Make Your Own Yogurt
There are many reasons why a person might want to make his own yogurt — to save money, and to avoid high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavorings and artificial colorings that most commercial yogurt has. There are many ways of making your own yogurt; and I remember my mom had a yogurt maker when I was a kid. But I don’t remember her ever actually making yogurt — it was just a brightly colored something that was stuck in the back of the cabinets out of the way. I’m assuming she bought it when yogurt was a “brand new” fad back in the 70s (although people have been making yogurt for centuries if not millenia), to make her own. But it didn’t work right. (Does anybody else remember those? It had a small flat base that I guess was the warmer, and maybe 4 different-colored jars that sealed with metal doohickeys. Enough of the trip down memory lane. Now back to your regular programming!)
There are still lots of formulas and gadgets to make your own yogurt (you can google or ebay for them if you want), but here’s the way I make my yogurt, and I’ve never had a batch to fail. This recipe is from The Tightwad Gazette, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone for all of the frugal tips, and just the mindset I get when I read it. What I’ve got here makes a quart, but I’ve made as much as a gallon at one time.
Yogurt
2 Tbsp. starter yogurt, room temperature
1 quart milk + ½ c. milk powder
Combine the milk and milk powder in a large saucepan. Heat to 180º and cool to 115º. [Update — if you use only powdered milk in this recipe (as opposed to milk bought from the store in jugs, or previously-mixed powdered milk), you will not need to heat to 180 and cool to 115 — you only have to heat it to 115. You heat it to the higher temperature to kill bacteria in liquid milk, but milk powder doesn’t have any bacteria.] Add a small amount of this warm milk to the starter, whisk, and add this mixture to the saucepan of milk, and whisk again. Pour into a quart jar, screw on a lid, place on a heated pad set on “low,” cover with a towel, and cover that with a large soup pot. Incubate for 8 hours or overnight.
You can make larger batches, but to efficiently chain-yogurt and to avoid old, tart-tasting yogurt, don’t make more than a 5-day supply. All failed and too-tart yogurt can still be used to make popsicles and in cooking. You can make “yogurt cheese” by lining a colander with cloth, plopping in the yogurt, and draining (in fridge) overnight. (Stir in a pinch of salt before draining to improve the flavor.) The liquid is whey which is very nutritious and can be used as milk in muffins and other baked goods.
A few questions one might ask:
- what is “starter yogurt”? It’s simply store-bought yogurt. Buy the plain yogurt (unflavored, unsweetened; although I think I’ve made it with vanilla yogurt before), which I’ve only found in the quart-sized containers. To save the most money, use what you need and freeze the rest in an ice cube tray or muffin tin, in 2-Tablespoon increments; then when you need to make more yogurt, thaw a portion of it for the next batch. Make sure that the yogurt you get has live, active cultures in it! If the yogurt isn’t “alive” then your home-made yogurt will not set up.
- what is “milk powder”? Powdered milk, which should be available at most grocery stores in the baking section (or ask an employee where it is). I almost never buy regular milk, because we don’t use much milk except in baking, and a gallon will go bad (and at the price of milk these days, I hate to waste money like that!). So when I make yogurt, I just make up a quart or two of powdered milk and add in more powdered milk. I’ve also used regular store-bought milk when I had it, and added in the powdered milk, and it works just fine too. If you’re calorie-conscious, powdered milk is fat-free and lower in calories than 2% milk (which is what we use) or whole milk; so that makes this even better!
- what gadgets do I need? Just a cooking thermometer (maybe cost you a couple of bucks, if you don’t already have one) and a heating pad (which most people already have; and if you don’t, get one — it’ll come in handy on those cold nights).
- can I flavor it or make it sweet? The one batch of yogurt that I’ve had to fail (which I don’t count, because I deviated from the recipe) was when I tried to pre-sweeten and pre-flavor the yogurt. It just didn’t set up at all. I’m wondering if the sugar or vanilla killed the “live active cultures” when it was setting up. So, sure, you can sweeten it and flavor it — just do it after you’ve made it. (If anybody knows of a way to sweeten and/or flavor it before-hand, please let me know!)
