Making Homemade Yogurt

I recently acquired some lovely raw, natural (non-homogenized), whole milk from the farm and wanted to make a couple of fun things with it. The easiest thing to make is homemade yogurt which we used to do quite regularly a couple decades ago but something I haven't done in a long time. I had only made it with commercial milk so I wanted to see how it would turn out with this rich, nutritious milk.

All you need is milk and active cultures from store-bought yogurt and/or buttermilk. I used a combination of a couple tablespoons each of greek yogurt and buttermilk.

First, warm up a half-gallon of milk in a heavy pot on low heat. Keep heating it until it gets a shiny skin on top,

 

It will then start bubbling and finally the skin will balloon over the pot. Immediately turn off the heat or remove the pot when it gets to this stage.

 

Now, just let it rest and cool down and in the meantime make a mixture of a couple tablespoons of store-bought yogurt with active cultures and a couple tablespoons of cultured buttermilk (about 1/3 cup total).

 

The milk as it cools will have a layer of cream on the top that you can remove with a fork:

  

Next, check to see if the milk has reached near body temperature- I just stick my finger in it and see if it feels comfortably lukewarm. If it feels warm but comfortable, add the culture mix and stir into warm milk gently. You may leave it in the pot if you wish or pour it into desired containers:

Cover and place in a warm place: you can warm the oven very slightly and turn it off and place in there or you can place in oven with the light on. It may take anywhere from a few hours to overnight for the yogurt to set, depending on weather, temperature and amount of culture. You can just check by tilting off the top watery/creamy layer, if there is one, and seeing if the bottom is smooth and has a custardy consistency. If so, you can then chill it and it will solidify further. 

You can be done here and use the yogurt in recipes or eat it as you wish. Or you can turn this into a thick Greek-style yogurt:

To make a Greek yogurt, line a colander with about 4 layers of cheesecloth, with ends hanging off. Then, gently place the chilled yogurt from above into the cheese cloth and then tie it up into a ball- you may use kitchen twine, string or I have these fat bag clips that work great:

 

Then I thread an S-hook through the layers of cheesecloth and hang it from above- for me that is a pot rack but you may have to get creative. Place a bowl underneath to catch the dripping water and leave it there for several hours until no more water is dripping or leave overnight and take down first thing in the morning.

 

Finally, take down the yogurt ball and scrape the thickened yogurt into a container. Enjoy with some honey, or make a parfait with some homemade granola and fresh macerated berries (with a bit of sugar, splash of vanilla and grated lemon zest):

  

This yogurt was delicious, rich and creamy and not even a bit sour. This is whole milk yogurt so a little goes a long way- energy(calorie)-wise as well as nutrients. If you try this, even though you may not use raw milk, I recommend using the best quality natural milk such as one from Calder Dairy that should be readily available. And once you have homemade yogurt, you can save a little bit of it to use as culture for your next batch.

Now Readers, I am guessing that if you are going to take the time and effort to make this homemade yogurt, you will probably want some homemade granola to go with it. Which is on the post below!