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Homemade Yogurt
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- 3-3/4 cup warm tap water
- 1-2/3 cups instant nonfat dry milk
- 2 to 4 tablespoon store-bought, plain yogurt with active yogurt cultures (read the label to be sure)
In a large saucepan combine the tap water and dry milk powder. Stir it very well, and let it sit a few minutes. Then stir it again. All of the dry milk should be dissolved. Heat the milk over medium low heat until it reaches 180°. This kills off any competeing bacteria so that the yogurt will respond better to the acidophilus cultures. Remove from the stove and allow to cool to 115°. If the milk is any hotter than this then it will kill off the yogurt cultures. Add the store-bought plain yogurt to the warm milk. Stir well. Allow it sit for a few minutes and stir a final time. This should dissolve the store-bought yogurt completely.
Carefully pour the mixture into a very clean, quart-sized, wide-mouthed canning jar, or another clean, quart-sized container.
Incubate the yogurt in a warm spot for 6 to 8 hours, or until it is set almost as thick as store-bought yogurt. Chill and eat.
Each cook develops her own way of incubating home made yogurt through trial and error. I am going to describe my method, followed by some other common methods and ideas. But first there are a few things you need to know. Yogurt is cultured from acidophilous bacteria, which you can sometimes buy in powdered form at the health food store. I have never actually seen it, but I’ve heard tell about it.
Yogurt can also be cultured from store-bought yogurt which contains “active yogurt cultures” or live bacteria. Read the label and it will tell you if the yogurt contains active cultures or not.
I always use prepared yogurt as my culture. I buy a large container of plain store brand yogurt from the store. I bring it home and scoop it into a couple of icecube trays. Then I freeze it. When it is completely frozen, I take the frozen yogurt cubes and pack them in a plastic freezer bag. Each time I make yogurt, I use one cube as the starter. You can use your own fresh yogurt as a starter too, but eventually it loses it’s power due to the introduction of foreign bacteria, usually after using it about 3 or 4 times. I like to use a new frozen yogurt cube each time I prepare yogurt. I’ve had my best results this way.
When making yogurt with powdered milk, it is good to use more dry milk powder than you would to just make fluid milk. For instance, normally I would use 1 1/3 cups of dry milk powder to make a quart of milk. When I reconstitute milk for yogurt, I add an extra 1/3 cup of dry milk powder, using 1-2/3 cups of dry milk powder for a quart of yogurt. This makes the yogurt thicker and also higher in calcium. Even when preparing yogurt from fluid milk, the results are better if you add a little extra powdered milk for thickness.
There are lots of ways to incubate your yogurt. I prefer to do it in my electric oven. I set the stove dial half way between OFF and 200°, or at approximately 100°. The light which signifies the oven is on, pops on for a moment, and then pops off when the temperature is reached. I set my jar of yogurt in the oven and leave it for between 6 and 8 hours, usually overnight, or while I’m out for the day. I take out the yogurt when it is thick. This method works every time for me. My yogurt has a very mild flavor, which the kids like better than the sour stuff we used to get from the store.
There are many other ways to incubate your yogurt. Some people pour the warm milk combined with the starter, into a large preheated thermos and let it sit overnight. Other folks set the yogurt on top of a warm radiator, or close to a wood stove, or in a gas stove with the pilot operating, or on a heating pad set on low. Sometimes I have placed the jar in a pan filled with warm water, to keep the temperature even. This worked pretty well when I incubated the yogurt next to the wood stove. It kept the yogurt at a uniform temperature, even with occasional drafts from the front door opening and closing. The heating-pad method is supposed to be pretty reliable. You set it on low and then cover the heating pad with a towel, place the yogurt on top of it, and put a large bowl or stew pot upside down over the yogurt. This makes a little tent which keeps the heat in. I don’t have a heating pad, and have never actually used this method myself, but a good friend swears by it. Another friend uses a medium sized picnic cooler to incubate her yogurt. She places the jars inside the cooler and then add two jars filled with hot tap water, to keep the temperature warm enough. After 4 hours, check the yogurt to see if it is thick enough. If it isn’t then refill the water jars with more hot water, return them to the cooler, and let the yogurt sit another 4 hours. When I tried this method, it worked very well. It took a full 8 hours, but the yogurt was perfect, and I liked not having my oven tied up during the day. Also, there was little danger of getting the yogurt too hot while it incubated, and drafts weren’t a problem because of the closed nature of the cooler. You should try to disturb the yogurt as little as possible while it is incubating, in ensure you get good results.
