Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook!
Today, I am continuing my series of posts devoted to the idea of “home-keeping.”
In Tuesday’s post, I pondered the differences between “house-keeping” and “home-keeping.” Both are an expression of love, but there is a difference between the two: I think of “house-keeping” as the nuts and bolts of keeping a home clean and hygienic. I think of “home-keeping” as doing those things that make a “house” a “home.”
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to feature recipes that will help make your house a home, without making you crazy, starting with breakfast. Today, the first installment on my quest for a quintessential breakfast staple: the perfect yogurt.
Back in April of this year, Mr. Stone Soup and I traveled to Austin to see the solar eclipse. On the way home, we stayed in Twentynine Palms, which is a little desert oasis not far from Joshua Tree National Park. We arrived late in the afternoon and enjoyed a spectacular sunset that tumbled lazily across a stark, but beautiful desert sky:
We stayed in the adorably quaint 29-Palms Inn:
The breakfast in the morning was simple: boiled eggs, homemade yogurt, homemade granola, local honey, fruit, assorted baked goods and strong coffee. I went for the kitsch and wanted to stay for the rest of the my life for the yogurt.
The homemade yogurt at the 29-Palms Inn was the stuff of dreams: thick, creamy, not too tart. I went back for seconds…and then for thirds. And on the spot, I decided that I was going to learn to make yogurt that was that damned good.
On the drive home, I remembered that I had an Instant Pot that I thought had a “yogurt” setting. My heart leapt with joy…until I remembered how much I hate Instant Pots.
In the 20-teens, all I heard about in the media, from friends and in cooking circles was about the miracle that is the Instant Pot. I already had a Multi-Cooker, which includes saute, steam, roast and slow-cook functions. I also already had a pressure cooker and unless I wanted the Instant Pot purely for the rice cooker feature, I didn’t see much use for it–in fact, it seemed like a bit of a gimmick to me.
Fast forward a couple of years when I threw a dinner party for 24 and needed another slow cooker to make enough short ribs for everyone. I knew I could borrow a slow cooker from a friend, but decided that I would go ahead and get an Instant Pot just to see what all the hoopla was about.
The first thing I made in it was my recipe for short ribs. It did just fine with that–sauteing and slow cooking the meat beautifully until it was tender and succulent. But my multi-cooker does that already. So what else does this miracle machine do? Why the hype? Why the cult-like following?
I decided to make chicken soup in it. I followed the directions in the Instant Pot cookbook to.the.letter. I put the whole chicken in there, along with celery, bay leaves, onions, carrots, rosemary, thyme, lemon juice, spices and water. The “soup” function is just a pressure cooker. At eight minutes per pound, it took about 15 minutes to get to cooking temperature/pressure, about 40-45 minutes to actually cook and over an hour to cool without venting, which was recommended as the preferred method. That’s about two hours, which is about twice the time it takes to roast a chicken in the oven. I thought, “well, ok–at least the broth will be made at the same time.” I opened the container and while it smelled delicious, the color was pallid and the taste was bland and watery. Hmmm. OK, well, at least the chicken is done and given that it was cooked under pressure, it’ll be juicy. Not so much.
All was not lost. I used the chicken for chicken salad, which was delicious. And I strained the weak broth out and simmered it all the next day. With additional simmering and additional flavor boosters, I managed to make a serviceable broth. But I could have done that without the Instant Pot.
Next, I tried chicken and dumplings, which came out nasty, gummy and virtually tasteless. Another Instant Pot fail.
But, being the eternal optimist that I am, I decided to try it to make yogurt. I made my first batch by scalding the milk outside of the Instant Pot and then adding the ingredients to the machine and letting it incubate. I incubated my first batch for about 10 hours. It came out soupy and kinda slimy in consistency. Didn’t taste too bad, but was a world away from the yogurt experience I was looking for. My next try, I used the Instant Pot for the whole performance–scalding the milk, incubating, etc. Again–soupy and kinda slimy. I upped the amount of butter fat by adding cream to the mixture. Still–meh. I tried incubating for a longer period of time. Still just meh. I tried incubating for the maximum 24-hour-period. Still…meh. I gave up on making yogurt in it.
And in fact, at that point, having climbed the mountain to find the Instant Pot high and having experienced only soul-crushing disappointments with it, I gave up on it entirely and gave it away. I haven’t missed it and can only say “good riddance!”
But…I hadn’t given up on my dreams for the perfect thick creamy, dreamy yogurt.
Enter the yogurt maker–one that is devoted ONLY to making yogurt.
Tune in next week for my review of a most wondrous machine.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