- why do I have to heat it up to 180 degrees? I’m not sure, but I think it scalds the milk and kills anything that might be in there (like pasteurization), or perhaps it changes the nature of the milk so that it more easily turns into yogurt.
- why can’t I just add the yogurt to the milk while I’m heating it up? Because heating it that high will kill the cultures, and you’ll just end up with a quart of warm milk in the morning.
- why do I add a little of the warm milk to the yogurt and then put it back in the pan? why can’t I just put the yogurt into the pan of milk to start with? Because the yogurt is room temperature, and the milk in the pan is quite a bit warmer, if you put the yogurt into the pan of milk, you would shock it and kill it. Adding a little of the warm milk to the yogurt “tempers” the yogurt, and slightly warms it up enough so that it won’t kill it when it’s added to the much warmer milk.
- do you have any other tips? Yeah — watch the milk while you’re heating it up, and stir it occasionally so it doesn’t scorch or stick to the bottom of the pot. You can set up a double-boiler or “water bath” (a large pot is partially filled with water and the smaller pot with the milk rests inside with the bottom touching or below the water). I’ve never done this, but I have scorched the milk before.
- what is “chain-yogurting”? It’s using your home-made yogurt as starter for future batches of yogurt. The author of The Tightwad Gazette said that she “chain-yogurted” up to 5 times, before the yogurt got too tart or didn’t set up well. The “nerd” part of me that likes numbers wonders how many batches of yogurt you could get from the original store-bought quart if you only used it as starter; and then used all of the next four chain-yogurted batches as starter, and only ate the 5th batch in its entirety. Yeah, I’m weird that way. For what it’s worth, I can’t remember the last time I bought yogurt, and I still have probably 6 ice-cubes’ worth of it in my chest freezer. This last batch I made, I froze enough starter for 12 quarts of yogurt.
If you have any more questions, or more tips or insights, or if you just wanna say something, don’t hesitate to leave a comment!
Katsy's Blog 
Hi, Is there any hope if the batch does not set up? I tried to make some last night (using a different recipe, not yours) and it did not set up by this morning. I put it in a 200 degree preheated oven, then turned the oven off and let it sit overnight. It didn’t set. Can I save it, or do I have to throw it away? Thanks! 🙂 Mary
Since writing the first response, I heard that you can let yogurt set for longer than just overnight, which helps to convert more lactose so if you have lactose-intolerance you can still eat it. When I tried that, the yogurt also ended up much thicker (when I checked it in the morning, it was thinner than I like, but after setting for even longer — with warm temperatures [I used a heating pad]), it thickened up to regular yogurt consistency, or even thicker.
You can use it in recipes, but it won’t ever thicken up. Use your imagination or google for recipes that call for yogurt. You can use it for smoothies; it would probably be a good substitute in most recipes for milk or buttermilk; make popsicles by mixing it with fruit or whatever and freezing it.
When I make Parmesan Chicken, I dip the chicken in buttermilk first, and then into the bread crumb mixture; but I’ve seen recipes that use yogurt instead of buttermilk.
If I can think of any more use, I’ll add them in the future. 🙂
Kathy,
Another thing you can easily do at home is make yogurt cheese. Yogurt cheese actually makes itself with the assistance of gravity.
Yogurt cheese (or YoChee as we call it) is a wonderful versatile ingredient you can make at home to improve your own yogurt. It has substantial health and taste benefits (a creamy food which is low or no fat plus high protein and calcium). We like it so much we wrote a cookbook and guide to expand its uses. I hope you will take a look at,” Eat Well the YoChee Way” our guide and cookbook to this important food. It really increases the use of yogurt cheese to main courses, soups, sauces, desserts, and much more. (Nutritional content included). Our website YoChee.com contains a free yogurt cheese how – to slide show, nutrition information and free recipes.
