Okay, I need to clear one thing up right away. I don’t make my own yogurt because I’m a granola girl who is into all natural, healthy-foody options. It’s nothing that noble, I promise.
I make my own yogurt because my kids eat too much! I can’t afford to keep yogurt in the house for these ravening hordes. Milk is cheaper, by quite a bit. Yogurt is easy to make. Voila. This has actually all come to a crisis because Michael has been experimenting with yogurt smoothies for breakfast. It’s amazing how quickly we can plow through yogurt when we’re using it that way!
Homemade Yogurt
What you need:
- A saucepan
- A thermometer
- 1 quart of milk
- 2 T. plain commercial yogurt (check to be sure it has live yogurt cultures in it.)
- A heavy crock or bowl
First, heat up the milk, stirring constantly so it doesn’t form a skin on top. Take it up to boiling and then immediately remove it from the burner. Let the milk cool back down. The perfect temperature for culturing yogurt is 112°. Anything over 120° will kill the live beasties. Anything under 90° will never provoke them to grow into yogurt.
While the milk is cooling down, I usually put really hot water in the crock so that it is nice and warm when I pour the milk into it. I also turn the oven on to “warm” for a couple of minutes and then off again. The oven is my warm place where the yogurt doesn’t get disturbed.
Once the milk has cooled to appproximately 112°, whisk 2 T. plain yogurt into about 1/2 c. of that warm milk. Get this whisked nice and smooth and then pour into the crock. Pour the warm milk in on top of that and stir it thoroughly. Cover the crock, wrap in a towel, and set it out of the way in the oven. Now, all you need is time.
After a few hours, the yogurt will start setting up. At that point, it still doesn’t have a real sour taste to it. After a few more hours, you’ll be able to taste that classic sour flavor. Last night I actually forgot about the yogurt overnight and this morning it was just perfect! I put it into the refrigerator immediately.
My kids will now add blueberries, granola, honey, and whatever else they feel inclined to add. OR make fruit smoothies with it. And NOW, it won’t cost any more than a glass of milk!
In theory, I can use the yogurt I’ve made as the starter for the next batch. After awhile, however, my yogurt seems to get a bit wimpy so I buy one 6 ounce container from the dairy section to get things revved back up.
Barb
26 Comments
October 13, 2006 at 1:48 am
This recipe looks terrific! I’ve been wanting to make my own yogurt for a while. Unfortunately, my oven only goes down to 150*, which is apparently not conducive to yogurt-making.
October 13, 2006 at 3:16 am
Actually, Caryn, that’s how far down my oven goes too. I turned it on to 150° for about ten minutes and then I turned it back off. That warmed up the oven enough that it stayed reasonably warm for hours afterward. I also heat the heavy bowl or the crock that the yogurt goes into by letting it sit with hot water in it for about ten minutes. You defnitely don’t want to turn the oven on when the yogurt is IN the oven, but turning it on beforehand and then turning it off should work nicely. If you have a gas oven with a pilot light, that itself will keep the oven at a perfect temperature.
Barb
October 13, 2006 at 4:40 am
Oh, perfect! Thanks a million. I do indeed have a gas oven with a pilot light. I also have some plain, commercial yogurt I will soon be putting to good use. Can’t wait to give this a try.
October 13, 2006 at 4:45 am
Aha. Now I see that I wasn’t reading the directions carefully enough–probably because my friend Linda makes yogurt, and she keeps her oven set to 100* or so the whole time, and so when I read the 112* I somehow thought the oven had to stay at that temperature. That should teach me to skim directions–and to make assumptions!
October 17, 2006 at 1:10 pm
[...] Homemade Yogurt….couldn’t be easier! [...]
October 26, 2006 at 6:56 pm
This is great. We get free milk and cream from the Tico dairy farmer that grazes his small (10 cows and family) herd on our property and I’ve started freezing this for ice cream and saving the cream for butter. Keeps a lot of mangos from going to waste.
BTW: Ever notice how your blender book says not to whip cream in the blender because it makes butter…Yep, it does, the best butter you’ve ever had. If you pour off the whey and run the butter in the blender with cold water 2 or 3 times, the chore of washing it is avoided and the water presses out easily with a spoon. Commercial butter here in Costa Rica is an unpleasant yellow grease so I’m really pleased with this easy way of getting the good stuff.
November 16, 2006 at 2:35 pm
I started making my own yogurt for the same reason: when I started having to pay $2.29 for a quart of nonfat plain, I rebelled. I make my own now for about $.60.
One problem I am having, though, is that I seem to get way too much whey in my finished product. I mean – waaaaaay too much.
Does anyone know why this is and what I can do about it?
Thanks.
November 18, 2006 at 4:33 am
Sharon, I have only one suggestion. I don’t know why homemade yogurt ends up with so much whey. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation. There is one tip that I got from a cooking guru friend that has helped somewhat. After you dish yogurt up out of the container, use the back of a spoon to spread the surface smooth. If the top surface of the yogurt is smooth when you store it in the refrigerator, then the yogurt “oozes” significantly less whey. Again, there’s probably a scientific reason. I have no idea what that reason is!
