Salton YM9 1-Quart Yogurt Maker
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Our Price: $169.95 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Salton YM9 1-Quart Yogurt Maker
Customer Review: Easier than going to the store, lots cheaper, too
Summary: 5 Stars
Would you pay a dollar for a glass of milk, served in your home? If you buy those little cups of yogurt (especially the small cups that hold less than 8 oz.), you're paying a dollar or more for a cup of milk. Making your own yogurt is easy enough for an older child, and the machine pays for itself in less than three batches. If you have kids of an age that they go through four little cups in a sitting for an after-school snack, buy two machines and teach them to make their own. Purchase milk, a 5 lb. bag of frozen berries and some sweetener of your choice and stand back!
The only possible gotcha is that milk is an almost perfect culture for bacteria (that's why it transforms good bacteria into yogurt or cheese), and if you aren't very careful with the cleanliness, you can get very sick. Besides this maker, you also need a food thermometerTaylor Analog Instant-Read Dial Thermometer, a bit of plain yogurt to use as a starter (I buy Stoneybrook Farms organic yogurt, which has a nice flavor and texture), and the normal compliment of kitchen measuring cups, spoons and a wire whisk. If you prefer yogurt that has a more store like texture to the thinner homemade texture, you'll also need a small amount of instant nonfat dried milk (available in the baking aisle) for each batch. I am always trying to boost the calcium I eat, so I add 1/2 cup of dried milk per batch, which is more than you need for texture (but more doesn't hurt anything), and adds extra calcium without adding more fat to my diet. Besides that, all you need is a quart of normal milk and a couple of minutes of prep time.
Follow the directions exactly, at least at first. I initially thought I could just heat my milk to body temperature, rather than heating it to scalding and letting it cool. Then I realized the scalding was to kill harmful bacteria or bacteria that would keep your culture from growing properly. (duh) Now I heat the milk, and the instant read thermometer (which should be part of the basic equipment in any kitchen - after all, you will always see one in the shirt pocket of every professional chef) makes the whole thing easy. I add the bit of culture and the dried milk to some of the warm milk I have standing to cool, and mix it thoroughly, so I don't get bits of yogurt surrounded by uncultured, not very tasty milk. The whole cook, cool, mix and set aside preparation period takes about 30 minutes, most of it being cooling time for the scalded milk, which happens to be just about the right time to clean up a kitchen after dinner. Hmm.
If I'm in a hurry, I put a folded dish towel on top of the lid on the machine. (make sure you keep the machine under direct supervision if you do this) That's because I live in an old, drafty house, and putting the towel on top helps the machine retain enough heat to make the yogurt in about three hours. Most of the time, I don't bother, and the yogurt is ready for the fridge (not for eating!) in about six hours. For us, that's just about the length of time between dinner and bedtime (for grownups), so I put a batch together when cleaning up after supper, and we put it in the fridge just before we go to bed. How do you tell it's done? Time, for one thing. It won't be done in 30 minutes. After most of the alloted time is up, remove the covers on the machine and take a look. The bubbles on the top of the milk should have broken, leaving little craters in their wake. Then tilt the whole machine, plastic yogurt container and all, an inch or two to the side for a look. If the yogurt is finished, the stuff won't move significantly during the tilt.
If all is finished, unplug that machine, remove the inner yogurt container and cover, (lose the useless spoon), and put everything in the fridge to cool off. If you have children anxious to try the new yogurt, explain to them that this is _plain_ yogurt, and needs some sweetener and fruit before it tastes like the yogurt they like.
You can add sugar and preserves to your yogurt, but I prefer to save my calories for something like pie, so I use Stevia, a sweetener found in any health store or here Stevita Stevia Supreme, Box of 50 Packets, along with some fresh flash frozen berries. This makes a delicious and inexpensive breakfast.
I prefer to keep my yogurt free of mix-ins until just before I use it. That's because I use plain yogurt in cooking, to give sauces a sour cream like punch or use it as the base for a dip. Again, you get a product that's just as tasty as store bought for 1/4-ish the money. (1 gal milk makes 4 qts yogurt, but needs the inexpensive additions of sweetener, fruit, starter and (maybe) dried milk)
For the cheap price shown here, Amazon is practically daring you to try making your own yogurt. Give it a whirl, it's cheap, easy and the results are better than the store bought alternative.
