Thrift store find – Salton GM-5 yogurt maker
Salton Yogurt Maker, model GM-5, cooking up some yogurt
About a week ago, I was browsing through the local Salvation Army thrift store, when I stumbled upon this little gem – an old Salton Yogurt Maker, model GM-5. I thought, “Wow! How cool is that?” because I had wanted to get a yogurt maker for some time (I registered for one on my bridal registry – a Salton yogurt maker, but not one of these antiques!). I wanted to call my handsome hubby and have him Google it real quick, to find out if these yogurt makers were reliable, but as is often the case with my cell phone, the battery was dead. So I threw caution to the wind and plopped down $4, and took it home.
Of course, only after I got home did I consider how unnecessary this purchase was – Aaron already makes perfectly good yogurt, which gets incubated (fermented) in a small cooler with warm water – sans electricity. Well, the deed was done – so we might as well try out the yogurt maker.
Also after I got home, I googled “Salton yogurt maker GM-5″ to find out exactly what I had. I knew I did not have a user manual, but it turns out I also did not have a handy little thermometer/spoon combo, which fortunately I did not need anyway. A little more Googling turned up a PDF of a user manual from 1976. The picture of the yogurt maker on the manual appeared to only differ cosmetically (it had printed on it “Thermostat controlled” whereas mine does not) so I figured it was close enough.
Aaron cooked up a quart of yogurt last night, and got it all poured neatly into the 5 little glass containers. I tucked the containers into their slots, put the lid on the maker, and plugged it in. I checked it awhile later to make sure there was some heat being generated somewhere, and there was. The instructions said the yogurt would be done in 10 hours, which would have been 5:30 AM this morning … I checked it at 8:00 AM. The yogurt turned out great – just the same as cooler-incubated batches. We have already discovered that when we use the yogurt culture that we are currently using (from Kalona Organics, an organic yogurt with several strains of bacteria available at our local Hy-Vee at 12th and Harrison) that we have considerable leeway in the incubation time without the yogurt getting too tart.
And here’s a picture of the finished product. The yellow stuff is delicious cream! No skim milk low-fat yogurt for me! We use whole raw milk from pastured Jersey cows (I have awesome in-laws).
mmm ... fresh raw milk yogurt - good food for your gut
And I figured out that there were some advantages to using this maker after all.
- Glass containers – while we are not Luddites, we do prefer to avoid plastic, and use glass instead, for food storage. We had been incubating yogurt in small plastic containers in the cooler. These Salton glass containers are really nice little containers. And I would guess from the condition of the containers that they were rarely, if ever, used (although the yogurt maker lid is a bit scratched up). So even if we no longer wanted to use the maker, we could still use the glass containers, which were worth the purchase price alone. NOTE: if any of the glass containers are broken or missing, don’t despair! Half-pint canning jars fit nicely in those small compartments.
- More convenient – no messing around with putting warm water of just the right temperature and depth in the cooler. Just gotta pour the milk with starter culture into the containers, put them in the yogurt maker, and plug it in. No fancy-shmancy on/off switch either. Plugged in = on, unplugged = off. The power cord isn’t even polarized!
- Less mess - when incubating yogurt in the cooler, we end up with wet containers that need to be dried off before being put in the fridge. Plus, the cooler has to be emptied out and allowed to air dry before being put away.
- Just the right amount - a quart of yogurt is just about right – that’s about how much I eat in a week or so.
So I’m pretty happy with my discovery, and I think we’ll be using it pretty regularly.
I just wish I knew how old it was. I can’t find a picture of a GM-5 Salton yogurt maker that looks exactly like mine (without “thermostat-controlled” printed on it) and of course no year is printed on the bottom. The Salton website was not helpful. To anyone who stumbles upon my little blog here and has any information, I’d appreciate any help. 
July 20, 2009 2:47 pm 8 Comments
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By Wally Robertson, August 8, 2009 @ 11:41 pm
Angel,
My wife and I just picked up what looks like exactly the same machine. This was in the original, unopened packaging. The instruction booklet says 1976.
