Homemade yogurt is really one of the simplest things! Making good yogurt at home is really all about technique. There are a lot of resources out there concerning homemade yogurt, and there are many different techniques. To use a yogurt maker, or to not use a yogurt maker? To use some type of artificial heat, or not? What kind of bowl do you use?
So let me start by saying that my method is the one I’ve found to work best for me, after trying several different techniques. I started with a yogurt maker, which I bought on Amazon a few years ago. That’s a great way to start making fool-proof yogurt if you’re new to it. What I do now is a combination of discovered best practices and advice from friends who make a lot of yogurt. The best advice has come from some of my Indian and Lebanese friends. Yogurt-making is very common in these cultures; my friend Sri makes yogurt at home nearly every day. So I do what the experts do…
Let me also say: there are some tremendous benefits to making yogurt at home. First of all, it’s soooo much cheaper. If you get a gallon of regular milk on sale for $2-3, you can actually make a whole gallon of plain regular yogurt with it. You would get about 1/2 gallon Greek yogurt. Tell me, where can you buy it already made for that price?! Moreover, if you’re making yogurt at home, you can control what’s in the yogurt. A lot of the Greek-style brands at the grocery store aren’t even really authentically strained. Instead, they’re filled with thickeners like pectin or gelatin (not vegetarian). Or, they’ve got preservatives in them. Finally, I really prefer whole milk or natural milk when making yogurt. I use natural milk from a local dairy in my city. It’s hard to find full-fat yogurt at the store. It tastes completely different than plain non-fat yogurt and there’s no need to sweeten it because it’s so creamy. So, there’s no sugar with homemade yogurt if you use whole milk. Homemade is the way to be!
Homemade yogurt or Greek-style yogurt:
- 1/2 gallon natural milk or whole milk
- spoonful (like one tbsp) of plain store-bought yogurt for culture (I used Kroger brand)
Tools needed:
- Heavy pot (preferably cast-iron)
- Thermometer that can read as low as 100 degrees (a digital thermometer would work, or you can buy a yogurt thermometer here)
- Old bath towel
So yogurt-making is technique, as I’ve already said. Here’s the basic instructions, with a more in-depth breakdown below:
- Heat your milk in your pot to about 200 degrees over medium heat. Do not stir. Immediately turn off the heat and let milk cool.
- Using your thermometer, let milk cool to about 115 degrees. This should take about 40 minutes, depending on the temperature of your home. You can also put your pot in an ice bath to cool the milk more rapidly. Do not stir for the entire cooling process.
- Remove any skin that has formed on your milk and discard. If you didn’t stir, you should have a fairly solid skin that you can easily scoop out. Remove about one cup of milk from the mixture and place in a small bowl. Using a whisk, mix the spoonful of store-bought yogurt into the separated milk, making sure there are no lumps and the yogurt is fully dissolved in the mixture.
- Add the separated milk back into the main pot of milk, and whisk around to make sure the yogurt is fully distributed. Do not whisk the bottom of the pot.
- Put your lid on your pot, and wrap the pot in an old bath towel. Put pot in oven and close door. If you live in a cold climate or it’s winter, you can turn on the oven light.
- Leave milk mixture to culture for 8 – 12 hours, or overnight.
- If you want regular yogurt, remove from the oven. You should have plain homemade yogurt! You may prefer to cool the yogurt for a few hours in the fridge before consuming, as at this point it will still be lukewarm. If you want Greek-style yogurt, there are a few more steps.
- Set a mesh colander over a deep mixing bowl. Soak a thin kitchen towel in water and ring it back out. Layer the kitchen towel in the colander. Pour your plain yogurt into the towel. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Refrigerate 3 – 8 hours, depending on what consistency Greek yogurt you’d like, or for 12 hours for yogurt cheese.
Ok, so those are the instructions. It’s really quite easy. There’s a time element involved, certainly, but the parts where you’re engaged in the process are very simple.
First, understanding the process helps. Technically, yogurt cultures are active between 112 degrees and 104 degrees, which means if you put your spoonful of made yogurt, which is your culture for the new yogurt, into milk that’s this temperature, and then hold the milk at this temp for a while, you will get yogurt. So the trick is starting at the right temp and then maintaining it. I have found that maintaining temperature is largely a function of climate. In cooler regions, the milk needs to be warmer to start off. In warmer regions, it can be a little cooler.I notice a difference in taste when I make yogurt in the summer versus in the winter (90 degrees versus -10 degrees, yikes!). I need my oven light on in the winter to keep the oven warm and maintain the temperature better. I need the heaviness and heat retention of the cast-iron pot in the winter. In the summer, I don’t have to have the oven light on, and I’ve used a stainless steel pot once and things were ok.
I can tell when the temperature of the yogurt was too low to begin with, or didn’t hold well, based on how tangy the yogurt is. The higher the initial temperature you begin at, the tangier your yogurt will be. If you like creamy, not so tangy yogurt, you can put your culture in at the bottom of the range. I put my culture in at 115 because 1) my house is very cold, and 2) the yogurt culture is from the fridge, so it lowers the overall temp of the mixture. Also, I like tangy yogurt.
Finally, If you don’t strain your yogurt at all, you’ve just got yogurt. Yay! If you strain the yogurt, how long all depends on how thick you want it. Homemade yogurt naturally won’t be as thick as the grocery store kind, because there are no thickeners like pectin or gelatin in it. Yogurt is not naturally thick the way you get it at the grocery store – that’s just them processing and refining it. I strain for between 3 and 8 hours. If you suspend your yogurt in a bag above a bowl, so that none is sitting in the draining whey, and leave it there for about 12 hours, that will actually be yogurt cheese, which I highly recommend. It’s like cream cheese but better. Also, you can freeze the drained whey in ice cube trays, and then add it to smoothies later. I’m sure it’s full of nutrients too, so waste not want not, right?
Ok friends! Have fun and be brave! It’s really very simple once you get started!