Fellow yogurt-makers, this is amazing.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture and just a few words.
Yesterday, I made yogurt for the first time in my new All-Clad stockpot. I heated the milk exactly like I always do, and when I poured the milk into my jars, I was completely surprised to see that the pot had almost no residue on the bottom.
Behold:
Normally when I heat up the milk in my cast-iron pot, there's a fairly thick layer of browned milk that's stuck to the bottom of the pan.
I'd kind of accepted that as par for the course, and I always soaked it and then scraped/scrubbed it off.
That is really not my most favorite thing to do, so I am totally over the moon about how easy it is to clean this pot after making yogurt. Yay!
I already liked how lovely this pot was for making soup, and now that I see it's a vast improvement for yogurt, I am really, really happy I spend my Christmas and birthday money on it.
I updated my homemade yogurt post to include this recommendation.
Hmm, I've never got the browned milk on the bottom of my pot. The only thing I can think of is that cast iron would hold the heat too much on the milk at the pan's bottom.
Also Barkeeper's Friend is great stuff for cleaning pots and pans.
Hey Kristen, we have All-Clad too (thank you America's Test Kitchen & Cook's Illustrated). When we purchased it we also bought a can of powdered Bar Keeper's Friend at the recommendation of the staff at the store. Best $5 extra we ever spent. The pots & pan we bought and use regularly occasionally get dingy looking, for lack of a better description. A quick scrub and they are shiny as new.
Thank you! I'll pick up a can.
Kristen
I own similar pots, and they are great. To get the milky/cloudy film off them, I use white vinegar. Just a little, swish around (no scrubbing needed), rinse with water and BAM... shiny as Rudolph's nose on Christmas eve! 🙂 I do that every other week or so since my pots hang above my stove and I like to see the shine! The vinegar also works well with the 'rainbowish' affect that sometimes happens on the outside. Have a great day.
Lisa
Oh, great! This one is really new, so it still looks great, but I'm definitely going to try that on my older All Clad frying pan.
I'll have to try this. Be careful of what you use to clean pots, though. My cleaning lady once tried to clean a pan - stainless-lined copper Mauviel - with a bleach solution and it pitted the steel something awful. Thankfully the store replaced it free of charge, even knowing the cause of the problem.
I use a large stainless pot for heating my milk, and while I don't have any browned milk stuck on the bottom, there is usually a white milk film stuck on the pot, mostly on the sides. I use plain old table salt to clean out my pot. I put about 2 teaspoons salt into the pot, use a damp rag to scrub, rinse, then follow with a scrub of baking soda to get the last bit. Works great and is super cheap!
Great to hear about your success! I've been making yogurt your way since I came to the USA and it works great! I usually make 1 1/2 gallons at the time in a stainless steel 10 liter pot I bought at ikea. It only cost me about $30 and haven't had a problem with sticking at all. It might be worth trying their pot for a whole lot less in price 🙂
Congrats! This is exciting! Maybe I will start a savings account for an All-Clad stockpot. 🙂
My husband introduced me to Barkeeper's Friend and I'm so glad he did! It's great for scrubbing/shining pots (including copper) and it takes less than half the elbow grease of comet or dishwashing soap!
All my pots and pans were crummy hand me downs. I've been using them for over 10 years and make due. I'm now married, in a home with a baby and keep thinking that I should maybe consider buying quality kitchenware. Do you recommend All Clad products across the board? What do you think are the top 10 must have items in your kitchen?
Oh and just to be clear... I don't mean your favorites which I know is already in a post... more so the I cannot function unless I have these items.
I use a calphalon stainless steel, and never have to scrub, either! Love it!
Have you considered pouring the milk into the jars prior to heating it on the stove? I pour the milk into the jars, put the jars into a pot of water (normally sitting on a washcloth) and then go from there to heat the milk to the right temperature. I allow the jars to cool on the counter a few minutes before putting them in the sink of cold water. It saves on clean-up and decreases the chances I have to spill the milk.
This is so good to know. I made the first batch of yogurt last week and the family loves it!! It didn't set as much as I would like, but I think it's just from my thermometer being cheap. Thanks so much for all your info on making yogurt!!
I use a stainless steel Revereware stock pot when I make yogurt. It has some kind of try-ply aluminum disc bottom on it that does a good job at keeping things from scorching. Still, I'm always so concerned about the milk burning on that I end up stirring it most of the time it is heating.
