To make yogurt at home, follow these basic steps:
- Heat the milk : Pour your milk (whole milk is preferred for creaminess) into a heavy-bottom pot and heat it to about 180–210°F (82–99°C). This step kills unwanted bacteria and changes the protein structure to help thicken the yogurt
- Cool the milk : Let the milk cool down to about 110–115°F (43–46°C), which is the ideal temperature for the yogurt cultures to grow. You can test this by dipping your pinkie in the milk and counting to ten comfortably
- Add the starter culture : Mix a few tablespoons of plain yogurt with live active cultures (or a yogurt starter) into a cup of the warm milk, then stir this mixture back into the pot of milk. This introduces the beneficial bacteria needed for fermentation
- Incubate : Cover the pot and keep it at a warm, stable temperature (around 110°F) for 7 to 9 hours or overnight. This allows the bacteria to ferment the milk and turn it into yogurt. The longer it incubates, the thicker and tangier the yogurt becomes
- Chill and set : After incubation, refrigerate the yogurt for a few hours to cool and further thicken before eating
Alternatively, you can use an Instant Pot to simplify the process by using its yogurt function to maintain the incubation temperature
. In summary, homemade yogurt requires just two ingredients-milk and a yogurt starter-and involves heating, cooling, inoculating with bacteria, incubating, and chilling
