Make you own yogurt

[deruitem]

I tried to make my own last night. I think I added my starter with the milk to hot and it didnt thicken well at all. Whats your process?

I brought milk in a small pot to 160 and let it cool, added starter and put it a jar. I placed the jar in a cooler with hot water over night. It was very thin still

 

[redrako]

What do you mean by starter?

I know that there are powdered cultures for sale, but traditionally in eastern Europe, yogurt was milk left out on the counter in a warm kitchen with some culture added.

3 Suggestions

1. Add powdered milk to your milk as it heats to thicken the yogurt. This adds more protein and helps to replicate the commercial yogurts which add gums, and sometimes gelatin to achieve that consistency I use a mixture of a quart of skim milk with 1/2 cup of powdered milk whisked in as the milk is heating to thicken the yogurt at the end.
2. I heat my milk to 180-185 degrees as I scald it. Scalding traditionally was said to kill bacteria, but it also relaxes some of the protein strands allowing the yogurt culture to replicate as the yogurt incubates.
3. Be sure that you are using good yogurt cultures. This means unflavored or plain yogurt that is fresh.

Here's the recipe that I use which is from a Salton Yogurt Maker.

4-cups of fat-free milk
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup unflavored yogurt with active cultures.

Scald the milk, whisking in 1/2 cup of powdered milk to help thicken. (I bring mine up to 180 degrees, being careful to not allow it to come to a boil).

Pour hot milk into a 2qt. pyrex measuring cup and place it in a cold water bath to rapidly bring milk temperature down. When Milk temperature is between 100-110 degrees stir in 1/2 plain yogurt and pour into yogurt maker.

Yogurt will be done between 4-8 hours. The longer the yogurt incubates, the more tart it will be.

Pour off any liquid (this is whey, pure protein, so you can drink it too). I end up with thick Greek Yogurt type yogurt and add my own blueberries and honey to sweeten).

The Salton Yogurt maker is a crock pot type device that incubates the yogurt at around 105 degrees. You should be able to replicate the same process in the cooler with hot water. Salton's used to be on sale on Amazon for $15 and work fantastically, but for some reason, Salton stopped manufacturing them.

This year I'm going to rig up a rheostat, similar to a light dimmer switch to an outlet box, like an extension chord, to replicate the incubator in a crock pot so that i can make a 2 or 3 quarts at a time.

Hang in there with your pursuit. Homemade yogurt is much better than store bought, once you get it down, it's well worth the effort.

 

[Mike H]

Never tried it, but Alton is always entertaining.

 

[Alacrity59]

I posted this back in 2008.

A few years back a Kenyan friend shared his mom's method of making yoghurt. They had the same over the stove microwave / fume hood setup that we have. With the lights on under the microwave it makes the perfect spot to incubate yoghurt.


You don't need any fancy starter. Any commercial yoghurt with "active yeast culture" should do. I use two large measuring cups one I fill with about a quart of milk and bring up to about 185 F to scald the milk then let cool (it gets little bubbles and scum you will get to recognize over time. . . but for now use a thermometer). If I want a bit of sweetness I add some sugar while heating the milk. The second measuring cup gets the end of the last batch of yoghurt (or the commercial yoghurt) smeared around the inside and then when the milk hits about 120 pour the milk into your yoghurt smeared measuring cup and place in the microwave with the lights on underneath. DON'T turn on the microwave. If you make the yoghurt in the morning it should be fairly firm by the time you get home. You can then put it in the fridge.


(oh. . . hot glass does not like cold water. The thermal shock will cause some amazing shattering. My wife spilt a bit of sugar one morning while making yoghurt and while cleaning the stove top just barely touched the wet cloth to the measuring cup . . . what a mess, milk and broken glass everywhere. Any sane person would use some other vessel)

 

[john shea]

Years ago, a woman of Armenian descent at the place I worked told me how to make yoghurt. The Merrimack River valley is the home of many persons of middle eastern descent and people in the valley were eating yoghurt, pita bread, and other middle eastern foods long before they began appearing in supermarkets. There is a reason why the Lebanese consulate is located in a Merrimack Valley town rather than in the MA state capitol, Boston.

