Several months ago, I started making my own yogurt at home and was surprised at how easy it is. It’s significantly cheaper than store-bought, and takes only a few minutes of actual “cooking.”

By request, I’m sharing my technique. It’s not really much of a “recipe” because there are only 2 ingredients and 3 steps. Rather, it’s just an explanation of the technique.

A Google search will turn up a jillion results for home yogurt making, all with more or less the same instructions; variations in different methods reveal that this isn’t rocket science. A passing understanding of the basics is all that matters. It’s pretty foolproof. Greek grannies have been making yogurt every day at home without any fancy equipment since cows were invented.

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WHAT YOU NEED

To make yogurt you only need 2 ingredients: milk (however much milk you start with will be how much yogurt you end up with) and a small amount of yogurt as starter. For your first batch, you’ll be using a small amount of plain “Live Active Cultures” yogurt from the store. Thereafter, you’ll just save a small amount of the last batch. Buy a decent high-quality yogurt for this starter. There are many hundreds of strains of yogurt cultures that exist, and all produce a slightly different taste and texture, so pick one you like. I like Greek yogurt. Once you really commit to yogurt-making, you can also go on line and buy little packets of dry “heirloom” yogurt cultures which expand your repertoire, and they may last longer (meaning they can be re-cultured over and over indefinitely.)

The only special tool you need is a thermometer, which you may already have. An instant-read type. The business end is a long metal spike that you put into the food, with a dial on the end that displays the temperature. For yogurt making, you need one that will read in a range that includes 100 to 200 degrees F.

I have this one http://www.cheesemaking.com/TelTruTwelveInchThermometer
But only because I make a gallon of yogurt at a time. If you will make less, you don’t need such a long one. Most grocery stores sell thermometers like this in a 5-inch length.

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FIND YOUR WARM SPOT

Here’s the only trick involved in yogurt making. This is where you’ll have to get creative:

Yogurt cultures (the bacteria that eat milk sugar, turning milk into yogurt) are alive. If they get too hot, they die. If it’s too cold, they go to sleep. The optimum temperature for them to do their job is 110-115 degrees F. And it takes them several hours to do their job. (Their job being reproducing at exponential rates.) So you have to figure out how to hold a pot of milk at that temperature.

Do a trial and error using a pot of water that you’ve heated on the stove to 110 (with the thermometer in it) until you figure out the best way for you to accomplish this.

Ideas: use the low setting on your crock pot. Set the pot on a heating pad. Wrap the warm pot in a towel and put it in an insulated cooler. My method: the pilot light of my gas oven keeps the inside of the oven at just the right temperature, if I crack the oven door a little. Greek grannies likely set their pot of warm milk next to the fireplace. You’ll need to find your warm spot.

Be moderately precise about this. Put your pot of test water in your proposed warm spot, leaving the thermometer in the pot for several hours (or overnight). When you come back to it, the thermometer must still be in the 110-115 range. If it’s too hot or too cold, you’ll have to adjust your method. Too cool, and the bacteria will not perform. Too hot by a little and the yogurt may be curdy (but still edible). Too hot by a lot, dead bacteria.

My guess is your best bet is your oven, with just the heat of the pilot light, or set to the lowest possible setting, and even then, you may need to crack the door like I do.

Once you’ve figured out how to reliably hold this bathwater temperature for several hours, you’re ready to make yogurt.
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HEAT THE MILK TO 180-185, HOLD FOR 15 MIN.

Rig up a double-boiler. Just put one pot or pan inside another, with water in the larger pot. This will prevent you from scalding the milk when you heat it. I suppose you could do it without the second pan, but you’ll have to be extra careful and heat the milk on an exceedingly low flame. With the jerry-rigged double boiler, the milk will need less baby-sitting. (I strongly suggest attempting to improvise a double boiler if you don’t have one.)

Pour milk into the pan. Any kind will do: whole, 2%, skim, doesn’t matter. The fat content will affect (to a small degree) the creaminess of the finished yogurt, but will also add calories, if you care. The probiotic quality is the same using any kind of milk.

Heat the milk to 180-185 degrees F. Just put your thermometer in the pan and heat it up to that temperature. Stir it a little if you want to feel involved.

