Re: To thicken yoghurt: Has anyone tried gelatin?

I'd have to disagree on this one. Homemade yogurt (I've made about a dozen batches myself) is often runnier than commercial yogurt, sometimes just a bit thicker than kefir. Commercial yogurts routinely add thickeners such as powdered milk, pectin, or gelatin to make them as thick as they are. Check the labels. Come to think of it, kefir is cultured milk like yogurt, yet it's runny. Probably because they don't usually add thickening agents to kefirs. But the culturing precautions mentioned above are all good. When in doubt, check your culture viability, incubation temps, incubation time, etc -- the post above covered these matters well.

"Has anyone tried gelatin in yoghurt? AS it would allow the yoghurt to thicken, I thought it would allow the yoghurt to become more of a "meal" as opposed to being drinkable."

I think what you'd end up with is thicker yogurt, rather than a "meal." A carrot, for example, cannot be broken down into a liquid once consumed -- it will always be a solid, even when digested. Yogurt, whether thick or runny, can be thinned out into a liquid simply by drinking water at the same time you eat it, so you're not converting it into a permanently "solid" food by adding gelatin. I guess an analogy would be chewing on ice -- this solid quickly reverts back to a liquid once consumed.

http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/dairy/g449.htm#trouble
http://muextension.missouri.edu/explore/hesguide/foodnut/gh1183.htm