Yogurt

One of the items in our last post, 2021 by the [Food] numbers, was how much milk we consumed last year. At almost 30 gallons a person it seems like a lot (although it’s below the national average), but honestly- very little milk is consumed by the glass. In addition to our homemade ice cream, we also make a gallon of yogurt about every 10 days. These days we use the Instant Pot. Here’s how we do it:

Tools needed for this recipe:
Instant Pot
Kitchen thermometer

Ingredients:
1 Gallon of whole milk
4TBSP yogurt* at room temperature

1. Pour the milk into the Instant Pot. Set on the yogurt setting “BOIL” (no pressure).
2. Once done, remove the lid and let cool until milk temperature is between 105ºF – 115ºF.
3. Add warm milk 1/2 cup at a time to your yogurt starter, stirring between additions until you have about 4 cups of milk mixed in. Add this mixture back into the remaining warm milk in the Instant Pot, and stir/whisk.
4. Replace the lid on the Instant Pot and set on Yogurt setting “24:00” (no pressure). Let sit for 24 hours.
5. Remove lid, stir, and transfer to jars (we use 1/2 gallon mason jars).

*Yogurt: For your first batch of homemade yogurt you’ll need to purchase yogurt starter OR a container of unsweetened plain whole milk yogurt. For subsequent batches you can use the yogurt from the last batch as long as the cultures are still alive/active.