On a different, but slightly related topic, I was given a large jar of preserved lemons by a friend. I’m going to try to make an Indian style lemon pickle from them as their ideal. Most recipes have you ferment them in a large sterilised sealed jar which you vent periodically . Not overnight though, it takes 10 to 20 days in sunlight 
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I love my yogurt maker, and make a week’s worth at a time.1 small pot of low fat (shop bought) yogurt + a litre of demi écrémé acts as a starter for my 2 or 3 batches. I usually find i need to use a new shop bought one as a starter after that, as sometimes the yogurts start to taste a little sour. I’m currently experimenting with reducing the heating time to 10 hours to see if it has any effect on taste, and to prevent the occasional separation of liquid and yogurt.
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Lovely and v useful. Sold ready mixed but essentially equal amounts of dried thyme, marjoram, oregano, sumac and toasted sesame seeds with a pinch of salt. Can crush a little, but don’t want powder, and can alter proportions to your taste.
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I have those ingredients in my cupboard. I will give it a try. Thanks for the tip
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I made my yoghurt like @vero when I lived in Brazil. The supermarkets were full of powdered milks as many people didn’t have fridges. I added powdered milk to the mix which made the yoghurt wonderfully thick and stable. Sorry, can’t remember how much I added.
My containers were old yoghurt pots and they went into a large plastic sandwich box wrapped in newspaper, warm water round the pots, left overnight.
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This is how I make my yoghurt with a home made yoghurt maker made of two empty honey jars and a bit of foam.
A short video here
We have used the Lakeland yoghurt makers for years now. However I was recently researching rice cookers, and we eventually bought one that is very effective and reliable from Yum Asia. They have models that also have a setting for yoghurt. If you have an electric crockpot / slow cooker that can also be used to make yoghurt. e.g Slow Cooker Yogurt - Greek and Traditional - The Lazy Slow Cooker
Rice maker?
1 cup of rice and 3 cups of water in a lidded pyrex dish for 8 minus @ 1000watt setting. Perfect rice every time.
We have found all sorts of strange things happen with cooking and boiling at our altitude. e.g. It has proved necessary to double the eggs and increase the strength of flour to achieve Yorkshire puddings that always worked perfectly previously in the UK.
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Yes, that’s right. At altitude, the higher you are the lower the air pressure. This means water boils at a lower temperature therefore cooking takes longer.
So our newish rice cooker is effectively a sealed pressure cooker with some sensors (also a slow cooker)
A pressure cooker works because liquids boil at higher temperatures under pressure so the cooking is quicker.
A slow cooker is different, it deliberately uses low temperature to allow for longer cooking times.
I’ve tried to cook rice at 4000m . It’s really, really not easy. And tea tastes awful as well. And that’s after the altitude plays with your taste buds and appetite. Never looked up what sort of temperature that is before, but it seems to be around 78C 
I always made up packs of dehydrated, vacuum packed food for going up high and never anythingthat needed actual cooking. Never bothered with tea either apart from buying in the high alpine huts where the sugar was free (but tea expensive)
That’s where mine is from, I got the sakura. I love it.
Given the current weather I feel as if I am in a combination of both pressure cooker and being slowly cooked
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Have you tried the Yoghurt settings with the Sakura?
Not yet, I do make rice every day though 
it has been great whether shortgrain (for sushi and gimbap), jasmine rice (long grain), and nep glutinous rice. I tried brown rice to see and it was fine but I’m too Viet to eat brown rice regularly. I make congee a lot.
I’ll make some when the house is full again, when I’m by myself I’m lazy and will live on a bowl of rice and some nuoc mam.