Hellobee Boards

It should be fine to use what you've got. The key is that it needs to have active cultures -- they're what eat the lactose in the milk and cause it to become yogurt-y. Make sure the milk you're using is NOT ultra-pasteurized, just regular pasteurized. The ultra stuff doesn't work very well. Also, make sure the milk has cooled down enough before you add the starter or it will kill the cultures and you'll just end up with sour milk! I've never had great luck with yogurt but I have been meaning to try it in the slow-cooker (or just break down and get a yogurt maker) -- I hope it works for you!

@scg00387: But make sure it's not too cool or the starter won't get started, lol. I just do the finger test and add the starter when it's just a little warmer than lukewarm. Baha.

@scg00387: Here's the very non-OCD way that I do it (the non-raw method): put the milk in a kettle and heat on medium low until it just starts to foam. Turn on light in oven (trust me here) Turn off heat and let cool until on the warm side of lukewarm- warm like comfortable hand washing water, but not the warm that you have to steel yourself against to keep your hands in. Add a couple tbsp. of starter yogurt per quart of milk and mix in. Pour into quart jars and screw on lids. Quickly, before the milk cools down too much, slide the jars into the slightly warm oven (because the light has been heating it), leave the oven light on, and go to bed. 8ish hours later, retrieve the jars. If the yogurt is curdle-ish, the starter was added too hot. If it's pretty much just runny, the starter was added too cool. Otherwise, the yogurt should loosely keep the shape of the jar when you tip it on its side. It won't be as thick as grocery store yogurt, but put it in the refrigerator and it'll set up more.
Anyways, that's how I do it. Don't know if you want to try again or not. It sounds to me like maybe your slow cooker kept the temperature too hot during the incubating phase, which isn't unusual since all slow cookers vary a bit in temperature.

@scg00387: Yeah, experiment. I'm going to try making Greek yogurt out of my next batch.