[…] let me know!) The recipe calls for buttermilk, which I didn’t have. I did, however, have home-made yogurt that I needed to use, so I decided to try it to see how it worked. Here’s the original […]
I made yogurt and after it was 110 degrees I added a couple teaspoons of vanilla. Can I use my vanilla yogurt as a starter to make another batch?
Also, I buy regual pasturized milk..do I really need to bring it to 180 degrees still?
Thanks for helping, I have enjoyed your blog!
I’ve used vanilla yoghurt as a starter for plain yoghurts. As long as the culture in it is live. You’d hardly notice the hint of vanilla from 2 – 3 TBs of yoghurt for a litre of milk.
Gina — I’m not sure about the vanilla yogurt as starter. It would probably work just fine (I think I’ve used the store-bought vanilla-flavored as starter and it worked out). The only way I know for sure is to try it and see — you could make just a small amount (a pint or a cup), or be prepared to use it in something else (smoothies or something that doesn’t require thick yogurt).
So, adding the vanilla to the yogurt at 110 degrees works? Cool! I’ll have to try that.
I just looked up on “WikiHow” and it says that even if milk has been pasteurized, it will still contain bacteria (I’m assuming that fresh bacteria grows after the pasteurization process; and that this bacteria will compete with the yogurt-making bacteria, which will make it not set up right), so it does need to be heated to 180.
Hi, I make an old Adele Davis yoghurt:
1 1/2 cups of non instant milk powder
large can evaporated milk
6 cups water
1 – 3 Tbs starter yoghurt
I have run out of ordinary powdered milk but was given a sack of buttermilk powder. So I was wondering if anyone had used this instead of milk powder for yoghurt making?
Thanks!
Ok, no replies, so made up the yoghurt with Buttermilk powder using the above old faithfull Adele Davis recipe. The yogurt turns out rich, creamy and very thick, almost like a cross between Bulgarian (made from cream) and Greek yoghurt.
Unlike making yoghurt from skim or full-cream milk it is nice to eat without any added fruits or flavourings but is so rich I could not eat too much of it. So I’ve resorted to using half the amount of butter milk powder and while the yogurt remains still rather rich and thick, it is less so and more readily eaten but still too much for me.
I’d like to know if anyone can tell me how they’ve found it if indeed they’ve tried making yoghurt from fresh milk with a little added buttermilk powder instead of ordinary milk powder for making in creamier?
Any helpful suggestions would be great.
What you made was not yogurt but a French sour cream called Creme Fraiche. It is delicious but is indeed very rich.
Thanks Karen!
Janice,
I’m glad to hear this! I’ve never used buttermilk powder in anything, so didn’t know how it would work in yogurt. Since the first experiment worked out for you, I would think that adding buttermilk to regular milk would do just fine, too.
Let me know how it works out!
-Kathy
YES! Thanks. It turned out.
I use low fat milk; mix 1-2-3 tablespoons of yoghurt with 800mls – 1 litre milk, then into an Eziyo incubator filled with boiling water, leaving it for approximately 6 – 12 hours. Do you have cordless (electricity free) Eziyo incubators where you are?
I nuked the skim milk then let it cool enough to add a couple of spoons of yoghurt and 1/4 cup of buttermilk powder.
The cost of our milk and dairy products down here in NZ has skyrocketed. So I litre (= 4 x 8oz cups) of skim milk costs approx $2.00 (how much up your way?) Because it is non-fat milk, the end product is generally thinner in consistency than full-cream and is almost tasteless, as skim milk is. Adding 1/4 cup of skim or better still (though adds some fat) whole milk powder makes it thicker and creamier. (Yummier!)
With the free buttermilk powder, 1 litre of yoghurt costs the price of the skim-milk – $2.00 is still cheaper than buying yoghurt ($5) or the sachets of just-add-water & leave-to-set powdered pre-mixes @ around $3 – $4. http://www.eltean.com/yoghurt.htm
It’s not much difference in price but when you eat a lot, the cost adds up. Recycling a couple of Tablespoons from the previous daily batch, cultured in the Eziyo maker, does not create a sour or more watery product for several weeks, at least.