Now -- does anyone have a good recipe for *Swiss-Style Yogurt?* (the stuff that resembles fruit flavored pudding that children prefer to the real thing)
Customer Review: Easy Yogurt Recipe
Summary: 5 Stars
The recipes included with the Salton Yogurt Maker are just too much time and trouble (heating a quart of milk and waiting for it to cool, taking temperature readings etc.)
The following is an easy and safe method which makes an exceptionally delicious and a more nutritious product.
Making the Yogurt
(Using a Salton YM9, 1-Quart Yogurt Maker)
Yogurt is a cultured milk product produced by bacterial action upon lactose (milk sugar). The longer the product is incubated the more lactose is converted into lactic acid which gives yogurt its tangy taste. With enough time, the lactic acid can “per-digest” the casein and other milk proteins causing the formation of curds which separate from the liquid whey protein. The curds can be filtered out with cheese cloth and pressed into “Farmers Cheese”.
Real kefir is yogurt fermented with yeast, producing a carbonated drink that contains a slight amount of alcohol. Real kefir can only be made using kefir starter grains. Store-bought kefir is just ordinary yogurt (drinkable) that is more appropriately called “Turkish Kefir”.
Every yogurt manufacturer uses a proprietary blend of bacterial cultures. Thus, the yogurt used as a starter, as well as the incubation time, will determine the taste and consistency of the finished product. The following recipe will create a yogurt with a texture of soft ice cream and a low 2% butterfat content. It also has 2¼ times the nutritional value of milk or store-bought yogurts.
Ingredients: 2 cups + cold water
2 cups instant dry powdered milk
12 oz. evaporated milk (not skim, unopened can at room temperature)
2 oz. starter yogurt or “kefir” (fresh, unflavored with active cultures)
Procedure: (Caution – Use only a rubber spatula in the yogurt maker container.)
1. Fill the Salton Yogurt Maker container to the .5 liter mark with cold tap water.
2. Add 2 cups instant dry powdered milk while stirring the water. (prevents lumps)
3. Heat uncovered mixture to near boiling in microwave oven. (6±
min. depending upon power)
4. Place in yogurt maker, stir to equalize temperature, cover and let stand 10 min. (sterilization)
From this point, all utensils used should be washed in hot water with anti-bacterial detergent.
5. Shake can then stir in 12 oz. evaporated milk. (brings
temperature down to culture safe level)
6. Stir in 2 oz. starter yogurt or “kefir”.
7. Incubate undisturbed for 3 to 24 hrs. (real yogurt lovers
start with 8 to 12 hrs.)
8. Dispose of condensation from cover and refrigerate
immediately. When cold, dispose of condensation from cover
again and gently transfer yogurt to clean storage container,
if desired.
Suggestions and Notes:
1. Stonyfield makes a nicely balanced yogurt with traditional
tartness.
2. Fresh Made classic or original kefir incubated for 12 hours
tastes like whipped cream cheese.
3. Lifeway kefir is similar to Fresh Made but a bit more tart and
costly.
4. Dannon makes a smooth, too mild tasting yogurt, perhaps low in lactic acid, incubate for 24 hrs.
5. Starter yogurt can be homemade but avoid anything over the 6th generation, they get “tired”.
6. The lactic acid in yogurt helps to prevent the growth of
undesirable bacteria during incubation.
7. Using 1 cup powdered milk makes a thinner yogurt with 1½ times the nutritional value of milk.
8. Freezing kills the active cultures.
9. Try the yogurt mixed with sliced bananas, yummy! (Top with
strawberries?)
Yogurt Waldorf Salad
Plain yogurt sounds awful but the oats and raisins sweeten the mix.
For one lunch size serving:
- 1½ cups of plain yogurt, more or less to taste
- ½ cup of old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3 tablespoons of small walnut pieces
- 3 tablespoons of raisins
- 1 apple cut into small pieces (try different types, red
delicious being the sweetest)
- 1 length of celery cut into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, if desired
Mix all of the above ingredients in a small bowl. You'll find it is yummy, nutritious, filling and tends to become addictive.
