FAGE yogurt

Equipment:
Glass or pottery bowl
Microwave
Instant-read thermometer — you must have this, great tool anyway, costs $8
Clamp-on or hang-anywhere utility light, like that from a hardware store, with a 100-watt bulb
Deep drawer or cooler or Styrofoam box

This makes about 5 cups homemade Fage-style yogurt, a little more than a quart:

Ingredients:
1 quart milk — whole, 2% or skim
1½ cups dry milk or powdered milk. I checked the dry milk ratings and read that the Lucky grocery brand, Sunny Select Nonfat, tasted the best. Works great.
½ cup of plain Stonyfield yogurt, as fresh as possible, or other yogurt with active cultures. I also checked into which yogurt had the most active cultures, and Stonyfield was it.
1 Tablespoon sugar, perhaps a bit more, as food for the culture

Procedure:
In a clean glass or pottery bowl, thoroughly mix together the quart of milk, the 1½ cups powdered milk and sugar. This will be a very rich milk mixture.

Heat the milk mixture in the microwave for three minutes, and then continue heating in one-minute intervals until the milk mixture reaches 180 degrees F. Keep checking the temp with your instant-read thermometer after each minute blast to see if the milk has reached 180 degrees. You cannot eliminate this step.* Try not to over-nuke it so that the milk scalds and spills over, but if you do all is not lost. Using a stove-top and saucepan is messier and tends to unevenly heat the milk, in my opinion.

Rig your incubation chamber ahead of time. Get your clamp-on or hang-anywhere utility light, and check the wattage of the bulb (must be 100 watts, 75 watts is *not* hot enough to keep the milk mixture at 105 degrees F.). Clamp the light onto the side of the drawer so that you can shut the drawer completely (or very nearly except for the cord). You can even clamp the light onto a block of wood or other object that can fit into the drawer along with the bowls of yogurt.

I use an old utility light with a thin wire sleeve that actually fits over the side of the drawer and still allows the drawer to close completely. You can use a cooler or styro box instead of a drawer.

After heating the milk mixture to 180 degrees F, let it cool to 105-110 degrees. It will take a while — about 30 - 60 minutes depending on the quantity of milk — but keep checking it regularly with your instant-read thermometer.

When the milk mixture reads 105-110 degrees, stir in ½ cup of the yogurt you’re using as your culture. Before adding the yogurt culture, it’s best to stir it up to make sure the active cultures are evenly distributed. Make sure the milk mixture and yogurt culture are well blended, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a plastic bag, and place it inside the drawer with the light on. Leave it for 14-15 hours. Unbelievable flavor after 14 hours. 12 is good but 15 is best.

Then, chill the yogurt for 2-3 days. This sort of sets the yogurt — the yogurt gets very thick then, thicker than from just chilling, it seems to me. That's it!

Tips: I actually make yogurt now about 6 PM in the evening, then let it do its thing till 9 AM the next morning. But you can use whatever schedule works for you. Reserve some of the yogurt from each batch to make the next batch of yogurt (1/2 cup of yogurt as your culture for each quart of liquid milk). Safety tip: Make sure the lightbulb is not touching the plastic on the top of the bowl or any other object, and that no one will trip over the electric cord — basic safety stuff.

*Error on my first batch of yogurt that resulted in slimy, stringy, ropey yogurt:

Many other Chowhounds in other threads said this happened to them. And it happened to me. Why? So off I went in search of the reason. You need to heat the milk to 180 degrees to denature the milk proteins, and to allow one protein in particular — lactoglobulin, the one that’s responsible for a smooth, consistent yogurt — to unwind. If you don’t heat the milk adequately, slimy and stringy yogurt is the result.