Barb
December 2, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Hello,
I make my own yogurt too. I’ve found that if I let the milk simmer for around 15/20 minutes the yogurt will be thicker and have hardly any whey. Delia Smith (UK cook) recommends this. I also use semi skimmed milk and the yogurt is lovely and creamy.
March 20, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I love making my own yogurt too. I use a slightly different incubation method:
http://hubpages.com/hub/How_to_make_your_own_yogurt_-_An_illustrated_guide
I’m afraid my drafty oven wouldn’t maintain the right temperature for long enough.
Anyway, Sharon, the whey is actually good for you. Yes, it’s a bit gross, but you can always just pour it off. I get a lot of whey even though the surface is smooth (because I poured in the cultured milk as a liquid).
July 17, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I, too just started making my own! We all love it. I add one step, making it Greek yogurt. I strain the new yogurt in cheese cloth or muslin (which is cheap by the yard) tied together and hung for about 4 hours. This thickens it and there is no runny whey at all.
My question is….. has anyone ever saved a batch that didn’t set for whatever reason? Maybe adding my own yogurt got too weak? I make a gallon at a time. I use 2% and add a feww tablespoons of powdered milk. This makes it thicker while keeping it lower in fat.
July 17, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Hi, Yvonne, I HAVE tried to redo a batch that didn’t thicken. It wasn’t a pretty experiment. When I reheated the wannabe-yogurt, it curdled and separated. I’ve wondered if I could just use it in its liquid form for things like fruit smoothies or something. I won’t be trying the re-cook method again!
I’m going to have to try the cheesecloth trick. I’ve read about that and wondered how that turned out.
bk
July 17, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Have you ever BOUGHT greek yogurt? It’s $2.00 for 6 oz.!!! yeah, But for a treat, it was worth every bite. Now it’s not a treat but a necessity in my house! You must try it. I lined a lg. ceramic bowl with cheese cloth or (NOW) a yard of cheap muslin from the fabric store. tie it up with the kitchen string and hang it. I am going to try reusing it by washing it and if that works… I will make a bag by sewing it with a draw string. I will follow up here with how it turns out.
July 17, 2007 at 4:14 pm
btw, thanks for the tip about using my (thin) yogurt for shakes. I was just going to toss it!
July 17, 2007 at 4:43 pm
And thank YOU for the tip about Greek yogurt. No, I”ve never had that before and can’t wait to try it.
Whatever you do with thin yogurt, just don’t try to reheat it and start over. THAT was a bad idea on my part!
bk
August 13, 2008 at 7:33 am
I have got for xmas a yogurt maker and used with with some success. The problem that I have had is that the yogurt curdles in the incubator and I don’t know why.
Any suggestions?
August 13, 2008 at 9:05 am
My guess, Dawn, is that maker runs a little too hot and is cooking the yogurt. Of course, I can’t know for sure. My only suggestion is that you try making yogurt the way this post suggests and see if that works.
October 19, 2008 at 8:57 am
crock pot?
October 19, 2008 at 10:38 am
Most crockpots will keep the yogurt WAYYYYYY too hot.
July 2, 2009 at 9:22 am
I’ve found that putting the yogurt into a ceramic casserole dish, covering it tightly with plastic wrap, and leaving it in the sun on a hot summer day also works well.
Question: why does my electric yogurt maker make smooth, firm yogurt every time, while using your oven method often leaves the yogurt looking curdly and separated?
July 2, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Oh Amy, if I knew the answer to that question….
I like the idea of setting it in the sun during the summer. (I think that wouldn’t work if you lived in Phoenix though!)
July 19, 2009 at 12:45 am
Actually, I live in Phoenix and today it was 114. We made yogurt because we could put it outside and save ourselves the trouble! We checked the temperature every hour or so to make sure it wasn’t getting too hot. We use glass mason jars and use cheesecloth over the top to keep bugs out.
I seem to have the same problem everyone else does though, with too much whey. I’d read online somewhere that the whey could be used as a substitute for buttermilk but haven’t been able to confirm (and am a bit hesitant to just try it!) Anyone have a use for this? We did a quick strain on our yogurt tonight to get some but not all of it out and have almost 2 cups from a gallon of yogurt.
September 11, 2009 at 2:07 pm
[...] in business, but you can also make yogurt by placing it in a warmed oven overnight — instructions here. For having totally winged it (couldn’t find a thermometer), I thought this turned out [...]
September 28, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Yoghurt Whey
My friend says she uses the whey from yoghurt very successfully as a buttermilk substitute in scones.
November 5, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Thanks for all the good insight…by the whey…hehe:), the whey is excellent for baking!! Also, if you have raw milk and it sours, it is super duper wonderful for baking, the more sour the better! Just use baking soda to get the acid/base reaction and voila, bubbles and rise! Good for pancakes, waffles, fried biscuits, anything really, oh, and bread too (probably don’t need the baking soda in this case). And if you’ve never done any lactofermentation, check it out on http://www.westonprice.org. It’s an “old world” method for preserving foods which gives you lots of good bacteria (like the kind in yogurt!) and helps digestion of meats, etc. I’ve got a lacto-fermented cranberry relish that will knock your socks off! Great for Thanksgiving:).
God bless,
Jenn
November 12, 2009 at 11:26 am
Thanks, Jenn, for the tip on lacto-fermentation. I’ll check that out.