy yoghurt culture). You have to heat the milk to at least 80C for a few minutes beforehand to denature the proteins, and cool it before adding the starter, otherwise it won't set properly - as a side-effect this also kills bad microorganisms. After adding the starter the temperature must never exceed 55C even for a moment. Straining the result gets exactly the same product as buying Greek-style cows-milk yoghurt - no better, no worse. After making the yoghurt you can of course add fruits, nuts, sweeteners, etc.

But when I did it, the cost was about £0.90 per kilo of strained yoghurt plus heat and labour, against £1.30/kg for LIDL Greek-style yoghurt (now a few pence more). My conclusion is that making yoghurt only significantly saves money if you can buy milk very cheaply; I once bought about 10 l of short-dated milk at about 6p/l and made masses of yoghurt. Unfortunately it was skimmed milk, so I ended up with very low-fat yoghurt, which I don't much like.

HTH

Former_MSE_Andrea

pol098 wrote: »

I looked into the economics of it, reported in a post a while ago, and came to the conclusion that there was no worthwhile saving over buying it, though of course you don't accumulate plastic waste. I was given an Easiyo maker some years ago, and find it expensive to use with the sachets. It can be used with raw milk and a starter; I sometimes got good results, but not always.

I have an improvised sous-vide cooking setup, a waterbath with controlled temperature, and have had 100% success using it to make yoghurt with milk, and a starter from a previous batch, at 48C (hot enough to inhibit most bad bacteria but not the hardy yoghurt culture). You have to heat the milk to at least 80C for a few minutes beforehand to denature the proteins, and cool it before adding the starter, otherwise it won't set properly - as a side-effect this also kills bad microorganisms. After adding the starter the temperature must never exceed 55C even for a moment. Straining the result gets exactly the same product as buying Greek-style cows-milk yoghurt - no better, no worse. After making the yoghurt you can of course add fruits, nuts, sweeteners, etc.

But when I did it, the cost was about £0.90 per kilo of strained yoghurt plus heat and labour, against £1.30/kg for LIDL Greek-style yoghurt (now a few pence more). My conclusion is that making yoghurt only significantly saves money if you can buy milk very cheaply; I once bought about 10 l of short-dated milk at about 6p/l and made masses of yoghurt. Unfortunately it was skimmed milk, so I ended up with very low-fat yoghurt, which I don't much like.

HTH

Thank you! I don't have an easiyo, I'm planning to just make it on the hob and see how it goes. The recipe's i've found online seem to say it's pretty straightforward.

It's interesting how many people I'm finding out are already doing it!

Farway

I've only just started making it, I was given a yoghurt heater thingy [from Ama0zn] for Christmas, plus some dried starter culture

The heater jobby is thermostatically controlled, and came with 7 screw topped jars

I have made three batches to date, the first I used organic full fat milk as I did not want a fail from the off. I turned out very well

The second two batches I used bog standard blue top milk, and they have both turned out well, using a table spoonful of the first batch to start them

I find mine is thick and does not need straining. A spoon will stand up in it. Takes less than six hours once in jars & heater, then into fridge. I normally leave at least overnight in fridge. It thickens more the longer it is left in the fridge.

I have not costed it but I money is not my sole reason. Not MSE and I admit to having more than two pennies to rub together

JennyP

I do it using EasiYo maker but not their sachets. I just use yoghurt and normal supermarket milk with a bit of milk powder to thicken. I started because Michael Mosley said it was better for your biome than shop bought yoghurt!!!!

Aaron

Still making it here. I'm mostly using their sachets recently, bought in bulk to get various discounts, but I had a few successful goes with UHT milk and a spoonful of the previous one. My main motive is to save the time of going to a shop to buy more yogurt every few days. The easiyo keeps longer and when it runs out, there can be fresh yogurt for the morning. Any health benefits are a bonus!

JennyP

The temperature is crucial. I had some lumpy goes! It was the milk being too hot!

Farway

JennyP wrote: »

The temperature is crucial. I had some lumpy goes! It was the milk being too hot!

I had to buy a thermometer when I started, glad I did now

I've just had one of my little pots, with honey stirred in. Delicious, worth making just for that

purpleivy

I've had an easyYo in the past, but the sachets were fiendishly expensive and seemed to go out of date quickly. t

I got an Instant Pot a while ago and been making my own from that. It's not as thick as commercially produced yogurts, but the beautiful mild taste is superior and I can make it as required. I get an occasional small pot of yogurt to use as a starter, but most of the time use some from the previous batch as an inoculate.