I never thought it was possible to make easy homemade yogurt at home. My family LOVES yogurt, we use to go through multiple large tubs a week of it! With five of us wolfing down this yummy treat like we would never have it again in our lives, I needed to find a better, healthier, and cost effective option.
Enter in, making your own yogurt. I had no idea that you could do such a thing! It fit in well with the changes that we were making in our lives to become more self sufficient, and to be more conscious of the food we were putting into our bodies. The best part, you can make a full gallon of yogurt for what it costs to by a gallon of milk!! With all of those awesome factors, I was sold before I even tried it!
The problem
All of the recipes I could find said that you HAD to have an instant pot. I did not have one of those at the time. I was at a loss as what to do. Then one day, I had accidently came across a YouTube Video of a couple that totally lived off grid, no Instant pot for her! But, she was making her own yogurt!!! That YouTube Channel was Living off Grid with Doug and Stacey.
So, I set out to try it! The first time turned out great! It was a little runnier than what my family and I personally like. So, I kept practicing, and learned some things along the way. I’ll share my tips below.
What you will need
- A6bout a quart of raw milk, or whole milk. it must be whole milk, the other kinds will not work, and make sure it is not ultra pasteurized.
- a quarter cup of yogurt starter, this can be from plain yogurt that you already have, or you can buy a container of yogurt at the store, just make sure that it is plain!
- A food thermometer
- A container to put the yogurt in. ( Glass is best)
- A warm spot in your house.
How to make the creamy yumminess
So, the first step it to warm your milk up. you will want to make sure that you do this slowly and that you have enough time to stand and babysit it and stir it. it will quickly come to a boil and then your milk, and your future yogurt will be ruined!! The horror!!!!
If you are using raw milk, only heat the milk to 115°f. If you are using pasteurized whole milk, heat to 180°f and keep the milk at that temp for 5 mins. Be careful to not let the milk go over the recommended temperatures. You will have a VERY tangy sour yogurt if it goes above the 180° mark.
Once you have heated the milk up, take it off of the heat at let it cool to 115°f. If you are using raw milk, you do not have to let it cool.
Once the milk has cooled, you will want to add your starter to the milk and mix it well just using a spoon. This is another place where you want to make sure that the temperature is just right, if the milk is too hot, it will kill off all of those awesome gut healthy cultures in the yogurt and it will not do anything. If it is too cool, it wont be warm enough to activate those cultures, and yet again, your yogurt will be a dud.
Once it is mixed well, you can pour the milk mixture into your container, glass is better here. Then you will want to put it in a warm place to ferment. you want to keep those beautiful little bacteria alive so they will culture your milk into yogurt. I usually just keep mine in the oven with the light on. This keeps it plenty warm enough. You can also tie a kitchen towel around it like a baby if you don’t think it will stay warm enough.
You will want it to stay in the oven, or wherever your warm spot is, for 12-24 hours, dependent on how tangy you like your yogurt. The longer you let it ferment, the tangier it will get, So if you don’t like the more sour taste, I would take it out at the 12 hour mark.
And bing-bang-boom!
You have yogurt! How awesome is that!!! It will be runnier than what you get from grocery store. If you want a thicker yogurt, you can just strain the whey out of it and it will make a Greek style yogurt. Don’t throw that whey away though!!! That is some amazing, protein, probiotic packed liquid gold! Animals love it! There will be recipes on how to use the whey in a future post.
To strain the whey I just use a tea towel, or a flour sack, and hang it up on my kitchen sink faucet with rubber bands. Make sure to place a glass container underneath to catch all of that amazing whey. This usually only takes about 20/30 mins to drain to the consistency that my family likes.
Eating the Creamy creation
You can eat your yummy creation right away, but if you like it cold, then it usually takes about 12 hours to cool. This will be a plain yogurt when you’re done. We like to sweeten it with honey or maple syrup, add some fresh fruit, and add our home made granola which you can find how to maker here. Such and easy and healthy breakfast for the whole family! You can also use the plain yogurt as a sour cream substitute.
Save some of your yogurt to use as the starter for your next batch of homemade yogurt!
There you have it! One mort thing you can add to your repertoire of awesome things you can do!
I hope you enjoyed this post! thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to check us out over on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
Bye for now,
Sam
Easy homemade yogurt with out an instant pot
Equipment
- 1 large pot
- 1 thermometer
- 2 large glass jars with lid This recipe will fit into 2 half gallon glass jars.
Ingredients
- 1 gallon wholemilk make sure it is NOT ultra pasturized
- 1/2 cup yogurt starter saved from a previous batch, or store bought yogurt.
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the gallon of milk up to 180°f
- Hold the milk at 180° f for about 5 minutes
- Once the milk has reached the correct tempature, remove it from the heat and let it cool to 115° f
- In the meantime, place 1/4 cup of yogurt starter into both glass jars.
- once the milk is cool, pour it into the glass containers with the starter and mix well. place lids on top and wrap with a towel.
- Keep in a warm place, not in direct sun, and let the yogurt ferment 8-24 hours. dependent on your taste.
Notes