Making SCD Home Made Yogurt For the First Time

Well, this is actually a combination of pictures from the first and fourth time I made the SCD yogurt.  I recently received my first yogurt maker in the mail about 4 weeks ago, and it has been an absolute blast making yogurt with it. The actual yogurt maker is a Waring Pro YM350 Professional Yogurt Maker I purchased off Amazon.

Why am I making  Yogurt for my Colitis all of a sudden?

• To assist my colon in getting better, as it is one of the foundation rules of the SCD diet which I use to treat my Colitis
• Also, I have never made yogurt before so I want to know how easy it is to make yogurt from scratch from home
• If yogurt is so easy to make, and if the live bacteria that is inside the yogurt is good for my autoimmune disease, that is a bonus

How is the yogurt going to make a difference with my colon and gut bacteria?

• The idea is that the colon will benefit from the “GOOD” bacteria that exists in home made yogurt
• This is a topic that has been discussed for ages, perhaps thousands of years as yogurt is not something new, and since our gut is filled with bacteria, beneficial bacteria from yogurt can be helpful

Is making the yogurt fun and easy, and does it make your house smell nice?

• YES, YES, YES…. I wouldn’t be attempting this if it was a pain in the arse.  Oh, and it goes GREAT with my morning smoothies too!
• Anybody can make home made yogurt. It is really simple and I will explain all you need to do it yourself.
• Best thing is the cost, the yogurt maker was the most expensive thing, and there are many for sale. You can find a yogurt maker online for less than $30 most of the time. After that, you will need just some yogurt starter and milk. All very cheap and easy to buy the starter online too.

Getting Started

Well, I’m sure everyone has their own thoughts on unpacking things.  The yogurt maker left overs took up a good portion of the recycle bin that week, but well worth it!

Nothing too fancy as far as the screen, but it does exactly what it needs to do, it tells you how long the yogurt is set to ferment for once you put it in there.

I love skipping important steps, just like most of us right, but you need to make sure to clean everything before using it.  Since you are trying to get the most benefit from the good bacteria that is inside the yogurt you are going to make, its important to get rid of all other potential bacteria that might be living inside your yogurt making goodies.

You want to make sure to kill off any bad bacteria that has formed within your milk.  We used whole milk(a HALF GALLON CONTAINER or about 64 ounces) to start out with as others have said that it makes better yogurt.  Anyways, you don’t want to boil the milk for hours an hour, no, you just want to bring it up to about 180 degrees.  I suggest you use a thermometer that is easy to read to make sure you are not heating it up too little or too cold.  In another picture below, you can see what I mean for using a thermometer for the yogurt making.

Now you just mix it all together for a short while until you feel its all mixed up nicely.

After you have mixed it all up, fill the yogurt containers and place them into the machine. Don’t put the lids on the containers.  Just place them in the tray of the yogurt machine like you see above.  And then you’ll just want to put on the big plastic lid that comes with the whole machine(you can see that to the right of the machine in the picture above).  And then turn on the machine.   You will  need to set this particular machine for 19 hours since that is its maximum time, and then add on another 5 hours by pressing the (+) button once it reaches 14 hours or less, for a total of 24 hours of cooking/fermenting.

And that is pretty much the final product of the SCD home made yogurt.

The keys to success here are:

• Make sure to clean everything before using it.
• Use a thermometer to find out when the milk has reached 180 degrees and when it has cooled to 110 degrees
• Definitely make sure to stir the milk while you are heating it up, otherwise it will stick to your pot(believe me on that one)
• Once you set the milk in the yogurt machine, make sure not to move the yogurt machine at all, just let it rest and cook your yogurt
• After you are done, you can put it in the fridge for a few hours to let it cool down, and then go ahead and eat it
• Remember, a key is to take the 24 hours to cook the yogurt as I explained, this will allow almost all of the lactose to be eaten up by the bacteria which is a good thing for digestion and our colon

Most people who follow the SCD diet for their ulcerative colitis or other inflammatory bowel diseases suggest to only try a very little amount of the yogurt the first several times you make it.  You don’t want to overload your body with the healthy bacterias that come in this yogurt.  So, I for example, started out taking just a spoonful the first 4-5 days, and then slowly moved up to more.

Also, if for any reason you find you cannot tolerate the cow milk, you should try making a batch of yogurt with goat’s milk instead.  I personally don’t really love the taste of the goat’s milk compared to the cow’s milk, but I’ve made it to test it out and its not that bad, and some people prefer it over cow’s milk.  Its a personal taste thing I think.

Most importantly, have fun with making your yogurt.  You can use it to add to banana muffins, and you can add it to all kinds of stuff that is friendly for colitis people and for the SCD diet.

Again, here is the stuff I ordered to make the yogurt:

Waring Pro YM350 Professional Yogurt Maker
Yogurt Culture 2-Packs (Sealed Together) of 5-Gram Each
Taylor Classic Instant-Read Pocket Thermometer