Once it reaches that temperature (range) HOLD the milk at that temperature for 15 minutes. This may need a little baby-sitting. If you’ve been using the double-boiler, you can probably turn off the stove at 180 and the hot water under the milk will hold the temp within the appropriate range. If it slips below 180, just turn the flame on again for a minute or so. Conversely, if the thermometer starts to creep to the 185 mark, take the pot off the heat for a minute. Just supervise during this 15 minutes to maintain the temperature within a range of 180-185.

(The Greek granny would tell you to heat the milk until it foams. It will.)

Heating the milk to this temperature and holding it changes the protein in the milk and will make thicker yogurt. Otherwise, you’ll be making a more drinkable yogurt called kefir. Which is also good and has all the same probiotic benefits. It’s just thinner.
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COOL THE MILK TO 110-115

Once you’ve held your milk at 180-185 for 15 minutes, you have to now cool it down to 110-115 degrees (the target range for the bacteria to work.) You could just set the pot on the counter and watch the thermometer drop. Faster (and probably better) is to set the pan of hot milk in a sink of cold water, again watching the thermometer drop to your target.

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CULTURE THE MILK

Once the pot of milk is at 110-115 F, stir in your starter yogurt. For a gallon of milk, I use, oh, half a cup of starter yogurt. You can’t use too much. If you’re making less, say a quart of yogurt, you’ll use a few tablespoonsful. Stir or whisk the yogurt into the warm milk to distribute it thoroughly.

Put the cultured warm milk in your warm spot and leave it alone for a minimum of 4-6 hours. I usually do these steps in the evening and leave it overnight. You can’t over culture it. The longer it cultures, the more good bacteria you’re making (and the tangier the yogurt will taste.)

When you return to the pot after several hours or overnight (and the thermometer you left in it still reads 110-115) you’ll find a pot of yogurt. It will be creamy and slightly gelatinous, will easily lift from the sides of the pot if you jiggle it, and will probably have a small amount of clear to straw-colored liquid (called whey) on top. Just stir that in.

It’s delicious warm right now. Or decant it into smaller containers and put in the fridge. It will keep for at least a week or two. I use mason jars.

For the dogs, feed it plain. For yours, top with honey, nuts, marmalade, oats, fresh berries, or what-you-will.

Be sure to reserve a small amount of each batch to use as the starter for the next pot of homemade yogurt.

Nice post!

I use a heating pad to keep the milk at temp. Just another idea.

You can make kefir like that too and probably kombucha as well. I may try this since its so hard to fine whole milk plain yogurt. Hell, I'll add cream to that.

 Quote: David Winners

Nice post!

Nice post indeed!

I'm finally inspired! Only one thing to buy, instead of several, and nothing to take up what little counter-space I have. (I have a gas stove with a pilot, too. )

I want it for a version of muesli (for me) and plain (for the dogs).

For my part, I love that it's warm, because the oats can be stirred in right then, with maple syrup or honey or even brown coconut-sugar (which would dissolve much better in a warm medium like
that) ... THEN refrigerate it.

This is better than any of the blogs I've seen. I already put "thermometer" on my grocery list!

Re-reading my original, this part could be confusing:

"Ideas: use the low setting on your crock pot. Set the pot on a heating pad. Wrap the warm pot in a towel and put it in an insulated cooler."

These are three different suggestions for holding the heat in the pot of warm milk. They way I wrote it sounds like some complicated technique of wrapping up a crock pot in a heating pad or something. Any one of these would likely work--or try the oven. With just a little experimenting, you should be able to find a simple way to accomplish the goal if holding temp at 110-115 with what you've got at home.

Thank you for clarifying. (I did get it that I'm gonna use my pilot in the oven, if it tests OK, but the other ideas are good for those who have an electric stove.)

So, Tracy, not too far off topic (although this is about my part ... the dogs want theirs plain) .... you mentioned oats too. Do you stir them in mainly when it's warm, or have you also tried stirring them into the refrigerated product and letting that sit to soften the oats?

I've never added flavorings or anything while it's still warm, but you certainly could. Around here, dogs get most of it, so I just keep it all plain.

Honey and vanilla are my favorite flavors to stir in. Or just a sprinkle of plain Quaker quick oats and some raisins.

On my recent trip to Greece, they served orange marmalade with breakfast yogurt, which was also very good.

Sounds excellent!

Thanks for posting this! I've been inspired to start making yogurt again

Great info! Thank you! With the amount of yogurt my dog and I go through this will save some money for sure.