In the evening, I would slowly heat a pot of milk (about a half gallon to a gallon) to just below boiling and let it cool until it is at baby bottle temperature, about 100 F (37 C). I would then mix in a pint of plain unflavored yoghurt which served as a starter culture of the necessary Lactobacillus acidophilus. I would then cover the pot and let it sit in a gas oven having a pilot light overnight. In the morning, Voila, there is yoghurt in the pot.

Adding the pint of yoghurt to the milk while it is too hot will kill the bacteria that are needed to make the yoghurt. The pilot light in the gas oven would help keep the pot slightly warmer than room temperature, but the culture also works on a kitchen counter, as long as the room is not too cold.

The resultant yoghurt will have a layer of liquid whey on its surface that can be decanted off the settled solids that are the yoghurt. The yoghurt made by this method will not be as thick as the current Greek Yoghurt found in markets because it is not filtered to remove more of the liquid making a thicker yoghurt.

While poor graduate students, we made yoghurt from FDA food program powdered milk. We would add 50% more dry milk powder to the water than called for on the powdered milk package. This made a thicker yoghurt than the yoghurt made from bottled whole milk.

The yoghurt made can be combined with fresh fruit, preserved fruit, cucumbers, etc. Store the plain yoghurt in small bowls with snap-on lids in the refrigerator. It is hard to go wrong as long as one does not add the pint of starter yoghurt to the milk while it is too hot, or put the pot of milk with culture in a cold place before the yoghurt has been formed. Volumes and timing are not critical, as long as the pot is left long enough for the bacteria to propagate and the yoghurt to form, usually about 8-10 hours more or less. Fresh yoghurt was less tart than yoghurt from the market or yoghurt that had been incubating longer or in storage for a while which slowly develops a higher acid content.

HTH

 

[ckang79]

I just made yogurt for the first time last night and incubated it overnight, and it turned out GREAT!!

Here is what I did:

Heated one gallon of whole milk on stovetop until it hit 180F. This is very important to break down all the proteins in the milk so that the yogurt comes out creamy.

Let the heated milk cool to about 110F-115F and mixed a half cup of starter yogurt (Fage) with a half cup of the warm milk and then mixed this back into the pot.

Put the lid on the pot and put it into a slightly warmed oven with the oven light on overnight. When I opened the oven this morning, it was nice and toasty.

The resulting yogurt was very thick with a layer of liquid whey on top. I will strain it later when I get home tonight to make Greek yogurt.

 

[galopede]

I've been making yoghurt for years now. I heat the milk as others above and when it's cooled to a suitable temperature, I put it in a Thermos food flask which keeps it at a good temperature for the incubation.

As a starter, I use the freshest live yoghurt I can find in the shops. Even the best live yoghurt is half dead however! The first brew isn't the best but I keep a cup of the home made stuff back as a starter for the next batch and it improves drastically after a few goes as the culture is much more healthy and lively!

Gareth

 

[Alacrity59]

I like making Tzatziki with some of the yogurt I make.

 

[Heron]

I heat my milk to 180 F and keep it there for two minutes then let it cool to 110 before adding the starter. Make sure you mix the starter in gently. I leave it in my yogurt maker for 20-24 hours. After that I put it in the fridge for at least 6 hours. Thick and creamy every time. I like to use 3 quarts whole milk and 1 quart half and half to make it extra creamy.

 

[mretzloff]

I made my own yesterday. I used organic, grass-fed whole milk and a tub of Stonyfield organic plain yogurt for the cultures. Too bad raw milk is illegal in NC.

 

[mretzloff]

Have any of you used milk and heavy cream? Someone suggested using 25% heavy cream to me.

 

[ckang79]

I think the heavy cream may help thicken the yogurt, but if you really like creamy, thick yogurt, you should strain out some of the whey. I used plain whole milk and strained it over night. The yogurt came out really thick and creamy! I personally think the heavy cream is a bit overkill and unnecessary.

 

[Alacrity59]

1% milk and it was thick as needed. Probably makes sense that heaver milk or cream might leave less water to drain off as you use your yogurt. Try it . . . and let us know.