After the yogurt is thick, place it in the fridge. It will stay sweet and fresh for about a week or two. You may prepare more than one jar at a time if you like. I included the method for a quart because this is the size canning jar I use. Narrow mouth canning jars would probably work too, but I prefer the wide mouth ones because it is easier to stick a measuring cup or ladel down inside of it, to scoop out the yogurt. I usually prepare two quart jars at a time. The prepared yogurt is good mixed with jelly, fresh or canned fruit, served with granola for breakfast, or substituted for sour cream in many recipes like stroganoffs. It is also nice pureed in fruit smoothie blender drinks, or stirred into gelatin or popscicles before freezing them. It can also be stirred half and half with regular mayonnaise to make a very tasty low fat mayonnaise. This mixture can be used in just about any recipe which calls for mayonnaise.
Learning to make yogurt is a trial and error process. Most people don’t have perfect or consistant results the first few times they make it. With a little practice though, anyone can learn to make it. When you get a little skill at it, the entire process becomes second nature, and you will have sweet fresh yogurt available whenever you like.
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We prefer a more european yoghurt made with cream. To do this, we add 1/3c of butter powder to the recipe in this article. Our toaster oven holds 90 degrees F. quite well so we lay a wide mouth Mason jar full of cultured cream inside the oven for 6-8 hours. This is a VERY rich way to eat yoghurt, so be careful of the waist line!
When this is finished, the color is far more natural than most store bought yoghurts. With a little draining over night, we make a cream cheese comparable to the richness of Phillidelphia brand. Salt it while it is still warm them put it in the old Philly container or make your cheese cakes. Yum!
Your recipe and information for making yogurt from powdered milk was very helpful. I, too, found that my toaster over holds at 100 degrees F at it’s lowest setting. I plan to try the cream cheese shared by DadMom.
Thank you, both, so much!
I like to make home made yogurt in my crock pot. I use 2 quarts of water and 4 cups of powdered milk in my crock pot. I set it to low for 2.5 hours. Then I turn it off for 3 hours. After cooling for 3 hours, I add my starter. Then, I take the ceramic liner out of the crock pot, set it on a heating pad on the lowest setting, and wrap it with 2-3 towels over night. The next morning it’s yogurt and I spoon it into single serving containers or mason jars. Using the heating pad is a good option in the winter when it might be too cold in the house for the yogurt to incubate properly.
What a great idea… I’m going to have to try that method. Thanks so much for sharing.
Susanne
have you tried kefir.im just getting started about 2 weeks now every one loves the stuff
This recipe makes a good product. I made it in a rice cooker. Fill 1/2 cooker with hot tap water on the “warm” setting. Check water temperature after 1 hour to insure it is not above 120 degrees. If it is remove lid or set it ajar on cooker to cool the temperature down. Set pint jars or any other container(s), with lids on, in the cooker. After 5 hours…firm yogurt. Can cover the cooker with a couple of towels..unplug and leave overnight for yogurt in the morning. Put in frig to cool.
Greetings!
Was JUST today deciding to look for homemade yogert recipies! TRUELY stumbled upon this website and am HOOKED. Thank you so much for the excellent sounding recipies. Cannot wait to get started. I have recently discovered that I have some food sensitivities, so I am moving away from processed foods, etc. LOL, of course…being raised in a “frugal” environment…and getting away from it….I am now taking my Prodigal Trip back to homemade, wholesome, and cost effective!
Thank you for such a terrific site!
[...] Here’s a recipe and instructions from The Hillbilly Housewife (by the way, the upcoming June issue of Molly’s Money-Saving Digest features an interview with The Hillbilly Housewife.) [...]
Is the fridge an acceptable place to store starter?
If so how long does it store?
If your culture is in yogurt form, sure, the fridge is fine. However, if you’re using a freeze-dried powder culture, that should absolutely be kept in the freezer. Most powders containing cultures of different bacteria need to be in air-tight containers kept at low, low temperatures (freezer) to keep the bacteria from growing while in storage. If you order a culture, check for specific instructions on how to keep it. If you’re just using a tablespoon of your last batch of yogurt each time, keep it in the fridge. But powdered cultures are always in the freezer.
Hi,
Thanks for posting these instructions. I had a couple of suggestions. Firstly, if you use your microwave to heat the milk you don’t have any risk of scorching the milk. Secondly, for incubating you can use a rice cooker set to “stay warm.” With the lid on it will heat to 50C (just a little more than 120F) so you can successfully make it with the lid off. With my it stays at exactly 40C (104F). The lid off method works well but it does leave milk skin on the top.
I found a method I love on youtube from herbalmentors. I use the same basic recipe you use, but instead of using more energy to incubate I use a cooler. I put some hot water in it to take the chill off it, then line it with towels. I put the filled jars into the lined cooler and put more towels on top. Then I close the lid, and set the cooler under my table next to the radiator- though, any place away from traffic would probably do- for about 8-12 hours. Hope you enjoy! God bless you!