I was really chuffed to see that the mail in warranty/product registration card is an edge-punched computer card. For a laugh, I may just post it to them and see what reaction I get.
We’ve never made our own yoghurt before, so we would love the benefit of your experience.
Are you up for giving advice?
If you’d like a copy of the paperwork (manual, regn, product brochure etc) I’ll scan them and email them to you.
Hoping we can chat with you, Cheers Wal
By Angel, August 9, 2009 @ 1:49 am
Hi Wal,
Does your model have written on it “thermostat controlled” or does it just say “Salton Yogurt Maker”? I haven’t been able to find any pics of makers like mine, that just say “Salton Yogurt Maker.”
I’m actually not the one who makes yogurt – my husband does. However, it is very simple. My husband, Aaron, wrote a nice detailed blog post about making yogurt with raw milk, although you can also use store-bought milk: http://aaron.baugher.biz/blog/2009/01/23/low-carb-science-raw-milk-yogurt/
Once you get to step 4, you’ll just pour the mixture into your Salton glass containers, put the lids on, put the lid on the machine, and plug it in. Please note that the yogurt maker instructions say you can only make a quart at a time (including the starter), so watch your volume carefully. The yogurt will need at least several hours to ferment (I forget what the owner’s manual says – we just do it overnight).
I would also suggest that for your starter, you use an organic yogurt with multiple types of cultures, as I mentioned above in my post. The type we use tends to produce milder tasting yogurt than using a starter with just one type of bacteria. Oh – VERY IMPORTANT – be aware that the yogurt’s texture will not be like store-bought yogurt. While I’m sure it is possible to make homemade yogurt that has the same texture, we haven’t researched that yet. The texture doesn’t bother me, but I know it might bother some people. It’s hard to describe – kind of like half-gelled Jello, or cottage cheese with very weak curds. I’ve tried whisking finished yogurt to make it smoother, but all that really does is break up the “curds” of yogurt into smaller pieces. (And curds is not the correct term, I just couldn’t think of anything better.) Update: I just wrote a post on yogurt thickening techniques that can improve the texture considerably.
If you have any more questions about yogurt making, I would suggest you post questions in the comments section of Aaron’s blog, since I’ve already told you everything I know!
By david Kohn, September 21, 2009 @ 5:46 pm
Please I would like a copy of the manual
By Angel, September 22, 2009 @ 3:14 am
David,
There is a link in the blog entry to a website that has a PDF of the manual. The text is “PDF of a user manual from 1976″.
By Jean, September 28, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
Hi There! I have my original Salton Yogurt maker from 1976 and have lost the manual. Would I be able to share in the sharing of the manual. I have the spoon with the thermometer and don’t know how to use it!
Thanks
jean
By Angel, September 28, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
Hi Jean,
Here’s a PDF file of the manual.
And my apologies to anyone who previously tried to follow the link in the blog entry above, only to find it no longer worked (it did when I posted the blog entry!). Fortunately I had already downloaded the manual, so the link in the blog entry, and the one in this comment, now directly open up the PDF file.
Angel
By Jenn, October 1, 2009 @ 5:57 pm
Thanks so much for posting! I’m really happy I found this, I too stumbled upon this great find at the thrift store (for $2.99 whoo-hoo!) and of course there was no manual so was thrilled to find your post. I just signed up for a herdshare to receive raw milk last month and am so excited to make some raw milk yoghurt. I downloaded the manual and am eager to try it, however, I was hoping you could help me figure out what order the pages go in. (obviously it’s not necessary because you can still make sense of the instructions without them being in order but apparently I’m kind of anal and need them in order :-0
Thanks!
Jenn
By Angel, October 1, 2009 @ 10:24 pm
Your guess is as good as mine, Jenn, regarding the order of the pages. I’ve only read the manual once, to figure out how to use the machine, and it’s so simple, my instructions above are sufficient – unless you have the spoon thermometer and you want to use it, or if you want to try some of the recipes.
I can understand your urge for order, though.
I’d suggest you put them in the order you think is the most logical – chances are good you’ll be right.