I just tasted the fresh-skim-milk yoghurt made with the added 1/4-cup of buttermilk powder and while creamier than plain non-fat yogurt (or even made with fresh skim milk & a couple of tablespoons of added skim powder), is still not as nice as full cream. So I’ve stirred it together with the above richer, creamy thicker Adele Davis evaporated/powder yoghurt and got the desired result. Remembering that the buttermilk made the former product too creamy and too rich for me, stirred together now it’s just right. Thank goodness! ;o)
You of course may not mind the fresh skim milk yoghurt, with a little added powder but I guess I’m not used to eating yogurt mad entirely from non-fat milk. No wonder I’m not losing weight!
Well I’ve gone off the buttermilk yoghurt as it’s too rich for my liking. Fine with fresh fruits such as Tamarillos, berry fruits & sugar but when one eats up to a litre of yoghurt today, it’s too much for the palatte.
Tried using skim milk but that’s too thin & tasteless. Tried milk powder to make it thicker but still tasteless. Did the gelatine but no matter how dissolved it was, the yoghurt became lumpy & yuck. So have given up.
Now use 900 D/L skim milk &/or Calcium enriched milk, with 1 – 3 TB of skim powder & 1/4 cup real cream (as well as the 1 – 3 TB of pro-biotic yoghurt as starter culture). The result is a creamier & firmer yoghurt that is tasty and of the smoother, velvety texture, commonly eaten in Europe.
YES!
Gina-yes, you can use vanilla yogurt as a starter. I’ve used a yoplait cup as a starter, and yoplait doesn’t come in plain. Vanilla was the closest I could get! lol\
Janice-I make mine with whole milk from the farm(I posted about it on my blog). It produces a nice creamy product, which is mild and thick.
Hard to best fresh farm milk! Lucky you! Friend makes hers daily from fresh milk at their farm and simply uses 1/4 sachet of eziyo powder as her starter. It’s lovely for breakfast. Well done!
1 litre fresh milk (for a thicker product substitute 1/2 litre (1 pint) fresh cream and 1/2 litre fresh milk)
2 tbsp Bulgarian or Greek starter OR
2 tbsp yogurt from a previous batch OR
2 tbsp plain, unsweetened, additive-free commercial yogurt with live active cultures from the grocery store
Heat milk in a saucepan over a medium-low flame until it reaches about 110° Fahrenheit / 43º Celsius.
Remove from heat and whisk in 2 tablespoons thermophilic starter culture such as Bulgarian or Greek starter or use two tablespoons yogurt from a previous batch to inoculate the raw milk.
If you’re using a yogurt maker, simply pour the mixture of fresh milk and starter into the yogurt maker and culture it according to the manufacturer’s instructions for about eight to twelve hours.
If you’re using a food dehydrator or slow cooker, first pour the mixture of starter and raw milk into a 1 litre glass mason jar and cover it with a lid.
If you’re using a slow cooker or cooler, place the mason jar full of milk and starter in the center of your slow cooker or cooler and pour warm water (approximately 110° Fahrenheit, 43º Celsius) into your the ceramic insert or until it reaches just below the lid of your mason jar. Cover with a warm towel for added insulation and leave in a warm spot in your kitchen to culture for eight to twelve hours.
If you’re using a food dehydrator, simply place the mason jar full of starter culture and milk into the food dehydrator, set the temperature to 110° Fahrenheit / 43º Celsius and allow it to culture for eight to twelve hours.
Once the culturing period of eight to twelve hours is complete, remove your still warm raw milk yogurt from the yogurt maker, slow cooker, cooler or dehydrator and place it in the refrigerator to chill and solidify for an hour or two. Overnight setting is preferable though.
Hi Kathy!
I was wondering if one were to make yogurt JUST from powdered milk, does one need to STILL heat up the powdered milk to scalding? I know if using fresh milk one has to heat it up beforehands to kill certain bacteria, but it might be different with dry milk powder?
Thanks,
Dena
No need to heat the milk. Just make sure you have good clean water and you’ll be fine.