I have used our cooler and made several good batches of yogurt. I was shocked that it worked, and that when I checked the water it was still warm. What I did was put warm water about 100-110 degrees in the cooler up to about half of my jars then put my jars in and put the lid on and walk way. I works good. Of Course when winter comes that might change things.
I forgot to say that the cooler works fine, even if the radiator heat is not on.
I also like to make it in the toaster oven. I find that I have to add quite a bit of extra milk powder because I like my yogurt thick. Rose, do you have any suggestions for using the microwave for heating the milk? I use the stovetop method, but it sounds like your way might be a little easier and mistake-proof.
I use a rice cooker to make my yogurt using your recipe. The cooker is filled half way with water warmed to 110 degrees and I set the cooker on the “Keep Warm” cycle. I pour the yogurt mix into 2 one pint mason jars and cover with their lids. Place the lid on the rice cooker and leave for 4 to 6 hours and VOILA…yogurt. If the lid is ajar on the cooker…no problem. With a thermometer I check water temp periodically so it stays under 110 degrees and won’t kill the culture. If it gets above 110 degrees I take the lid off to reduce the temperature. Good site…good ideas.
Thanks for the tip on the rice cooker. While I prefer not to use extra energy, I already happen to have a rice cooker, so will have to try. Testing it now to see how it holds 115 degrees, for water bath, on warm cycle. 4 pint jars would fit in there perfectly.
I’ve read that some people have great success leaving the yogurt to incubate in the oven. If you leave the oven light on and your yogurt close to the light, it is supposed to keep it the perfect temperature. I plan to do it that way when I make my next batch.
I just made my first batch today, using the crockpot version and was surprized when it actually thickened. We added home-made strawberry jam and a little maple syrup (the real stuff) to flavour ours, then blended it to make it drinkable. Super yummy!
I just made yogurt for the first time today and I am disappointed that it turned out so thin. I used 2 % milk (1 gallon), 1/2 cup of dried milk, 1/2 cup of starter (full fat) and tested out two types of incubation: one was wrapping the yogurt jar in ten blankets, including a wool sweater (my mother’s tried and true technique) and the other was putting a jar in the oven with the oven light on and a thermometer to make sure it was staying in the 100 to 110 range. Both turned out basically the same, though I left the former for 6 hours, and the latter for 8. Though they looked relatively thick like yogurt, when I taste tested, it was more like an egg yolk. After a couple of hours in the fridge, they remained fairly thin tasting. My store bought yogurt is always so creamy and thick?? Any suggestions?
Store bought yogurts (with the exception of extremely cheap brands) have the whey liquid pressed out of them to various degrees to thicken them. Atlernatively, they’ve had pectin added to them to thicken them. Either way, they will almost ALWAYS be thicker than freshly made yogurt at home. That said, homemade yogurt cultures (if correctly incubated) have higher levels of live culture, significantly higher levels of protein and calcium, and have less sugar in them than even the “plain” store bought brands.
If you wish to thicken your yogurt up to what you’re used to, you can easily do it. Get a good sized, clean dish towel. Pour your yogurt into it (only enough so that you can bring the towel edges together with a little room to spare) and gently press/squeeze. The clear whey liquid will bleed through. If you squeeze too hard, the yogurt will begin to bleed through as well. This is how I first pressed my yogurt to create greek style yogurt until somone suggested trying Muslin cloth from a fabric store. I far prefer usig the muslin, but if you’re not up for buy new equipment, the dish cloth works just fine. Hope this helps you out.
We make our own yogurt, and sometimes it doesn’t turn out very well. Two things I might offer you: 1) Make sure you stir it really well before letting it sit to “yog” (our family joke). My husband claims that’s necessary for good “yogging”. Stir it until you see it’s starting to form clumps of yogurt. After it has “yogged”, let it sit at room temperature for a day or two before putting in the fridge. Its taste sharpens. We like ours on the sour side, so we leave it at least two days or longer if the room temperature is too cool. If it seems too runny, put it in a colander with paper towel or cheese cloth under it and let some water drain out. Don’t loses heart, you’ll get more proficient at it!
Google: manuals.com You’ll get results that provide thousands of manual. I didn’t go through all the sites but hopefully you can find what you need at one of them. Good luck!
I’m glad I found this website for just general (there are some great things on here)! I found this page because I was trying to find out information on a vintage yogurt incubator I got at a thrift store. I grabbed it up once I saw it since I’ve wanted to make yogurt for a long time, but just haven’t got around to it.
