How to make yoghurt, with a story!

I have been asked to share my super low-tech yoghurt recipe, which I inherited from my grandma, Minka, in my beautiful village of Dobriniste, Bulgaria.

Growing up, our yard was a busy place, with a couple of cows, goats, pigs, chickens and, I think, briefly, sheep. The cows were, by far, the easiest to milk. Our yard was tiny, all of our animals had enough room to turn around and lie down, or nurse and cuddle a young one. If the young one happened to be male, the mom would find extra space again, within a year…

Before I enrage animal rights activists, let me explain that those tiny chambers were provided for our animals to rest at night. During the day, the cows would be picked up at 6.30am by the cow shepherd, then came the goat shepherd around 7.30, which I remember clearly, because that is when I would wake up, to home-baked bread, crepes, donuts, or some other breakfast treat, which my grandma had somehow managed to prepare, after waking up around 5.30 in order to first feed the pigs, then the chickens; to clean up the yard and possibly a few more chores I never cared to learn more about. As a self-absorbed teenager, I had more important matters on my mind, like how many more rips I could put in my jeans, to really express myself. Grandma would not understand!

She thought James Hetfield looked like a male goat and that was the end of it!

Yet, somehow, now in my 40’s , I have managed to preserve a tiny bit of the wisdom and knowledge my grandma shared. She is still alive, having become a grandma at the age of 45, and now in her 80’s she still has the same love and desire to share wisdom with me. Praise be to God, I am starting to listen.

Here comes the yoghurt recipe – super easy, super thick and delicious, and now, even with a story!

Step 1. Find plain yoghurt with nothing but milk and live active bacteria in the ingredients. Things like pectin will affect the process.

Step 2. Find milk. I only use whole milk. Various fat contents should work too, I suppose.

Step 3. Boil the milk until it starts rising up.

Step 4. Turn off the milk and walk away. Let the milk cool down till you remember about it again.

Step 5. Argh, the milk, I completely forgot about it! Boil it again! That is my secret to thick and tasty yoghurt. It came from my consistent absent mindedness, but it works every time!

Step 6. Let the milk cool down until it feels very hot to your pinky, but not scalding.

Step 7. Put a tablespoon of yoghurt on the bottom of a glass jar (the only kind I have ever used). Pour about half a cup of the hot milk over it and shake it around until the yoghurt is about dissolved. Then add a bit more milk, a bit more, and finally fill up the jar. That procedure I perform mostly, so that the jar warms up gradually and doesn’t crack when I pour all of the hot milk at once. Repeat for as many jars as you have.

Step 8. Cover the jars with something to keep them warm. Back on land, I’d put each jar into a thick wool sock, hand knit by guess who?!

Step 9. Place the jars somewhere away from draft, and in a relatively warm room. Any room temperature will do, if it feels comfortable for a human.

Step 10. Repeat step 4! Walk away and come back to the yoghurt the next day. I usually leave mine to form for 20-24 hours. Shorter times can work in the summer, when it is warmer.

Step 11. Remember to not eat all of the yoghurt, because you’ll need a starter for the next batch! Even if you end up with a runnier yoghurt, it can be used to make new yoghurt. The bacteria is already there and knows what it’s supposed to do!

Before you leave page, I have to tell you how the story ends!

Guess what happened around 7pm every day, in Dobrinishte? The shepherds brought back the animals to the village. They would release them at a couple major intersections and then each cow, goat, or sheep would take her own street, find her own house, and start “calling” for the house gates to be opened.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, I come from the country where the cows do come home, always have and hopefully will, if there are fewer people who keep blogs, rather than livestock.