Ingredients

  • 1 gallon of raw milk (skim or whole)
  • 1/2 cup of yogurt (must contain live cultures)

Directions

  1. Heat the milk over medium heat in a stainless steel pot until it reaches 180°
  2. Remove from heat, ice bath, and cool until it reaches 120°
  3. Whisk in the yogurt well
  4. Immediately pour into sterilized half-gallon mason jars and cover
  5. Turn the oven to breadproofing and place jars in there for 6 hours

    If your oven doesn't have a bread-proofing mode, you can use an instant pot with a yogurt setting (medium) or another incubation process in which the yogurt stays at around 100° for 6 hours.
  6. Remove from oven and ice bath to bring temperature down (save on your refrigerator warming up too much).
  7. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
  8. Before straining or flavoring, set 1 cup of yogurt aside for your yogurt starter for next time.
  9. If you like it drinkable and thin, then enjoy! If you like it thick, go to step 10.
  10. Strain it using cheesecloth, butter muslin, or a yogurt bag. Start with 15 minutes in cheesecloth or 30 minutes in butter muslin. Strain as long as necessary to reach the desired consistency.
  11. After you strain your yogurt, serve it plain or add some flavor.

Tips for Adding Flavor

For 1 gallon of milk, I use 1 tbsp vanilla extract, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/8 cup of honey.

To flavor it further, I like to add frozen fruit, lemon juice, granola, trail mix, or other yummy ingredients.

One of my favorites is strawberries and lemon juice. I also like to put my yogurt in the freezer for about 20 minutes before I enjoy it.

Products I Use