Yogurt is delicious and healthy and it is great as a snack, or even as a quick meal. There are many different flavors and different types of yogurt that you can buy in a grocery store but a lot of people like to make their own yogurt at home because making it at home has a number of advantages.
You control all of the ingredients you put in when you make yogurt at home. This means that you can come up with your own unique flavors but it also means that you can make your yogurt healthier than the store-bought options. You can choose to use low-fat or nonfat milk, you can choose alternative sweeteners, and of course it won’t have any of the additives or preservatives found in store-bought yogurt. In addition to homemade yogurt being a healthier option, it can also be a lot less expensive. The cost of ingredients is a lot less than the cost of purchasing yogurt at the grocery store.
As you can see, there are many benefits to making your own yogurt at home. The problem for some people will be choosing the right yogurt maker. To help make things easier for our readers, we put together this brief yogurt maker buyers guide, to give you some quick tips that will help you purchase the right yogurt maker for your needs.
Start with Your Budget in Mind
Before you go out shopping for a new kitchen appliance, you should figure out how much you are willing to spend. You can get a good quality yogurt maker for anywhere from $30 to $80 or more. It’s usually a good idea to avoid the absolute least expensive model available but at the same time, it’s not always necessary to buy the most expensive model either. Figure out what you are comfortable spending, and then you can start shopping and comparing.
What to Look for in a Yogurt Maker
A yogurt maker is simply a heating device which will slowly warm up your yogurt as it is cooking. Making yogurt is a time-consuming process and it will take up to 10 hours to make a batch. A lot of yogurt makers have small cups that are good for individual portion sizes, but they only have the ability to make a few cups at a time. Other yogurt makers are able to make much larger batches. If you are making yogurt only for yourself, a yogurt maker that only makes a few cups at a time may be sufficient. If you are making yogurt for more than one person and if you eat a lot of yogurt, you will want to go with a machine that can make a larger batches.
Aside from the amount of yogurt you can make in a single batch, the only other things to look for are the various bells and whistles that you might want. Things like LCD displays, digital timers, automatic shutoff functions etc. When you start shopping around and comparing prices, you will also be able to get an idea of the various features you will be able to get for a yogurt maker in your price range.
Research Customer Reviews Online
To help you make sure you are buying a good quality yogurt maker, you may want to see what other people have to say about some of the different models. Sometimes a yogurt maker will look great on paper, but it may not be as good as it appears. If you purchase a yogurt maker only to get it home and find that you have a lot of problems with it, you will probably have to return it. If you research customer reviews online before making your purchase, you are essentially letting hundreds of other people be product testers for you. Other people are using the various yogurt makers and reporting their findings. Use this information to help you make an educated choice about which yogurt maker you decide to go with.
