Home Made Yogurt

Making your own yogurt is easy. It's an excellent way to ensure that you know what's in the food that you eat. Try it!!

Use your yogurt maker, multi-function pressure cooker, your oven pilot light or a thermos to maintain the temperature.

Prep Time1

Cook Time8

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American, Greek

Servings: 8

Heat the milk to 180 degrees. This destabilizes the proteins in the milk which makes the yogurt thicken nicely.
Quickly cool the milk to about 118 degrees.
Stir in the yogurt with active cultures with a small amount of the milk to make sure it is incorporated well.
Add the active culture yogurt and milk to the rest of the milk, stir well.
Set it in your chosen place to keep it warm for 6 to 8 hours.

If using the multi-function pressure cooker, use the slow cook setting to heat the milk. On my Corsori, I set it to 193 degrees for 1 hour. As soon as the hour is up, I check the temperature which is usually 180 something by then. I immediately take it to the kitchen sink and fill the sink with cold water. It only takes 5 minutes or less to cool it back down. Then once the cultures are stirred in it is a matter of putting the pot back in the device, closing and securing the lid and pressing the “yogurt” button. Mine is automatically set for 8 hours, though I could take it out sooner if desired. It’s so easy.
Using a saucepan on the stove is also an option for heating the milk. In this case, stay nearby to stir often so the milk does not scorch on the bottom of the pan. This requires a little more attention, but it still quick and easy. Once 180 or more degrees is reached, put in the pot in the kitchen sink with cold water to quickly cool it down. Add the yogurt with active cultures and mix well. Now use your desired device or method.
The longer your yogurt sits, the sharper it will be. It will also be thicker if it cultures longer.
For thicker, Greek-style, yogurt strain it through butter muslin. Line a colander with the butter muslin and pour in the yogurt. Tie the ends together and hang your makeshift bag somewhere to drain. This will allow some of the whey to be filtered out and will make a much thicker yogurt. The longer it drains, the thicker it will be.