Anyone here do this? I’m going to give it a try in my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker, which says it can do it.
Any tips, tricks? What milk, yogurt (as a starter), sweetener or not, additions? Do you strain it to make Greek yogurt or yogurt cheese? Does it really taste better than store-bought?
Gimme the straight dope. Thx.
When I was in college, I had a Salton yogurt maker and I made my own all the time. I learned pretty quick just to make plain yogurt and add fruit later. I also learned that the longer you let it cook, the more tart and more firm it became.
I liked it better than store-bought - especially because I could add as much fruit as I liked. But it’s been at least 35 years since I’ve made any, so there’s not a lot more I can tell you. Except now I want to get another yogurt-maker.
This one got a great review on America’s Test Kitchen yesterday.
Got a yogurt make as a wedding gift. Used it once. I did not think the results were all that great, whereas going to the store is easy and the selection is huge. YMMV. Also got an ice cream maker, same scenario. It should be noted here that I am not a big fan of either yogurt or ice cream, or really anything dairy.
I have a Salton yogurt maker too. I don’t use it often, but when I do I buy starter culture from the health food store and usually use 2% milk. Whole milk is fine too - never tried skim.
You add the fruit after the yogurt is done. I usually use pie filling to add both sweetness and fruit at the same time.
When we bought a new oven, I was stoked to find out that it had a “dehydrate” setting, which is basically a low-temp holding pattern. Not that I was going to use it to dehydrate anything, but I can now hold yogurt at 115 degrees, which I was not able to do before. I’m making great yogurt like a pro now!
My only tips:
Voila, thick, nutty yogurt!
I keep it simple and eschew technology, and use one of these, and use a variety of starters from the same company.
I use local milk but I’m unsure of the fat content (I can’t read), and usually add some powdered milk to thicken it up a bit. Generally I avoid UHT but yesterday’s batch consisted of some UHT that was getting old, and it came out fine. I would never try using 100% UHT, though, and keep in mind, most “organic” milk is UHT.
After fermenting I usually whisk the whole batch together so that the whey doesn’t separate. If I do want to drain it for Greek-style yogurt, then I refrigerate it over night without whisking it. This makes the whey drain off much, much quicker.
I haven’t made any in a few years (I went off dairy for awhile) and I never owned a fancy-schmancy yogurt maker, so this what I did.
I used whole milk and the highest quality yogurt from the store, plain, of course. I followed instructions I found online and heated the milk to 185 and held it there a few minutes, then let it cool to 115. At 115, I inoculated it with some of the store-bought yogurt. Then poured it into one or two (depending on how much I was making) glass quart canning jars (use whatever size jars you want.) I used plastic lids, NOT metal (that’s important.). Then I put the sealed jar(s) into a little styrofoam cooler I had picked up at the dollar store and poured in hot water (about 120) around the jars up to the level of the milk inside the jars. Then covered the cooler with its lid and put the whole cooler inside a rubbermaid plastic tote that I had lined with towels to keep everything consistent temperature-wise. I fitted in extra towels around the little cooler so there was no empty space. One last towel over the whole shebang and then I put the lid on the plastic tote. Left it there 8 hours. I like really thick yogurt, so after the first 8 hours, I pulled it all out, poured out the water from the styrofoam cooler and added new hot water, up to the same level as before. Repacked everything and left it another 8 hours. I got consistently good, thick yogurt that wasn’t too tart and had less whey than I got from using other methods. I often ate it without any fruit or sweetener, it was so good.
Since this method only needs hot water after heating and inoculating the milk, you can do this camping or if your power goes out. As long as you can heat the milk and then heat water, you can make yogurt. It sounds like it’s a lot of trouble, but it really isn’t. Mostly it’s just sitting in the little cooler inside the rubbermaid tote doin’ its thing, no supervision needed.
The most important things about making yogurt are getting your temperatures right and making sure every utensil, pot, container, etc., is clean, clean, clean.
My grandmother used to make her own. The only equipment I saw was mason jars and kitchen towels.
Well, it’s done. Came out great with not much effort. My Instant Pot took care of the timing and temperature. Then I put it in a strainer for several hours to thicken. Had some a little while ago sweetened with a bit of lemon curd and topped with fresh blueberries. Yum! 
I used to make my own in a big wide mouthed soup thermos. I did it for years because it was easy, could be made to the consistency of choice (sometimes I made it for drinking in the morning) and in those days was better than all but the most expensive yogurts. For years I haven’t bothered because it is easy to find excellent yogurts at any corner store but with this reminder I may try it again. Morning drinking yogurt for Summer.
Some people seem to make it complicated.
You don’t need a yogurt maker or a fancy starter culture. You do need…
whole milk
thermometer
vacuum flask
some plain greek yogurt
Let three tablespoons of the yogurt get to room temp.
Heat a litre of whole milk to 85C
Let cool to 45C
Whisk in the room temp yogurt
put in the flask and keep in a warmish place for 12 hours or so
Empty into a bowl and give it a quick whisk to get it creamy, at this point you may wish to strain it through cheesecloth to get nice thick greek-style yogurt but that isn’t necessary
Stick in in a lidded container in the fridge and eat before it goes bad (I’ve had it last several weeks without problems) only sweeten when you are ready to use it.
We make yogurt every single day, so the process by necessity has to be super simple. So it is just warm milk (a tad warm to touch or 115) and starter ( we use the previous days or store bought kefir) And leave it overnight on the kitchen counter.
We usually just pour the warm milk into the unwashed container that held the previous day’s yogurt and the bits that are stuck to the walls are enough of a starter.