How to Make Your Own Yogurt (any type of milk)

Wondering how to make your own yogurt? You can with just about any type of milk including cow, goat, rice and soy milk. It’s fun and easy and it’s an interesting process you can do with your kids. Yogurt is good not only for direct consuming, but can replace buttermilk in baking and is a wonderful cosmetic for hair and skin. Here’s how to make your own yogurt.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Gather your supplies and ingredients. You don’t need fancy equipment to make your own yogurt. You’ll need a quart of the milk you’ll be making your own yogurt with, a saucepan, a wooden spoon, sterile lidded jars or other containers to put your finished yogurt into, a cooking thermometer (although some people get by without one), and a place to keep the yogurt warm while it ferments. Choices include the top of a refrigerator, a hot water heater, or on a heating pad set on medium, and wrapped in a towel. You’ll also need either freeze-dried yogurt starter or just a few tablespoons of plain yogurt at room temperature.

2. Heat the milk you’ll use to make your own yogurt to almost boiling, and stir it constantly with the wooden spoon to make sure it doesn’t scald. It’s nice to have a thermometer when you make your own yogurt so you can heat it to close to the ideal 185 degrees.

3. Remove from heat and cool. 112 degrees is the ideal temperature. It should still feel warm to the touch. When you make your own yogurt many times, you develop a “feel” for 112 degrees. It might be easier to start with a thermometer.

4. Stir in three tablespoons of room temperature plain yogurt or a packet of starter. Once you make your own yogurt once, you can continue to use your own yogurt to start the next batch.

5. Cover and let ferment at 108 to 112 degrees. Start checking it after four hours to see if it’s tangy and firm enough for you. It may take up to eight hours to make your own yogurt from the milk you’ve chosen.

6. Gently stir the finished yogurt and pour it into the containers with lids and put into the refrigerator. You can use it after 12 hours in the refrigerator, and it should keep for a week.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want to make your own yogurt with a thicker consistency, add one fourth to one half cup of nonfat powdered milk at the same time you’re adding the starter.
• Author disclaims liability and offers article for educational purposes only. Parents are responsible for any activities involving their children. Author’s articles are registered with the national copyright office and protected with Copyscape

[Merriment]

on 8/5/2009 Very neat. This is the first time I've heard that you can make your own yogurt. I'll definitely have to give this a try!

[edieness]

on 8/5/2009 Informative article on How to Make Your Own Yogurt (any type of milk).

[sonni57]

on 8/4/2009 Good article on making yogurt I used to do this years ago.