Homemade yogurt

Ingredients

• 1 litre milk (about 950 ml)
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt with live cultures (no additives)
• optional: ¼ cup powdered milk for thickness

Method

1. Wash your hands with soap and get ready a clean pan, lidded containers and a kitchen thermometer.
2. If you want thick yogurt from low-fat milk, stir the powdered milk into the cold milk.
3. Slowly heat the milk to 82–85 °C, stirring now and then so it doesn't catch; steam and small bubbles will appear around the edges.
4. Take off the heat and cool at room temperature to 42–46 °C: hotter milk will kill the starter.
5. Pour off a cup of the milk, stir the starter yogurt into it until smooth and return it to the pan.
6. Pour into clean containers and close the lids.
7. Keep warm at 42–46 °C for 6–10 hours without disturbing: in a yogurt maker, a multicooker or a cool box with warm water (about 49 °C).
8. As soon as the yogurt has thickened, refrigerate it (at 4 °C or below) to stop it souring further.
9. Eat within 14 days.

Tips

• Use shop-bought yogurt as a starter before its use-by date, and homemade yogurt within 5–7 days.
• Runny or separated yogurt usually means it was incubated too long, too cold or too hot, or that the starter wasn't live.
• Strained through cheesecloth in the fridge, yogurt becomes as thick as Greek yogurt.

Related topics

🥣 Yogurt · 🥛 Milk · 🧫 Starter culture · 🧫 Lactic acid bacteria · 🔄 Fermentation · 🧊 Refrigerator

Sources

• University of Illinois Extension — Making Yogurt at Home

Themes