Yogurt costs

[wrenb]

Grocery store yogurt is sold by weight; 32 oz and 64 oz tubs. Yogurt recipes are usually given by volume; 1 quart (4 cups or 32 fl oz). So in order to decide if it's worth it to make my own yogurt I need to translate and get everything in the same units. According to All Recipes, 1 cup of yogurt weighs 8.6 oz. So a 32 oz tub contains about 3.75 cups or 29.75 fl oz of yogurt.

Today I paid $1.99 for a 32 oz tub, which was 6.2 cents/oz or 6.7 cents/fl oz.  My recipe for yogurt calls for 4 cups (32 fl oz) of milk plus 2 tablespoons of yogurt to make 1 quart (32 fl oz) of yogurt. At $4/gallon, my milk costs 3.125 cents/fl oz. That means my fancy local milk is half the price of national brand plain yogurt by volume. Even assuming some loss of volume in going from milk to yogurt it's still much more cost effective to make my own yogurt. I'll definitely be making my own yogurt in the future.

Comments

[beth_leonard]

I'd never even considered that possibility. I'm interested in reading about the attempts. How does one make yogurt?

--Beth

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

I posted (http://wrenb.livejournal.com/87413.html) about it last April. You can also google for "homemade yogurt tutorial with canning jars". It's just milk plus yogurt plus heat and time. Very easy, especially once I realized I could heat the milk in the microwave!

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Yup. The thing to warn you is that there's some flavor drift over time. My experience was that the first batch of yogurt made with commercial yogurt as starter was immensely tasty! The second (made with my homemade yogurt as starter) was okay and the third was icky. A friend of mine recommended freezing commercial yogurt for starter in ice cube trays and thawing one cube at a time as needed.

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

I tried crockpot yogurt a few years ago and had a lot of trouble with it. Last spring I made yogurt in a cooler and that was a whole lot easier.

[licon.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good idea. (I froze homemade baby food and juice cubes before.)