PS It may be hard to believe, but one serving provides about 38 grams of protein!
(when the homemade yogurt is used)
Customer Review: Inexpensive. Easy. Works great. What more could you want?
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, there are other ways to incubate yogurt (oven/light bulb method, thermos, ice chest and heating pad/blankets, crockpot etc.) I've tried other methods and the results were somewhat unpredictable. I like this little machine 'cuz it takes up very little countertop space and it works perfectly every time. If you don't count the time spent while the milk heats up and then cools (I do other things during this time, so I don't count it) it literally takes less than 5 minutes of my time to make a quart of yogurt. That's probably actually 1 minute. However long it takes you to stir a quart of milk and put a lid on and place the container in the machine is all it takes. It just could not be any easier.
I use a large glass Pyrex measuring cup (with pour spout...makes it easier to pour heated milk into container without spilling) to heat 4 cups of milk (directly from the fridge) to 180 degrees in my microwave then use a water bath in the sink to cool the warmed milk to 110-115 degrees. I use an inexpensive candy thermometer and tested with water in the beginning to see how long it took MY microwave to heat cold water to 180-185ish. Then I used that time to heat the milk. It turned out milk needed a bit longer, and after a few tries I now know to just set MY microwave for 12 minutes 30 seconds (probably different in yours - so, verify). After that time passes I take out the Pyrex with the warmed milk in it and put the candy thermometer in to check if it got hot enough then put the Pyrex (with the warmed milk in it) in the sink. Plug the sink and fill with cold water to about the same level as the milk in the measuring cup. Then wait for it to drop to 115 degrees. If I'm in a hurry I'll let it sit for a bit then drain the sink and refill with cold water. Otherwise, I just go about making lunch while it cools. When it reaches 115 I remove the skim that forms on top and pour a bit of the warm milk into a leftover plastic 32 oz yogurt container that I have several of from when I was buying yogurt at the store (you can use a wide mouth mason jar if you're overly concerned about using plastics). I spoon in 4 heaping teaspoons of Trader Joe's Plain Greek Style yogurt as starter. Mix it up with a spoon (not a blender - we don't want to add a bunch of air) until it's smooth then pour in the rest of the warm milk stirring all the while. Snap the plastic lid on and put it in the Salton YM9. Come back tomorrow and do it all again.
I make one quart each day and I let it incubate 24 hours. The "timer" that comes with the machine is nice. It's nothing that will break to make the machine unusable. It's simply a dial that's there to remind you what time you started this batch or what time you want to take it out. Your choice. I mark what time I started, then when the next day rolls around I just look to see what time I started it - meaning what time it'll be ready (since I incubate 24 hours).
Nothing could be easier and there is zero cleanup of the machine or dome lid that comes with it. When the yogurt is done being eaten (1 quart each day) we just leave what little amount of it there is on the walls of the container and when we add the new starter and warmed milk it gets stirred back in and becomes part of the new yogurt! Works every time and there is NOTHING to wash. No little cups to mess around with either. This was a fantastic investment that paid for itself in less that a week. A quart of whole milk yogurt cost about .50 cents to make compared to $2.50 to buy at the store. The machine has been on 24/7 since we got it back in October '05 and has paid for itself over and over again.
I've read people complain about cleaning the milk from the saucepan they heated it up in. I guess glass must be easier to clean because the Pyrex measuring cup I use is quite easy to get the milk off of. I also don't fret about using a special spoon or only a rubber spatula to stir it up. I just grab a spoon from the dish strainer (meaning a stainless steal dinnerware spoon). Lastly, I don't find the need to add powdered milk or condensed milk or anything else to the mixture. Just whole milk and starter yogurt works great. My finished yogurt is very thick and creamy and needs to be spooned out. I can't imagine needing it to be any thicker. I think it's the same thickness as the store bought kind.
