r/yogurtmaking

It seems like a silly question, but for the life of me, I cannot find the right size rubber bands to close the top of my wide mouth jar.

I place a coffee filter on my jar and would like to then seal up the sides with a rubber band. But every rubber band I've bought has been too large to seal the jar, and too small to be wrapped around twice.

I've googled and gotten a few recommendations, but after buying two packs of incorrectly sized rubber bands, I figured I'd just come here and get your all's advice.

I’ve made 2 batches of yogurt and they’re just what I was hoping for. I added powdered milk (fat free) to my whole milk before heating for the second batch, but I still strained it to get the thickness I like. I’d rather not strain, it’s just messy and more steps than I want to take on, and I like the flavor of the unstrained better. What are some ways I can thicken it easily next time? Thanks!

Edit: Thank you everyone! To answer a few questions I’ve been using whole/full fat milk. I followed directions on the instant pot, and heated 2 quarts of milk to 180F, which is I think about 82C. (Added 1/2c dry milk before heating) Cooled to 110 and added 2 Tablespoons of yogurt. i think next week I will try adding more dry milk and slightly less starter. If that doesn’t work I’ll try heating longer. Thank you for your help, the people in this sub are so kind and helpfu!

Did all that I’m supposed to, the problem is that I used the warm function to incubate it overnight, aka I killed the bacteria because it was up to 140 or so F, but the main question is can I just wrap towels all over the slow cooker pot itself to incubate it? Or would that lose heat too quickly for overnight incubation.