The making of plain yogurt

Looking at those picture of yogurts, reminds me of how much i like to mimic those in stores, make them and picture them down as victory. Ever wonder how to make those plain yogurt in Asia?? Here's the recipe:

1 liter milk 1 plain yogurt 1 jar container (metal or glass)

1. Get a wok/ pot and boil it with water ( to sterilize ).
2. Take out your milk if it's in the freezer and leave it in room temperature.
3. Remove the wok/pot from the stove, pour away the water (or preferably recycle ^^).
4. Leave the wok/pot to cool down a bit.
5. Next, pour in your desired milk. Now put it back on the stove with mild/ medium fire.
6. Stir the milk once in a while so the milk would not be stick to the bottom
7. NEVER NEVER let your milk boils. Test it with ur finger. around 60-70 degree is fine.
8. Pour the milk into a container. Test the milk with clean finger, it's ready if the temperature is tolerable.
9. Mix 2 1/2 tablespoon of plain yogurt (with active culture) into the 1 liter milk. Yes.. the common ratio 2 : 1 . If you like your yogurt to be more firm, add a little more.
10. Stir a little
11. Close the lid tight.
12. Wrap up your container with a thick cloth so that the jar stays in a certain ROOM temperature. If you're doing this at overnight, after wrapping up, put in in a cupboard. We need the room temperature to stay stable so that the culture can do its' work =)
13. Leave it there for more than 7 hours. If you prefer more sourish taste/ it feels a bit squishy, just leave it there longer.
14. Last but not least, put it in your freezer, this would last bout 5-7 days. Serve with fruit cocktail.... or anything that u like

Things (many) to note:

• Sterilization is necessary as it kills bad germs / the dishwasher that might stick to the pot/wok
• Boiling milk will destroy certain milk culture. We can still make yogurt out of it, but u might realize when it's done, there will be a lot of 'clear' yellowish water by the side. Those are the effect of over fermentation. Those water are harmless, but leave it too long, your yogurt turns more sourish. More active yogurt into milk = firmer yogurt = more water
• The ratio of 1:2 should make the texture yogurt-like. If your fermentation still turns out to be milky-like... somehow more thicker. Dont worry. It's what the market call as Yogurt drink. You can still drink it.
• However, too much of those water for 2 days so, will result the yogurt turning more sour. The water is the result of fermentation.
• Some says we can recycle the yogurt this time as thee yogurt starter for the next session. I wouldnt recommend for that as we wont know how much bacteria we accumulated in the jar by the end of the week @_@. After all, when u buy the milk, all u need to do is to add one more dollar to buy a plain yogurt to do that whole big jar.
• Type of milk to use...... i've been using fresh milk, full cream milk and low fat milk. all taste fine. However, milk that says xtra calcium has that xtra something to make your yogurt texture turns gooey
• Type of yogurt starter. Unlike western countries, a powder-like yogurt starter is really hard to get. So, just go that convenient store of your neighbourhood, and get one of those Marigold, Dutchlady and etc plain yogurt. Small one will do. All we need is 2-3 tablespoon. Not 2-3 packets....
• If you have gastric problems like me, dont try to take the plain yogurt with empty stomach. Adding some fruits not only adds the flavour, but also lessening the acidic that the milk might produce in your stomach ~