I also bought the Donvier Yogurt Cheese Maker (strainer) and use my home made yogurt to make yocheese which we then flavor however we want. No weird ingredients and it taste great. These two items (Salton YM9 and Donvier strainer) are two of the best things I think I've ever bought. We're completely satisfied with them and recommend both of them to friends.
Customer Review: Works quite well for me -- my way! 5-Stars!
Summary: 5 Stars
Instead of using supplied milk "bucket" I use a cleaned Mott's 46oz. applesauce jar and a Yogourmet brand yogurt thermometer.Yogourmet Yogurt Making Thermometer I put a round cake rack in an 8qt stockpot, 3/4 full of cold water, and lower the Mott's jar (with 1qt skim milk) into it.
Previously, I squeezed the thermometer's mounting clip gently closed to relieve its spring tension so that I could slid it off and replace it with sliver of cork (sliced from the top of a wine bottle cork) for insulation. I also had tapped a small hole in a spare jar lid, and inserted the thermometer with cork sliver through the hole before screwing the lid atop the Mott's jar. I heated milk to 185 degrees F. then removed jar to cool to 110 degrees F. (GREEN target area on thermometer.)
I added a particular variety of Yogourmet yogurt starter culture (not found at Amazon) which contains skim milk powder, sucrose, ascorbic acid and ONLY the cultures L. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, and S. thermophilus BUT NEITHER L. casei NOR any of the Bifidus cultures. [Identify this variety of Yogourmet starter by the picture of yogurt with six red raspberries in a milk-glass white bowl and silver spoon on the box; $4.99 at my local health food store. (Box contains 3 double packets; each double packet contains two 5 gram portions of starter. One 5 gram portion is used for each 1 quart or liter of milk.)] I stir the 5 grams of starter into the 110 degree quart of skim milk in the Mott's jar with an 8-inch bread knife, re-cap the jar and place it in the Salton YM9 yogurt maker. I pour exactly 7oz of warm water into the space between the glass jar and yogurt maker wall to provide a water bath. The water bath (a key feature of the more expensive Yogourmet yogurt maker) helps maintain the precise 100-110 degree F. temperature needed to grow the above three cultures.
On the advice of others more knowledgeable than I, I incubate the cultures for 24hr (Yes! 1 FULL day.) then refrigerate for another 24hr before pouring off the resulting 2oz of whey. What remains is a thick, almost firm, 30oz of yogurt which (to me) tastes as pleasantly tart as any store-bought yogurt I have ever enjoyed. The advantage, to me, for my effort is that I know exactly what is in my yogurt and what commercial additives I have avoided in my quest for good, thick, healthy (I think) yogurt.
UPDATE: Elaine Gottschall suggested 24 hour incubation, which I used to use, but subsequent discussion with Lucy Rosset (Lucy's Kitchen Shop) who had many conversations with Elaine before her death, convinced me to try 34 hours to allow the cultures to consume ALL the lactose. I think the results are better -- firmer, more nearly solid yogurt starting with skim mild and 5 grams of Yogourmet yogurt starter per quart. (Yogourmet yogurt starter is Lyo-San, Inc.'s product #LS9212.)
RATIONALE: A reader asked me why I specified yogurt starter conatining "L. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, and S. thermophilus BUT NEITHER L. casei NOR any of the Bifidus cultures." The first answer is that Elaine Gottschall, in "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" recommends the first three on page 156 and specifically states "Avoid yogurts and starters containing bifidus." A specific reason was not stated on that page, but the Specific Carbohydrate Diet is designed (among other things) to avoid consumption of fructooli-gosaccharides (FOS) which are not digested by the small intestines and pass into the large intestine where they are a food source for unfavorable bacteria which can "overgrow". The more they overgrow the more toxins they produce and the more they overgrow the more they crowd out favorable bacteria. From what I have read it seems (to me) that bifidobacteria (bifidus)are especially nourished by FOS. [There is not universal agreement on this.] Thus,PERHAPS, Elaine wanted to ensure bifidobacteria would not overgrow and crowd out the acidophilus, bulgaricus, and thermophilus which she wanted to build up in the large intestine. Elaine did not state so, explicitly; I am deducing.
