Yoghurt incubating cabinet

I plan to make a cabinet out of MDF in which I can place a 10 litre saucepan of warm milk to make into yoghurt. I was going to warm the cabinet by fitting a low wattage GLS light bulb internally. The cabinet would be around 1 - 1.5 cubic feet.

Do you have any better ideas? (I don't have an airing cupboard or other warm place in the house where I could just leave the milk).

Can you get small electric heaters of about 100 watts? I think these would be safer than a light bulb.

Cheers

Mark

Reply to
The Bat
Loading thread data ...

|I plan to make a cabinet out of MDF in which I can place a 10 litre |saucepan of warm milk to make into yoghurt. I was going to warm the |cabinet by fitting a low wattage GLS light bulb internally. The |cabinet would be around 1 - 1.5 cubic feet.

What do you hope to do with *10 Litres* of Yoghurt? It only lasts a few weeks. You can serve it to your family, but if you want to serve any food to the public, you will *have* to get everything approved by your local EHOs. Your suggested cabinet would *not* pass.

If everything is not completely sterile, you can brew up the wrong type of bug, which could be disastrous. Been there, Done that, Ughhhh! At worst it could be Ahrrrr!

|Do you have any better ideas? (I don't have an airing cupboard or |other warm place in the house where I could just leave the milk). | |Can you get small electric heaters of about 100 watts? I think these |would be safer than a light bulb.

A thermostat set to 98 deg F, 36 deg C would be a good idea, together with a digital thermometer to measure the temperature.

Reply to
Dave Fawthrop

Maybe utilise the hay-box principle, which relies more on insulation than additional heating. Hygiene and temperature regulation are going to play a big part in assuring a healthy outcome.

Reply to
Mike Halmarack

You don't need heat - just insulation if you put it in warm to start with. We used to make yoghurt the really lazy way - 1 tin evaporated milk (its already sterilised) , equal amount of boiling water, spoon ful of yoghurt, well mixed and kept warm in a cupboard in a covered bowl with towels etc wrapped around. Fool proof method.

cheers

Jacob

Reply to
owdman

Yonks ago .... mid seventies .... when I was into the d-i-y beer /wine 'thing' I used a heater-pad that kept the gubbins at the temperature for all the yeasties to ferment. I presume yoghurt making requires a similar temperature. The device was about a foot square and maintained a hand-warm temperature - mains-powered obviously. Try a d-i-y wine/beer supplier for something similar.

Reply to
Brian Sharrock

|You can serve it to your family, but if you want to serve any food to the |public, you will *have* to get everything approved by your local EHOs. Your |suggested cabinet would *not* pass.

Sorry to follow up my own post, but I just thought, where I could copy the below from:

The bizarre wording of the Food Safety Act 1990 makes this clear.

Part 1 section 1 (3) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires- "business" includes the undertaking of a canteen, club, school, hospital or institution, whether carried on for profit or not, and any undertaking or activity carried on by a public or local authority;

Part 1 Section 2 (1) For the purposes of this Act- (a) the supply of food, otherwise than on sale, in the course of a business; shall be deemed to be a sale of the food, and references to purchasers and purchasing shall be construed accordingly.

Reply to
Dave Fawthrop

I seem to remember using one to keep seeds warm till they sprouted. Came with a perspex cover and got it from a garden centre.

john2

Reply to
john2

We drink a lot of yoghurt - a 1/2 litre to 1 litre a day each sometimes mixed with pureed fruit. Yoghurt made from milk alone is quite thin and suitable for drinking.

Reply to
The Bat

============================ Either:

formatting link
formatting link
Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

In message , The Bat wrote

You may boil the milk if you place a 100W heater in an enclosed 1.5 cubic foot cabinet without some form of regulation:)

You will probably require some of thermostat as you will only need to keep it at 40/45C.

Reply to
Alan

"The Bat" wrote

I once found the perfect method of making yogurt somewhere on the internet and modified it to suit myself. I then made gallons of yogurt until I got sick of it - note not sick from it :-)

IIRC, and note I haven't done this for a few years and may have forgotten something important so if you do it and poison yourself I then thats your problem :-)

The procedure was something like heat a quantity of milk to simmering point and allow to cool to 45C (this may be wrong!) I used to use UHT milk because it was cheaper and unlikely to have any pathogenic bugs in it. I then filled a picnic coolbox with water at a temperature of 45C just high enough to go

1/2 to 2/3rds up the sides of the jars used. The milk was then put in said jars with a spoon of starter culture - live yogurt bought from the supermarket or saved from a previous batch. I used LeParfait jars - the ones with the clips often erroneously referred to as "Kilner Jars" The sealed jars were then placed in the coolbox, the lid put on and then left for a couple of hours. On opening you then have lots of safe tasty yogurt. By keeping the temperature up around 45C for quite a while apparently much reduces the chance of pathogenic bugs getting a foothold and outcompeting the thermophilic yogurt bacteria.

Hope this is helpful, it's certainly a much cheaper quicker method than building custom warmbox.

Jake

Reply to
Jake

burco? i.e. one of those stainless steel tea urns. Or a slow cooker (cheap in charity shops).

Owain

Reply to
Owain

In message , The Bat writes

I had (I thought) the bright idea of using a scrap fridge as a heatable store for welding rods. When I asked the local domestic waste tip operative to put by a small one he refused! Can't do that mate, we are not allowed to let anything leave the site and pointed to the CCTV cameras.

regards

Reply to
Tim Lamb

Can't you still get yog makers with a cabinet and 8 little pots? We had one in the 70s

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Lidl/Aldi have them sometimes and those door-stuffer catalogues seem to have them.

Reply to
EricP

"Stuart Noble" wrote

You can but the OP might have a little trouble fitting 10L of milk in one :-)

Jake

Reply to
Jake

Same at the tip here, it's really annoying. Who gains I wonder? On the telly the other night they showed a tip where all the possibly useful stuff was laid out on tables for perusal. This seems reasonable since this way, those paying council tax can benefit from the availability.

Reply to
Mike Halmarack

I doubt if it would go hot enough. It takes a fair heat to dry out welding rods and plastic shelves wouldn't take it. My quiver is stainless steel aircon ducting., with an obscure surplus heater in there (120W?)

My favourite tip sells me stuff regularly, charging me VAT and issuing a printed receipt.

As to the yoghurt maker, then I'm still using a WW2 RAF-surplus wide-mouthed thermos flask (eBay still have them) which was making yoghurt for my grandmother since some time in the '40s.

If I wanted to make an insulated box to do it, then I certainly wouldn't use MDF. It doesn't have much insulation of its own and it's terrible around anything damp. I'd probably make it from plastic - maybe foamed PVC, as used for fascia boards and adverts.

The heater would probably be one of my pile of 108V ex-photocopier / laser printer heating elements. I've loads of these things and the weird voltage means they're no use unless you're going to run them on a thermostat.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Is that oneof those huge black ones, at least 6" diameter with a clip top and three removable covered 'billy cans' inside? We have two and I've used them for yoghurt making (with success) but prefer to make smaller quantities now.

Someone's suggestion of an insulated coolbox was good - I believe you can get them to keep things warm as well as cold from the car battery.

A good investment if it's going to be used.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

That's the sort, although the inner cans are rare. Lots of them also had a cork plug, not the clip lid.

Some also had immersion heaters for in-flight brew ups. I'm told these were ersatz constructions by slipping the fairies a few pints to have them make a heater up for your crew, out of flying-suit heating wire

Reply to
Andy Dingley

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.