A few years ago, my Indian friend and I were talking about the oh so tasty Indian drink Lassi and I mentioned that buying all that yogurt gets expensive. He told me that making yogurt is so easy, just fill a casserole dish with milk, add in a few large spoonfuls of live yogurt, stick it in the oven overnight (no heat, just normal unlit oven) and presto, you have yogurt. I tried it and 12-24 hours later, my casserole dish was full of yogurt.
Recently I heard my sister say something about the work involved in making yogurt, I checked it out, and learned that there are all these steps that I'm missing (e.g. everything, including heating the milk). Can someone tell me why what I'm doing works and if/why I should change to the more labor intensive process? I read on a different post that heating the milk helps break down the proteins, and I understand that, but I don't understand why my way also works.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Marianna