Continuing my "what's moldering in the drafts folder" theme, I bring you this post I started in July of 2012. I'm not making much yogurt these days because I'm currently turned onto kefir thanks to some grains I got at a swap recently. FYI: pretty sure Betsy will be doing a milk kefir post as a follow up to her water kefir post so keep your eyes peeled over at From Scratch Club

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When I was in 4-H many many moons ago, we used to do "demonstrations" as part of our..um.. I don't even remember why we did them. But I know it had to do with filling out our 3 ring binder book things that I hated because it was like more work than fun. According to the 4-H handbook

The 4-H Portfolio documents a young person’s participation in 4-H projects and activities throughout his/her membership years. Each year an annual summary of all 4-H participation and individual project records are added to the portfolio. It is recommended that these materials be kept in a 3-ring binder with the most recent year in the front of the book.

Oh if only we had blogs in the 80's. Heh.. now that I think about it, 30 years later (OMG!!!! when did that happen!?) I keep track of my projects because I want to and because I can go back and refer to what I've done so I can either repeat it or fix it.. wait.. where was I going with this? Right... Yogurt. My parents were not exactly "hippies" (just like I'm not exactly a hipster) but they did a lot of self-sufficient things. One of which was making anything they could from scratch. My mom used to make yogurt and serve it to us kids with a bit of jam and wheat germ mixed in (something I still do). I remember that one of my demonstrations was on making yogurt in a crock pot. (This demonstration, by the way, involved a presentation in front of strangers which just struck terror into my poor, shy little introverted heart) For the life of me, I can't remember how we used to do it. I do remember that the milk and culture were poured directly into the crock pot and not one person I can find on the interwebs has done it this way. (EDIT:  maybe because, like Ida says, crockpots run hotter these days)  Everyone uses the crock pot as an incubator for another delivery device. I would totally try this.. except .. well.. you know in marriages how you make concessions for little things that you might think are silly but are a big deal to your spouse? My spouse doesn't feel comfortable leaving the crock pot on when we are either not home or are asleep. So that's out. When I made yogurt for my dogs, I really didn't care how the texture was.. I mean, they didn't care... I used to make a gallon at a time, pour it into a large Rubbermaid container, wrap it in a towel and then shove it into an old Styrofoam cooler to sit overnight. If the house was too cool, the yogurt would be runny. If the house was too warm, it would curdle and a layer of whey would appear on top. So I wasn't really into this method for my own yogurt that I plan on eating. One day I stumbled upon this post from Food in Jars who referenced this post from The Frugal Girl and I said out loud and unabashedly gleefully... ZOMG I TOTALLY HAVE ONE OF THOSE LITTLE COOLERS! So, here is my little photo gallery of my yogurt making. I use more starter than Marisa does. I just happen to like how it comes out that way. If I don't have any of my own yogurt going to take a starter from, I usually buy a small container of my favorite Greek Yogurt (which happens to be Chobani right now). Once again, click the little "i" in the corner if the caption isn't showing for you. I'm not going to break down the steps here because a.) there is a pretty good description of the method in the captions of the pics about an 2.) Marisa explains it just fine.