With this new pot, are you able to just walk away and leave it? I mean, I know you have to keep an eye on the temperature, but how much (or little) stirring do you end up doing when you make yogurt? Did you stir it more with your old pot?
I've always wondered about this. In some of your yogurt posts you talk about doing other things in the kitchen while you are heating the milk. I'm so busy stirring, I can't do anything else! While I love eating the final product, standing in front of the stove with a spoon in my hand for ten or fifteen minutes isn't my favorite thing to do. I'd love to think there was an easier way for scorch-free yogurt!
My mother-in-law taught me a great tip for reducing scorching when cooking milky things, like pudding and yogurt. She showed me how using a flat-edged metal spatula (the kind you use to flip pancakes) to stir the pot scrapes the bottom of the pan better than a spoon. It covers more surface area at a time. I use this "tool" now for everything I think might stick, like bean soups, big pots of salsa and marinara sauce, as well as pudding and yogurt. It really works!
I do walk away from my yogurt pot, and come back every few minutes to give it a stir, until those last few minutes of heating.
Yep, I use a spatula too!
Cool! You know what's even easier, though? I bring my own quart jars to get the milk in, then just put the jars in a soup pot with water. At the end of the yogurt making process, the jars of yogurt go in the fridge, and I just rinse the pan out and let it dry before putting it away.
I microwave my milk in a pyrex bowl that has a spout (for easy pouring) It takes about 10 minutes on HI. I set the microwave for three minutes, give the milk a stir, repeat until the milk is hot. no scorched pan, no milk scum, no continual stirring.
I would love to have a stock pot for soup and jam making though.
Linda, does your yogurt turn out really thick? I tried using the microwave for heating the milk, on 4 occasions, and my yogurt turned progressively thinner (I chain-yogurt and use some from previous batches for starter). I attributed this to not enough evaporation of water content in the milk, as you get with using a stockpot. I don't add any dry milk, but just use regular 4% milk. Maybe it was something else that led to my thinner yogurt? Anyway, I went back to open-kettle heating and my yogurt returned to it's thick consistency.
My yogurt is thick but not as thick as store bought. I chain my starter too. I process my yogurt in indivual serving sized jars over night ( at least 8 hours)
The microwave is by far the easiest way to do this.
In my low powered microwave it's done in 15 minutes every time. Just put in the pyrex bowl and walk away.
I also reuse the yogurt for a starter and haven't had any problems with thin yogurt.
I really really really need to get back in the habit of making yogurt. I always did mine in the crockpot but I have heard the other method yields a better product. My daughter loves yogurt and has started asking for it from the store so I know I need to start making some of my own again. Thanks for the inspiration and motivation!
http://drinkingfrommasonjars.blogspot.com
I'm a yogurt maker, too. I start the milk off for a little bit in the micro and finish it in the crock pot. No browned milk to scrub off and very minimal stirring. I do get a little white film ring on the top, but that comes off really easily with a little scrub. I use the scrubbie part of a sponge/scrubbie combo (the yellow one.)
My aunt gave me an All-Clad pot for my wedding 5 years ago, and it is the pot I use for everything, from boiling pasta to making rice to making a cream sauce to browning a piece of meat. It still looks brand new, and I swear it's made me a better cook. Enjoy yours in good health!
We generally make 2 gallons at once in the same pot. Since your pot says 8 quart, would it hold all that milk?
Whoa, that's a lot of yogurt. Go, you! I wouldn't put two gallons in an 8-quart pot because there would be no room for stirring. All-Clad does make a larger version of the pot, though.
If you melt an ice cube in the pot before pouring in the milk you get almost no milk stuck to the bottom.
Thanks for the inspiration, FG. I needed to replace my 12" Calphalon non-stick frying pan (Someone in our home put it on a gas flame with nothing in it and then forgot about it, sigh.) I considered a lot of options, but I wanted exactly the same shape because that's what I'm used to. Yesterday I found the same pan in stainless steel for a great price at Home Goods. Based on this article I decided to try it out. Fingers crossed.
I just read a tip to avoid this in an old Cook's Illustrated: whenever a recipe calls for scalding milk, they tell you to add a thin film of water to cover the bottom of the pan and heat it to boiling before adding your milk. Not sure how finicky yogurts are, but they said it's an essentially film-free way to heat milk (or "browned-whey-protein-free").... (Probably similar to the melted ice cube trick another reader suggested!)
Oh, interesting! I'm gonna have to give this a try.