 

[Purplemonkey]

We (my family) have been making our own yogurt for generations. (We are from India.) In our current batches, we use 2% milk, bring to just below a boil, let it cool until room temp, then we add culture (which is just some yogurt from the last batch), put a lid on it and put it in the oven (electric, off). In the winter months, we will turn the light on in the oven. Voila, best yogurt - I can't eat commercial yogurts, they don't have the depth of flavour.

My recommendations is try to see if you can get a starter culture (we call it "jaag") from an east Indian family. If we ever have to restart our culture and resort to store bought yogurt to culture, it usually takes months of weekly batches before the yogurt tastes like it should, imo.

 

[edgerunner]

I've been making my own yoghurt from 2% cow milk for long time - 4 liters almost every week.

1. Boil the milk in a pot and let it cool down to 46-48°C. The consistent temperature throughout all the stages is very important, it's almost everything in the process of yoghurt making! The amount and quality of the starter and the time are important but forgiving; the temperature us crucial though! If you don't have a thermometer, dip your pinkie in the milk, it has to feel hot but bearable.
2. For starter, use plain high quality 3% yoghurt that has live active bacterias - I use 200 ml of Astro brand for 4 liters of milk. Take the starter out of the fridge and let it reach room temperature while waiting for the milk to cool down.
3. Stir the starter well to become smooth (I do it in the measuring cup), add a ladle of milk slowly in it an mix it well. Don't mix it too aggressively, take your time, you don't want to introduce much air in the mixture. At this point the starter mixture is quite liquid. Pour it slowly in the pot with the milk and mix it well. It doesn't have to be very slow, just try not to aerate it and make bubbles in the pot.
4. Now based on experience, using the oven method produces better results if you rather pour the milk in smaller bowls with lids than keeping it in the pot. So, I use 500-700 ml glass or ceramic bowls and transfer the milk in them. Note: if the kitchen is cooler than the room temperature, it happens in the winter usually, don't be afraid to preheat the oven for a few minutes only while preparing the milk, just to feel the heat in it, nothing more.
5. Put lids on the bowls, place them in the oven, and don't open it for 12-14 hours.
6. Take the bowls out of the oven, and put them in the fridge.
7. Your yoghurt is ready. Usually, it takes a day for it to reach the right specific taste because the bacterias are alive and still do their job. That's the beautiful thing about the home made yoghurt - you don't use preservatives.

Notes:
If your yoghurt turns out smooth but drags and trails the spoon too much, your temperature of the milk and/or oven was too low.
If your yoghurt is too liquid and tastes like milk, not like yoghurt, it means that you used too little active starter, or you didn't keep it in the oven long enough for your climate/room conditions. The time that the bacterias need to do their job depends on your geographical location and climate too, but 12-14 hours is a good starting reference time.
If you like your yoghurt thicker, use 3% cow milk instead, or mix cow and sheep milk, but in this case the taste will be different.
If your yoghurt is thick but unevenly dense, grainy, too porous, and not smooth, it means the temperature you used was too high, or you used too much strong starter, so it forced the process to be too rapid.

Like with most things, it takes some practice time and a few attempts to get it right, changing one thing at a time.

 

[mretzloff]

I would suggest not boiling the milk. Doing so kills most of the nutrients in it. Granted, if you are using ultra pasteurized milk, those nutrients are already dead.


I tried it again today, but with 20% heavy cream and 80% milk. The yogurt was thicker and tastes better (yes, imagine fat making something taste better ). I did use a cheesecloth to strain it this time, so I will try once again without heavy cream to see how they compare.

 

[Alacrity59]

I scald the milk . . . hmmm not sure if that is better . . . just what I was taught.

 

[mretzloff]

I have only made yogurt twice, which is obviously an extremely small sample size. This second time, I only heated the milk to 115ºF (my yogurt maker recommend 160ºF and then letting it cool down). I did not noticed a difference, except that my yogurt tastes better this time. I will keep experimenting to see what works best.

 

[ckang79]

My first batch of yogurt was made with whole milk only, set in the oven with the oven light on and it came out great! I just made my second batch last night with skim milk only in the oven with the light turned off and it didn't seem to affect the yogurt at all.

 

[mretzloff]

it didn't seem to affect the yogurt at all.

Not even the taste?