OK, so I'm more than a little strange. I make my own beer (sometimes), I've made cheese, and recently I made yogurt. It's very easy.

Ingredients:

6 cups 1% Garelick Farms milk.
2 cups nonfat dry milk (store brand - Richfoods, I think)
1 cup Stonyfield Farms plain yogurt (It's the best - it really is - No BGH crap in this yogurt)

Mix the nonfat dry milk with the milk, and heat to 160°F.
Cool the mixture down to about 110°F, at which temperature the yogurt-making cultures[1] are quite happy.
Pour the whole lot, including the yogurt, into an insulated jug (Igloo makes a fine one!).
Cap it and let it sit for four to six hours. I did it overnight with good results.
Voila!. Yogurt.

Notes:

1) The nonfat dry milk adds milk solids to the yogurt to make it firmer.
2) I've read that heating the milk to boiling makes it firmer, too. Yes!
3) Stonyfield Farms uses pectin to make the yogurt firmer. Your mom used pectin when making jelly. (oh, I've done that, too :)
4) The yogurt is actually pretty tasty. I've been eating it all week with no ill effect.

[1] The active cultures are:
Lactobacillus bulgaricus
Streptococcus thermophilus
Lactobacillus acidophilus
Bifidus
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacillus reuteri

Last updated July 6, 2002