Penny from Taihape has this suggestion. “My husband uses his yoghurt-making machine — it only takes part of the packet to have great yoghurt. Instead of using the other, substitute with whole milk powder. It is a lot cheaper than buying it at the supermarket and you can be creative, adding different flavours and experimenting.”
We did a quick online check to see what savings can be made by making your own yoghurt. The difference between the everyday price of a powder sachet to make 1kg of strawberry yoghurt and a 1kg tub, which cost $5, was 31c. Using a cup (100g) of milk powder with 1 litre of water works out at approx $1 a kg of yoghurt PLUS the cost of your Tb of commercial yoghurt as your starter culture. One you’ve got your own fresh yoghurt, you won’t need to buy more starter yoghurts. There are other advantages too. Others like the convenience of making their own when not near the shops, using either milk powder or the commercial sachets of Eziyo etc.
ENJOY!
Dena,
Interesting question. I actually don’t know the answer. I usually make it with just powdered milk, and follow the directions as given above. She said in her book that she and her staff tested several recipes, and the method she printed was the one that never failed and was always consistent (as well as being the most frugal); but I don’t know if they tested a recipe that did not heat the powdered milk to scalding. Regardless if it has to be heated to scalding, it would still have to be heated at least to 110 degrees so that the cultures in the starter yogurt would be able to live. I haven’t made yogurt in a while, but I might try that next time (if it doesn’t set up, I’ll use it in place of milk in pancakes or something!). I haven’t made yogurt in a while, but will post the results here if I do; but if you or somebody else makes it before I do, please post what happened. That would save quite a bit of time — heating it to 180 and then waiting for it to cool to 110 — and I’m *always* ready to skip unnecessary steps! 🙂
I make yogurt with whole milk from the farm. I do heat it up to 180 degrees but was told the heat was necessary to get a nice thick yogurt. 180 degress wouldn’t kill much bacteria, but I’m not worried about that. The dairy it comes from is very clean and I’ve never had a problem (and I was raised on whole milk from this farm).
I add honey to mine while it is still hot (I use honey in place of white sugar a lot now). Then when it is coolish (115) I add two BIG tablespoons of Astro Balkan yogurt and a bit of vanilla. It goes in my Tribest maker and 8 hours later it is lovely thick vanilla yogurt. Sometimes I add my own fruit syrup which you can do before processing, because it is preserved from so much sugar. For a change, I make it in my small jars with honey and a bit of cocoa. The kids love it as a treat.
Hi, thanks. Yes, we’ve used milk from the dairy farm, when we had nice grass fed, brown Jersey cows that produced very high butter fat milk. It made creamier, richer yoghurt without need for any milk powder to thicken it.
Other times I have made yoghurt solely from powdered milk & to me it can sometimes become a bit too grainy, unless heated or the powder is non-instant.
We have satchet yoghurt pre-mixes here, where you just add the contents of a pack to a litre (quart) of water & leave to set in a jar immersed in boiling water in a specially designed thermos (kind of like a wine cooler).
Adele Davis recommended heating the milk powder, water & evaporated milk to kill any residual or stray bacteria. We made great yoghurt from her recipe without heating the ingredients & it’s been just fine. 1 1/2 c milk powder (non-instant produces best results) 1 large can evaporated milk & 6 cups of water. A few TB fresh yoghurt starter. This produces 2 litres creamy, delicate but still slightly tart, rich yoghurt (2 quarts).
I do love the Greek honey yoghurt, made by dissolving honey in the warm milk & using milk powder to thicken as well as fresh cream to improve texture. Honey yoghurt also makes great honey dijon yoghurt dressing. Mmmmm
Hi again, the powdered milk & culture satchets (140 g – 5oz) are expensive @ $3 – $4 – $5 to mix & make a litre/quart of yoghurt. So we’ve been using 1/4 packs with 4 cups of real full-fat whole milk. There’s enough culture & milk powder in a small amount of the dry pre-mix yoghurt powder (35g – just over 1oz) to make thick creamy, consistent results, using whole milk, every time.
