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| This isn't my yogurt, but mine looks similar! |
It's not. It does require a few moments of your time. Wait! Where are you going? Don't close the browser. It's easy. I promise. In fact, it is more of a "method" than a recipe. And you can customize it until you get yogurt so good and so in step with your preferences that you will walk past that mile-long yogurt aisle at the grocer (that gets bigger by the day because everyone is obsessed with GUT HEALTH OMG).
Which leads me to this little side-thought: How can a country that gets more obsessed by the day with probiotics be so afraid of making their own yogurt? My MIL even said "isn't that how you get listeria?" The answer is: no. More on "hygiene" of this later. Of course, my mom is cool with homemade yogurt but freaked out when I ate cold pizza, so maybe everyone has their own line in the sand.
Here are the simple steps to starting your yogurt making JOURNEY:
1. Purchase some good, fresh, organic milk. Preferably whole-fat, but any fat level (or none) will work. You can even use non-dairy milk, but I've never tried it. The amount depends on how much yogurt you will make. If you want to "experiment" first, use just a quart to start.
1a. Obtain a yogurt starter. Get a yogurt that you like the taste of (the taste is the bacteria) (OOOO YUMMM). If you like a bloppy one, get a bloppy yogurt, and if you like a really acidic tangy one, get a really acidic tangy yogurt. My current starter was given birth by a Fage full fat Greek yogurt. My prior one was from my friend, but I contaminated it (more on that later). You don't need to purchase fancy "yogurt starters" online unless you want to be that fancy. But it's not worth the money in my opinion. The amount should be about 2 tablespoons to every quart, but it doesn't seem to matter much how exact you are here.
2. Get a container that you will use as your "yogurt container" and incubator. Mine is a plastic tub given to me from my friend who gave me some of his homemade yogurt to try, hence starting my foray into this. You can use glass, too. I don't see why you can't use ceramic. Just probably don't use metal. Make sure it is SPOTLESSLY CLEAN (as Julia Child would say).
3. Get a nice thick-bottom (no judging!) pot/pan. This is what you will use to heat your milk. Your milk will probably scorch to the bottom of a thinner pan. This happens to me every week. I'm saving up for a Le Creuset cast iron pan, but we all have our troubles.
4. Get a reliable, quick-read thermometer. Preferably the best digital one you can find, preferably with a long probe so you don't slowly cook your poor little fingers as you read the temperature of the milk as you scald it. I recommend a Thermapen MK4, of course I'm classy like that. Any good decent one with good reviews online will do.
5. Get a clean dishtowel and set aside. This will be important later.
6. Google "homemade yogurt" and the top searches of the day will come up. You can see that there are many methods to doing this. I read a few and did what worked for me. The two key parts are: scald milk, incubate at a constant temperature. The rest is up to you.
7. To begin, pour your quart of milk into the pan and heat slowly and steadily to 185*F. I've seen it as high as 200*F and that's fine too. You probably don't want to go higher than that, and probably don't boil it unless you want to make something closer to cheese, which is fine, but not yogurt. Read more and dork out about milk proteins or just trust me on this.
8. It'll take around 20 min. Monitor the heat. Every so often, dip your thermometer in to read... Be patient and it will hit 185*F. Remove from heat.
9. Now, cool down to 100*F to 115*F. It needs to be cool enough to not kill the yogurt you're about to add. You want the good bacteria to go to town on the now-"clean" milk (the scalding killed any rogue buddies in there). The best way to get this cool fast is to take the hot pot (with lid on) and submerge it in ice water, and stir it around. A cold tile/granite countertop works well, too. So does having it watch a Wes Anderson or Lena Dunham movie (just kidding).
10. Once your handy dandy thermometer reads in the "lukewarm but not hot" range mentioned in Step 9, mix a little of the warm milk in with your yogurt starter (you can have this in a clean bowl waiting). Then mix that slurry into the warm milk in the pot. Mix around.
11. Get your CLEAN yogurt tub or container (etc.) and quickly pour the warm inoculated yogurt into the container. Quickly wrap the container in your clean dishtowel and put somewhere that will have a constant temperature of about 110*F so the yogurt bacteria can do their thing and transform your milk into yogurt!
12. The best thing for a warm place is probably your oven with the light on (but oven off!). However, sadly, my oven light is out even though we have a new oven. So, I did something I haven't found online but it really worked: I put the yogurt in my microwave and rigged a little paper towel into the door so the door remained closed but light remained on (like a really low grade Easy Bake oven!). This worked splendidly. I've done it a few times now. Another option is to google other people's ideas--this includes putting it in a cooler, for a similar effect.
13. Now, just let it sit undisturbed for anywhere from 4 to 12 hours. I've done it overnight a few times and it worked to get a good texture. I sat it last time for only 5 hours and it had a mild, almost "crema" tang to it, which was lovely. You want a nice custard texture. You might want it runnier than I do, in which case you can have it slightly cooler (on the 100*F end) or stir it when it's DONE inoculating.
14. Chill the "cultured" yogurt (by now, it will be talking about kale and bragging about some new art gallery opening in SOMA) for at least 2 hours before eating (not sure why this is a thing but it works for the texture to set more).
15. Eat and enjoy! I like mine with some fruit and no sweetener. You might like it with jam; maybe add some peanut butter too! Yum.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
Google "homemade yogurt troubleshooting" to find out what could possibly go wrong and how to fix it. I found making yogurt very easy but I did run into a slightly rare problem:
My first two tries had my yogurt taste and feel like SNOT.
Gross, right? I never said I was perfect.
I didn't die but I didn't eat more than a serving of each batch.
The whey looked like runny snot, and if you scooped it up, it had a "string", and it was just not a good mouthfeel.
Don't let this discourage you from making yogurt!
Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, throw out that old yogurt, and start all over again!
You see, this problem was due to me feeding my sourdough starter at the same time I was culturing the yogurt in our kitchen. Or I had just baked it, or both. The little yeasties floated in with the yogurt and contaminated the batch. So sad. But if you're a DIY person, you probably have this or some beer or kimchi floating around. Just remember to keep them far away from each other, and keep the yogurt covered, especially in the cooling-off phase when you are tempted to keep it open to speed the cooling. Keep all your utensils and tools and containers really clean. Don't use an old sponge to clean them. Use the dishwasher or scrub with a paper towel or very clean sponge. That's my warning to you.
Otherwise, it's stupid-easy and a great way to feel like you made something from scratch, you're healthy, and you're super folksy too!
Remember, like sourdough, there are a few methods and things to remember, but people did this who couldn't read and had ten babies clinging to their skirt, with no running water or refrigeration. If they could do this (as humans have for eons), you can, too! :-)
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