The second reason, I deduce, was Elaine wanted to avoid lactobacillus casei. Pages 57 and 170 mention sensitivity to and avoidance of "casein and gluten" proteins. The relationship between avoiding casein and avoiding lactobacillus casei is not clear to me. The bottom line, for me, was to follow Elaine's recommendation for yogurt on page 156. She did the research and wrote the book. The advice in the book has been beneficial to me.
Customer Review: Makes great yogurt for controlled-carb diet
Summary: 5 Stars
I've made several batches of yogurt now with this inexpensive little appliance (Edit: I've kept on making 1-3 batches a week since I got started, and still give 5 stars), and have had perfect batches every time so far. I give it 5 stars because it does what it says it will do--which boils down to keeping milk at the right temperature for yogurt bacteria to do their magic. You still have to sterilize and cool the milk yourself (using your own thermometer), and time the processing on your own.
I liked this model because it made a 1 quart (=1 liter) batch of yogurt, rather than several smaller quantities. (I just don't get that; if I want a smaller serving of yogurt, I can dish it up into a smaller container.) The yogurt maker is attractive, but maybe they put too much emphasis on looks. The lid is molded so that a cute plastic scoop nestles into it, with the handle running down the plastic container; yet use the spoon just once, and you'd have to wash it before returning it to its dock--or leave the yogurt residue on the spoon, exposed. Yuck. The spoon gets left in a kitchen drawer, leaving a weirdly shaped yogurt lid on the container. But none of that has any effect at all on the actual yogurt-making of the machine.
I'm on a controlled-carbohydrate diet, and have learned that yogurt is an exception to the restrictions on dairy products. Apparently the carbohydrates in milk are mostly in the lactose (milk sugar), which the yogurt bacteria consume--effectively lowering the "net carbs" in the milk. Unfortunately, almost all yogurts I can find in stores maximize carbs, in that they are low-fat (a lower percentage of fat means a higher percentage of lactose). So I set out to learn how to make my own yogurt from whole milk.
Even though every yogurt recipe I found on the web invariably said to use low-fat or skim milk, and add nonfat milk powder, it turns out if you use whole milk or whole milk plus whole milk powder, you still get great (perhaps even better) yogurt. So, wherever you read in a recipe "skim milk" or "nonfat milk" or "1% milk," just read "milk." If you want nonfat yogurt, by all means use nonfat milk; but I wanted low-carb yogurt, so I used whole milk.
I like (not) how recipes say to heat the milk "until just before the boiling point." Have you ever tried to look up the boiling point of milk? I suppose there are so many variables--fat content, altitude, water content, etc.--that nobody is saying what the boiling point is. And it's not like we can know in advance the moment the milk is about to boil, and remove the pan from the stove a few seconds before. So, here's what I do: I heat the milk up to just over 200 degrees farenheit; at that point small bubbles are starting to appear on the surface of the milk.
Here's my recipe:
1. Plug in the yogurt maker so it can preheat.
2. Heat one quart/liter of milk and optionally 1/3 cup of milk powder to just over 200 degrees farenheit, stirring frequently. You can use any kind of milk you want, but watch out for preservatives or stabilizers that might interfere in making yogurt.
3. Cool the milk to 100-110 degrees by placing your pan in a larger pan that contains some water and ice, stirring occasionally to cool the milk evenly.
4. Fill a 1-cup measuring cup half full of yogurt, and fill it up the rest of the way with your sterilized milk. Stir gently until it's smooth and creamy. Gently stir this mixture into the rest of your sterilized milk. (Edit: I generally use a little yogurt from the last batch to start the new batch, and have found I can get more batches this way when I freeze my starter yogurt shortly after it's made. Freezing does not kill the bacteria. Eventually the bacteria strain "tires" or mutates or something and I have to go out and buy another half-cup of plain unsweetened live-culture yogurt)
5. Pour your milk into the yogurt container, put on the lid, and place the covered container into the yogurt maker, and put on its lid.
6. Let the yogurt do its thing for 4-10 hours. The longer it processes, the more tart the yogurt. (I do 10 hours.)
7. Remove the container from the yogurt container and place it in the refrigerator.