Make Your Own Dairy Products

In the effort to save money, I recently decided to learn how to make my own butter, yogurt, cheese, etc.

Turns out, not all of these efforts resulted in cost savings; though most resulted in a very tasty product.

Let's say one gallon of milk costs $3.

(this is the lowest price I can find it right now, although recently it was hovering above $4/gallon)

Yogurt:

Store bought: $2.00+ per 1 quart (or $0.45+ per 6oz. yogurt cup)

DIY: $0.75 per 1 quart (or $0.14 per 6oz. yogurt cup)

There is no waste when making your own yogurt. One quart of milk turns into one quart of yogurt. I also don't care for the tartness of store bought yogurt, which is something you can better control when making it yourself.

Here is my favorite way to make yogurt. I found this recipe at Stephanie's wonderful blog. She has over 365 recipes for your crockpot!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html

For those of you without crockpots, here is a simple way to make yogurt:

http://www.make-stuff.com/cooking/yogurt.html

Yogurt Cheese:

Store bought: N/A

DIY: $3 per pound

I've never really seen yogurt cheese in the store. This is made when the whey is drained from the yogurt. Greek yogurt is more like this than your typical creamy storebought yogurt, but is still not the consistency of cheese. I've found that if I strain my yogurt through a cheesecloth for about a day, it turns to the consistency of cream cheese, but with a nice tart flavor. It's wonderful for dips, or as a substitute for thick sour cream. Plus it has all those wonderful active cultures that are being touted everywhere these days.

Mozzarella Cheese:

Store-bought: $3-8 per pound
DIY: $3 per pound

David Fankhauser has an awesome website on making your own Mozzarella. It costs about $3 per pound, which is pretty economical these days.

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html

Ricotta Cheese:

Store-bought: $3-5 per 32oz container
DIY: Free leftovers!

Same web-site as above for the mozzarella, but you can use the whey left-over from the mozzarella. So technically free if you were making mozzarella anyway!

Butter:

Unlike yogurt and cheese, butter is made from cream. 'Heavy', 'whipping', or 'manufacturer's' will do the trick. I've found that a quart of heavy cream is around $3.50 at the cheapest.

Store Bought: $1.50 - $4 per pound

DIY: $3.50 per pound

Home-made butter is INCREDIBLE. It also results in butter-milk (which is less like the tart, cultured buttermilk stores sell; and more like a sweet, flavorful skimmed milk)

This is my favorite tutorial on how to make butter. It's the most in-depth I've been able to find. Thanks to SF Handyman & the instructables website!http://www.instructables.com/id/How_To_Make_Butter_1/

This is the most fun way to make butter! (if you have energetic kids to help. Otherwise your arms might fall off.) Thanks to TheQue.
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Butter-and-Buttermilk/

Sources:
Stephanie, 'You can make yogurt in your crockpot', A Year of Slow-Cooking
'Cooking: How to make your own yogurt', www.make-stuff.com
David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D, 'Fankhauser's Cheese Page', biology.clc.uc.edu
SF Handyman, How to Make Butter 1, www.instructables.com
TheQue, How to Make Butter and Buttermilk, www.instructables.com