Let me start off by stating that I had never made yogurt before buying this machine. I watched countless videos and read various techniques about how to make yogurt before even buying this machine. Now that i have it, and have made yogurt successfully, i want to share my experiences with you. If you don't want to read the whole review, just know this: 1. Don't buy the YM100, buy the YM80. The timer on the YM100 is terrible. just look for the reviews about how bad it is. For being such a sucky timer, you might as well just save the money, and buy the other one. 2. Don't bother using the little cups. Pick up aPyrex Storage 7-Cup Round Dish with Dark Blue Plastic Cover, Clear orPyrex No Leak Lids 7 Cup Round Baking Dish with Plastic Lid . These fit inside the machine and are so easy to clean. If you want to use the little cups, use them to carry the yogurt to work, but don't bother using them during the process of making yogurt. i have added some pics of the pyrex in the yogurt maker. Now for the rest of my review: I drink raw milk (and cream) from Oraganic Pastures in California. I had wanted to start making my own yogurt using that raw milk. If you are planning on doing that, then be aware that your yogurt WILL come out runnier than if you had boiled it. Also i didn't use any powdered milk or gelatin. If you are planning on using this yogurt for shakes, then maybe runnier yogurt isn't a big deal to you, but personally i disliked the runnier version of the yogurt, and decided the next batch was to made more traditionally. Recipe: --------------- 2 cups of whole milk 2 cups of cream 1 teaspoon gelatin *(optional) 2-3 tablespoons of Dannon plain vanilla yogurt bring the temp up to 150F slowly (med heat), then turned the heat to high and kept whisking the whole time, watching the temp, and once it hit 185F, i kept it there for about 2-3 mins. Then quickly brought it off the stove, and into the sink, where i ran cold water, and let it cool the pot (making sure no water got into the milk). * Yes, I decided to use gelatin. While this might gross some people out, and isn't vegetarian/vegan, after reading the benefits of gelatin for joints and muscles, skin and hair i decided that i would use it in my recipe. You can actually find gelatin made from fish bones if you look, but most gelatin is made from by-products of the meat and leather industry, mainly pork skins, pork and cattle bones, or split cattle hides. Contrary to popular belief, horns and hooves are not commonly used. Anyway.. as soon as my milk was around 120F, i took it out of the sink, and sat it on the counter, where i let it naturally cool to 110F, and then i added in the gelatin, and Dannon yogurt, and mixed it in with the whisk. Then i set the bowl in the machine, and left it for 8 hours. My machine tends to turn off at randomly even though i have the switch set to 12 hours. It does make a beeping sound when it shuts off, so i only make it when i'm awake, and around to hear it. I also check every few hours and use a paper towel to wipe out the moisture build up inside the machine. Otherwise it will drip back into the bowl. I tried to use a paper towel inside the maker, but it just winds up falling into the bowl, so now i just leave it, and wipe it down every 3-4 hours. The Dannon strain of bacteria seems to set fairly fast, and is semi tart at 8 hours. After reading a bit about the bacteria and how fast they set, it turns out that the faster it sets, the more whey it creates, the slower it sets, the more solid it becomes and less whey. I drained off some of my whey, then quickly threw it in the freezer as this will stop the incubation, and make more creamy yogurt. After about 10 mins, i moved it into the fridge, and let it sit for a day. The result is some really creamy tart yogurt. It's at this point i add honey and fruit. there are some recipes that show them adding sugar and flavoring to the yogurt before incubating the yogurt, but i'm not sure how that will turn out, as i have never made it that way. For the price, this is easily one of the best and easiest methods of making your own yogurt. Just know that if you plan on using raw diary, try to get the freshest you can, because the more "bad bacteria" in the raw milk, they will populate as well along with the yogurt cultures (this is what creates the runny-ness), also you will need to keep buying fresh starter for each new batch, because the raw milk strain will degrade faster than if you had boiled the milk, killing all the milk bacteria but leaving the yogurt cultures to dominate. Even over time the yogurt starter will degrade, but as long as you keep using semi-fresh starter from your created batch, and keep the milk clean, you should be able to keep growing more yogurt without new yogurt cultures.
