Can you cultivate yogurt on the low setting of a slow cooker/crockpot?

[no_hypocrisy]

Or is the temperature too warm and it will kill off the cultures?

[LiberalEsto]

1. I'm not sure about crock pots, but I've read about using an electric heating pad

adjusted to the lowest setting, underneath a bowl of yogurt mixture.

[Major Nikon]

4. I've tried this and it's hard to regulate the temperature

Even if the heating pad has multiple settings, they never seem to have the right one for yogurt and there's a narrow temperature band that you want to stay (100-110F). I've heard of people using seedling mat digital temperature controllers with their heating pads, but I've never tried it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NZZG3S

[Blues Heron]

2. I used to put a big pot of hot water in the oven

replenish the hot water as necessary.

[Major Nikon]

3. No

You want to avoid temperatures above 112° F and even on the low setting, this would be much too hot to make yogurt.

I've actually made yogurt in a slow cooker, but I did it using a sous vide electronic temperature controller which can regulate the temperature to pretty much whatever I want.

There's a number of ways you can do it inside the crock part of your crockpot. One of the simplest is just to put your milk pitched with yogurt cultures into mason jars. Put the mason jars into your crock and fill the crock up with 110° F water. When the water cools down below 100° F, pour some of the water out and add some hot water to bring it back up to 110° F.

You can also do this inside an insulated cooler.

[htuttle]

5. You can use the oven light in your oven

If it doesn't get warm enough, try swapping in a higher wattage bulb for yogurt making purposes. 60-100w should do (You'll probably want to swap it back before you use the oven for cooking again).

I've also seen small-batch yogurt making equipment built out of coffee cans and smaller incandescent bulbs around 25-40w.

[hvn_nbr_2]

6. If the temperature were low enough to let the yogurt culture live and grow...

... then I wouldn't want to eat meat and potatoes that sat at that temperature all day.

[Lars39]

7. Reposted from DU2:

I don't remember where I originally got the instructions, but here's mine:

How to Make Yogurt in a Crock Pot

I bought a little crock pot that is just right to make 4 cups of yogurt, and I don't use the crockpot for anything else.

How to Make Yogurt in a Crock Pot

I wouldn't start this any later than noon, or you'll have to get up in the night to do some of it.

If you start it after breakfast, the yogurt will be done by bedtime and it will have time to get cold by the next morning.

The yogurt is good for 5 days. I try to mark it or write down the date somewhere.

This recipe can be cut in half to only make 4 cups of yogurt.

I sweeten it a bowl at a time with a tsp or so of honey, or I sweeten all of it while still warm.

Skim milk, 2% or powdered milk can be used.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup of store bought, natural, active/live culture, full fat(not low fat or fat free)plain yogurt.
(This will be your starter. After your first batch of yogurt, you can use 1/2 cup of some of your homemade yogurt as a starter instead.)
8 cups of whole milk. Pasteurized and Homogenized is fine,but do not use ultra-pasteurized.

How to Make Yogurt

1. Pour the milk into a crock pot, and turn the crock pot on low.
Leave it alone for 2.5 hours, cooking on low.

2. Turn the crock pot off, leave the cover on, and let the milk sit for 3 hours.

3. Take a cup or two of the warm milk from the crock pot, and put it in a small mixing bowl.
Mix in 1/4 cup of store-bought yogurt, or 1/2 cup of homemade yogurt as your starter.

4. Mix the yogurt/warm milk mixture into the milk that's sitting in your crock pot.

5. Put the lid on the crock pot, then fold and put a heavy bath towel over the crock pot
to insulate the leftover heat (leave the crock pot turned off), and go to bed.

6. The next morning, you'll have yogurt waiting for you in the crock pot.
Home made yogurt is thinner than store-bought.

7. Pour the yogurt into a container, cover it, and put it into the fridge.
Let the yogurt fully cool down to the fridge temp.

8. Then, if you'd like to add fruit to your yogurt, put a few cups of chopped fruit
into a blender, and blend. Mix the blended fruit into the yogurt and return to the
fridge to cool some more.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Thank you. That's really helpful.

And thank all of you.

I'll try more than one techniques just to experiment.

[supernova]

8. Here is how to do it...

Heat your milk in a large soup pot. Don't let it boil. Let it cool to a temp that won't kill the culture and add your yogurt culture. The milk should be warm, not hot. I use yogurt from a previous batch. Mix it in well, put the lid on the pot and then wrap the pot completely with towels (multiple towels) to keep in the heat.

This will get the culture growing. Each batch you make from the previous batch will be thicker than before until you will have something that will end up being pretty stiff. There are youtube videos for yogurt making.