If anyone has any information(and how it works exactly) I’d love to know – I’ve been searching online and haven’t found much. The handle/knob on the lid says “Wear-Ever” and on the bottom it’s stamped with “No.2713″. There is a paper label on the side “Electromatic, Thermo-cult, Yogurt Incubator, International Yogurt Company, Los Angeles, California, 400 Watts, 3.5 Amperes, 115 Volts AC”
The odd thing is that the paper label appears to be glued onto the side and it is over part of the measure marks. You can see the side is stamped with 2 Qts, then the label covers up the 4 Qts marker and the bottom part of the 6 Qts marker. It seems odd a company would purposely put the label there.
The inside is just a big empty pot with two screws on the bottom (not sure if the screws are sealed so no water gets into the electrical part). Would I put jars inside of this to incubate like the oven or ????
Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!
I bought Thermo-Cult incubator NEW quite a number of years ago and made wonderful yogurt for my family for many of those years. It works as a water bath for mason jars (Ball, canning jars, whatever the brand). If I recall correctly, the unit holds at least 3 quart jars and I preferred to use wide mouth quart jars for my yogurt. I mixed the starter into the milk. You would use whatever combination of starter and milk that you norally would for yogurt, put your lids and rings on the jars (you aren’t really sealing the jars, just keeping them nicely covered) and place the jars in the warm water of the Thermo-cult, you can use water up to the tops of the jars or over the tops. What makes this appliace special is that you can incubate such a generous quantity of milk/starter at a time and the warm water is held at just the right temperature for as long as you wish. I also recall that it worked fairly fast, so you would want to check for sourness after 4 or so hours – when it has the taste you like, pull the jars out and cool them in the refrigerator.
This is a boneheaded newbie question – how long can the yogurt sit while incubating? I use a cooler with two hot bottles and it has worked great twice now. Unfortunately I forgot to take it out before leaving for work this morning and only remembered it when I walked in and saw the still slightly warm cooler sitting there. The yogurt looks OK, smells OK but is it? Or am I being a dolt who doesn’t want to let go of my handiwork and risking a bout of food poisoning?
Monty — I did exactly what you did but set the yogurt to incubate at 6 pm and went to bed forgetting it on counter (wrapped in towels in softsided insulated Walmart bag)– got up at 6 am and freaked. Like yours, looks fine, smells fine. I googled “yogurt incubation 12 hrs” and this site came up. Check out Post #12 above from DonnaJo — she indicates she places her in a cooler with hot water-filled jars for 8-12 hrs — I think that which we made and “accidentally” left out 12 hrs will be fine. (If not, I’ll post an update
!)
Not a problem leaving it out overnight. If you had live and active cultures in your starter, and if it was at around 110 degrees for a few hours at first at least, then they would produce enough lactic acid to kill the bad bacteria. Many people let it sit out for 24 hours to convert all of the lactose into lactic acid and make it very tart and tangy. I prefer it very tangy.
I made this yogurt and I was really impressed with how good it tasted, compared to store bought. Now I have a really stupid question, my kids and hubby dont like the plain yogurt. So to add fruit like say canned peaches. Would i drain the peaches and puree till the consistance I want and add or is there some special way. I am as you can see really new to this.
Debra
My kids didnt care for the plain yogurt either, even with jam added(which we stirred into the yogurt after it was made) However, they love vanilla yogurt, and all I do is add two tablespoons of vanilla and 1/2 cup sugar to my milk, and heat as usual. I make two quarts at a time, and they all love it.
Thanks Kristina for the tip I will try it.
So, you add the sugar and vanilla before warming the milk (and later adding the starter)?
I added mine right in the beginning when I was heating the milk. My kids and I really like the yogurt this way. Thank you Kristina for giving me this tip.
Ok along the lines of flavoring… My kids are finicky about their yogurt, they love it as long as it tastes like the namebrand flavors. What do you think about adding koolaid and 1/2 cup sugar to the mix for those “strange” flavors they so desire?
Kim: about adding flavorings: I don’t usually add flavorings when I make the yogurt because I use some from that batch to make another. However, I often take some of the finished yogurt and add some vanilla and a little powdered tang (for orange creamsicle flavor) or powdered fruit punch mix and place in popsicle molds. My 13 year old loves it these frozen delights, and I confess, so does Hubby. Vikki
I made this today and was thrilled with the results – excellent! I incubated the jar on my waterbed for about 7 hours and it was perfect.
Hi Susanne!!!!
I am so grateful for your website. I have tried making homemade yogurt three times and they were ALL a disappointing failure. I tried your recipe today using powdered milk. There was something you explained that NO other website bothered explaining, that you have to cool the milk down to 115 degrees. IT WORKED. I just tried my yogurt now and it tastes great!!!! Thank you sooooo very much Susanne. This is GREAT!!!!!