Sauerkraut Yogurt Kombucha in 2023

Before the New Year, it has been quite awhile since I've made fermented food or kombucha.

I've been missing doing both.

At the beginning of 2023, I brewed some more kombucha, and this past weekend, I made some jalapeno sauerkraut and yogurt.

I'm hoping I don't go as long between doing either again.

I'd like to get to a point where I have yogurt almost all the time. We'll see how that goes.

I'd also like to have sauerkraut to eat most of the time, but sauerkraut doesn't get consumed as fast.

I bought a yogurt maker

I bought a Dash Greek Yogurt Maker.

About a year ago.

I got an Amazon gift certificate that Christmas and I decided to spend some it on a yogurt Maker.

Perhaps you remember that I had been making yogurt in a crockpot. You can read about my yogurt-making adventures at Sheppy's Blog: Yogurt.

I still do make homemade yogurt about once a week. But for the last year, I've been using a device intended for making yogurt.

When it comes right down to it, the yogurt "Maker" is really just an incubator with a couple of containers. It keeps milk warm while bacteria converts it to yogurt.

Super Simple Yogurt?

If you follow the SheppyBrew Facebook Page, or my twitter feed, you may have noticed that I posted another article to The Homebrew Academy. If you haven't seen it, go take a look. Leave a comment.

Simple Crock Pot Yogurt

Well, I thought "my" method of Crock Pot Yogurt was simple, but the very first comment on the article told me that I "may be making yoghurt more complicated than it needs to be".

Honey Yogurt

Recently, I've been making my own yogurt in my crock pot. If you are a regular on this blog or follow me on FaceBook, you probably know this. If you need a refresher, feel free to look through Sheppy's Blog: Yogurt to see what I've typed about it.

Behind the scenes, ie... not documented on the blog, I've been doing some experimentation. 

I've added fruit or fruit jam to the fermentation. I've added vanilla extract. I've added sugar. I've tried adding other things. I've also tried mixing those sorts of things in after the yogurt has been finished.

I've come to the conclusion that my ideal yogurt recipe and process is the plain Mrs. Bluefield Recipe

Except ...

Homemade Frozen Yogurt

So, my youngest son asked for and received an ice cream maker for Christmas. Santa was good to the entire family in this regard. I do not know if you've ever had homemade ice cream, but it out absolutely fantastic. My boy has made a few batches so far and they have all been great.

Recently, I've discovered the joys of making my own homemade yogurt (see Making the Bluefield Yogurt and  More Yogurt). You might say that I've become a little obsessed with it. My favorite breakfast over the past few weeks has been homemade yogurt mixed with thawed mixed berries.

As I've mentioned a couple times, I wanted to try homemade frozen yogurt using my homemade yogurt. Makes sense, right?

More Yogurt

Well, you may remember that a couple of weeks ago I made homemade yogurt. using a recipe from my sister's blog. See Creamy Homemade Greek Yogurt for her recipe. My blog entry is called Making the Bluefield Yogurt. If you missed it, you should go read it right now. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Frozen Mixed Berries

I really enjoyed that first batch. I liked to fill a pint mason jar half with frozen berries, fill the rest with yogurt, store in the fridge so that I could take it to eat for breakfast at work. Yummy. Of course, the berries would thaw and the fruit and yogurt would blend some. It was nice.

Making the Bluefield Yogurt

If you follow the SheppyBrew Facebook page or my twitter feed, you likely know that I made Greek yogurt this weekend.

I was inspired by my sister, Mrs. Bluefield, and her blog post Creamy Homemade Greek Yogurt.

Actually, she also blogged about homemade yogurt back in August, at which point I decided I needed to give it a try. I'm not sure why it took me so long. If you followed the link to her posts (which you totally should), you probably know that the process is ridiculously easy. It is time consuming, but all but about 15 minutes is waiting for the magic to happen.

Seriously simple. Heat the milk. Cool the milk. Inoculate the milk. Wait. Those are the steps. If you want Greek yogurt, you need to strain off some whey.