Update — if you use only powdered milk in this recipe (as opposed to milk bought from the store in jugs, or previously-mixed powdered milk), you will not need to heat to 180 and cool to 115 — you only have to heat it to 115. You heat it to the higher temperature to kill bacteria in liquid milk, but milk powder doesn’t have any bacteria.
Yes, I NEVER bother to heat the powdered milk-only recipes. Have used skim milk powder, 100 gr. to the litre plus 2 extra TB w/ commercial yoghurt as starter. Re use 2-3 times then buy new starter yoghurt. Sometimes the starter is not very strong(old batch from factory etc) results in thin joghurt, other times it works great.
Have any of you ever tried villi a scadinavian yoghurt culture? I was given a starter of yoghurt which I mixed 1:7 with raw milk & left out on my bench for about 36hrs & then refrigerated … It ‘turned’ to a yoghurt with no further intervention & delicious ‘live’ yoghurt on a daily basis. If you like Greek style yoghurts however, then the thinner style of vilii is a waste of time.
No, I’ve never tried the other kind. I prefer thicker yogurts, but sometimes the yogurt doesn’t turn out right, and I deal with it. 🙂
I,m from Bulgaria and in my country almost everyone can make plane yogurt at home. The difference is that Lactobacilus Bulgaricus is native to this land and there is no problems with no setting. Boil the milk, cool down to 43-45 degree C (until the finger can stay inside the liquid for 10 seconds), we use 1-2 tsp old yogurt for starter per liter – mix it with a cup of warm milk and put it back. Put the milk in containers and keep them at this temperature (or wrap them with towels/blankets). After setting cool and enjoy.
I buy a lovely yogurt made in Quebec that is called Mediterranean Style, it has 10% butterfat. I use it in place of sour cream in everything from my ginger cake to tzatziki to yogurt cheese–it has about 1/3 the calories and fat of regular sour cream but such great flavour and texture. I decided to try making it myself using the regular yogurt-making methods discussed here and elsewhere. (It’s nearly $6 a litre if I buy it as opposed to less than $3 if I make it.) I’ve made it using prepackaged sachets of dried yogurt culture and also using a couple TBS of the yogurt as starter; both worked fine. I used regular half and half, which has 10% butterfat. The resulting yogurt was wonderful, thick and rich. It is too rich to eat as you would 2% or non fat but great for the recipes I mentioned above, on baked potatoes in place of sour cream. I’ve also added some sugar, vanilla and fresh strawberries to make frozen yogurt in my electric ice cream maker. It’s divine!
Yum! Sounds delicious. Thanks for these ideas. 🙂
I have a batch that didn’t set (different recipe). I’m wondering if I can scald it again as if it were plain milk and add another starter… I know there’s nothing I can do to make it set at this point and I know I could use it in other recipes. Thanks
-Jenn
I think it is not possible to presweeten the yoghurt before fermentation. I think addition of sugar increases the total soluble solids content of the milk which may restrict bacterial growth. 😀
I have made yoghurts for over 3 decades. And yes I have successfully used sweetened and/or flavoured milk drinks to make yoghurt without problem. As long as your milk has been scalded properly, cooled and kept at the correct temp your yoghurt culture will flourish.
Just a tip, if you are using fresh and/or sweetened milk, you still need to add a cpl of TB milk powder to make your yoghurt more creamy.
Oh, so you add your sweetener and/or flavoring to the milk *before* you scald it? That’s great to know! I’ll try that next time I make it.
I keep posting to no avail! I was trying to say I buy those discounted flavoured milk drinks and turn them into yoghurt. Its much cheaper than buying fresh milk. Enjoy!
Oven method didn’t work for me http://naturalfamilytoday.com/nutrition/how-to-make-homemade-mason-jar-yogurt-tip-tuesday/#axzz2frSATTZI
$ave $$$ and make your own fresh Greek yoghurt simply! http://www.superhealthykids.com/homemade-greek-yogurt/