Easiyo yogurt maker. Does anyone own this gadget?

[trinni]

A friend has given me the Easiyo yogurt maker as a gift (which is lovely) but I have just had to buy some sachets from Lakeland in order to make the stuff and they're £££! Just over £10 for 5 sachets and each sachet yields 1kg yogurt.

Two things to mention. It feels a bit like cheating - pouring in a powdered sachet, mixing with water and that's all there is to it.

Is there another way, in the more traditional sense, still using the gadget for incubation? I think I'd prefer this if it were possible.

The yogurt it has produced is lovely and thick and presumably teaming with good bacteria so, would some of this batch, added to milk work?

Any accomplished yogurt makers out there please?

I had an Easiyo. I just sold it after it had sat gathering dust for two years. Yes, it makes lovely yoghurt, but the sachets are too expensive. It is cheaper to buy shop yoghurt.

Btw, it is easy to make your own yoghurt at home (milk and natural yoghurt in your airing cupboard iirc), just google it.

Boil 900mls milk, leave to cool to below 40*c, stir in 1-2 teaspoons live yog, and put it in the yog warmer (I think that's what the easiyo is, no?) for 8 hours. at least that what I do with the thingie I bought in Lakeland

I've got this one, recommended on Mumsnet in fact, by the lovely Roisin (who is still around sometimes - this was years ago). All I do is chuck in a bit of live yogurt and a litre of UHT (you can do it with non-UHT apparently but you have to heat the milk up somehow and the only time I tried it was an abject failure). You then leave it in the maker for at least 8 hours - at first I thought it had to be exactly 8 hours, but then realised if you leave it longer the yogurt just gets thicker - yum. Worth trying? Once you have got it going you can of course use the last couple of spoonfuls of one lot as the starter for the next, but every now and then it goes off or I forget, and have to get a new pot of live to start it.

Worth trying that way in the Easiyo?

ah xpost time!

Thanks very much for the prompt replies.

I've googled a few ideas and it seems that UHT is the way to go. Most are saying it has to be full fat and that skimmed doesn't work, which is annoying.

Someone else mentioned eeking out the easiyo sachets by only using 1 tablespoon added to 300g (I think) of powdered milk and continuing in the usual way. That definitely sounds like a plan, although you must keep the sachet well sealed and refrigerated, to avoid the live cultures dying.

Semiskimmed is fine though?

Skimmed sort of works, it's just horrible!

The sachets are just the starter culture - you can use yoghurt instead - natural, live yog, some of your own if you've any left. And you can use any milk.

Oh really joan semi skimmed will work? Good news!

Thanks too Mavis I am definitely going to give it a try.

I use semi skimmed (fresh, then boiled) and its fine.