How to Make Your Own Yogurt

One of the many reasons to keep dairy goats is to make your own yogurt. It’s not only good for you and delicious, it’s also super easy. All you need is fresh milk and a starter culture. The starter culture can be nothing more than a container of plain live-culture yogurt from the dairy case at the grocery store.

Heated Milk Yogurt

Originally I followed the traditional method of gradually heating the fresh milk to 180ºF. Then I let it cool to 115ºF before adding the starter culture. If culture is added before the milk temperature reaches 115ºF, the beneficial bacteria in the culture will be killed. If the culture is added after the temperature drops too low, fermentation will take forever (if at all).

A good proportion of starter to use is 2 tablespoons per quart of milk. I don’t actually measure it; I add a heaping soup spoon full. Much more than that and the bacteria in the starter will too rapidly crowd each other, creating a thinner, less tasty result. You can keep dipping into the same starter to make several batches.

Appliances

Yogurt making appliances come in all shapes and sizes, with all kinds of features, and a wide range of prices. After trying a variety of units over the years, I settled on the Euro Cuisine YM80.

You don’t really need a special appliance. You can incubate yogurt in the oven with the pilot light on, in a picnic cooler heated by a jug of hot water, on top of a hot water heater — any place you can find where the temperature remains fairly steady at 115ºF, about the same temperature as for rising bread.

The Euro Cuisine comes with seven 6-ounce jars. It will also accommodate five 8-ounce round jam jars, which I prefer. My husband and I share a cup of yogurt every day for lunch. So for us the jam jars are the perfect size. People who use more at a time make it in quart-size canning jars.

The length of incubation influences tanginess. The longer it takes, the tarter it gets. A mild yogurt is ready after 8 to 10 hours. A stronger tasting yogurt takes 10 to 12 hours. A thick, more tart yogurt, will develop after another 3 to 5 hours

Over time I’ve learned to recognize when our yogurt has the amount of tang we like by its odor. I lift the lid of the yogurt maker and take a whiff. When it smells just right, I cover the jars and place them in the refrigerator for use after they have well chilled.

TROUBLESHOOTING: If your yogurt doesn’t turn out as you expect it to, check out the comprehensive yogurt troubleshooting page at Cultures for Health.

Raw Milk Yogurt

I soon grew weary of fussing with heating the milk and then waiting for it to cool to the right temperature. So I switched to making raw milk yogurt.

Since raw milk contains its own beneficial bacteria, I use only freshly collected milk. Given time, the milk’s beneficial bacteria would proliferate and compete with the starter culture’s bacteria, and the yogurt wouldn’t come out right.

With pasteurized milk, if you make a fresh batch of yogurt at least once a week, you can theoretically use each batch as your next starter, keeping it going forever, just like sourdough starter. But with raw milk the beneficial bacteria eventually overcome and “kill” the starter culture, so you have to periodically use a fresh starter.

Since we don’t have a nearby grocery store where we can get ready-made starter, I use freeze dried Yogourmet starter culture. Many other kinds of starter are available, so you may want to experiment to find the one you like best.

One box of Yogourmet contains 6 packets, each designed to make one quart (4 cups) of yogurt. I stretch it to make a batch of 5 cups. When I use a fresh packet, I reserve one jar of yogurt as my future starter culture. That way I can get four or five batches from each packet, making the freeze-dried culture much more cost effective.

Yogurt made with raw milk is not as thick as that made with heated milk. So much so that it’s easier to drink from a cup than eat with a spoon. There are many methods for thickening homemade yogurt. My preferred method is to use plain gelatin, which doesn’t affect the yogurt’s flavor.

I put about a cup of fresh milk in a small microwavable bowl, stir in 1 tablespoon of plain gelatin, and microwave it on high for 35 seconds. I stir the softened gelatin into the milk, add the starter culture, and incubate it as before.

When the incubation time is up, the yogurt still looks thin. But after it’s chilled, it comes out the consistency of pudding. With a little fruit on top, homemade yogurt makes a perfect lunchtime dessert.