Once upon a time, I was really intimidated about making yogurt. There were so many directions and I am not good at following directions – I’m a free spirit, okay?.

But when I met my friend Jenna years ago, who made yogurt literally every day, I decided to give it a try. She assured me that it really is easy and if I messed up, I could just use it in baking.

So I gave it a try and it actually worked! I made yogurt for my family for years.

Recently, I’ve begun making my own yogurt again for three reasons:

1. I’m tired of paying an average of $5.99 for one container of yogurt if it’s not on sale (I was getting Greek for the higher protein content, so if you need that, you can always strain it after - I’ll tell you how at the end.)
2. It is stupid easy.
3. My family and I have begun peasant maxxing in an effort to eat really well while saving money. Homemade yogurt tastes really good and it’s another great way to get protein at breakfast, or you know, whenever.

How to make yogurt

Before you get started, you’ll want to gather your supplies and sterilize the tools you’ll be using to make the yogurt. You don’t want to introduce any other bacteria that might mess up your yogurt, however, I admit that I haven’t done this once since I started making yogurt again and it’s been fine. So do what you want.

For the process you’ll need:

• Stainless steel pot (you can use glass, too)
• ​Thermometer (it doesn’t have to be digital – just make sure you can read it well)
• Measuring cups
• Cooking spoon for stirring
• 2 quart-size canning jars with lids
• 1/2 gallon of milk (use the best you can afford - I use whole milk to get a better fat/carb/protein balance)
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt with live cultures
• Incubator - more on that below

First, you’ll want to sterilize your tools. Fill your pot with water (enough to cover the two jars lying on their sides), then bring it to a boil. Put in the spoon, jars (on their sides) and clip the thermometer to the side of the pot so the probe side is in the water. Let them sit in their for 5 minutes, drain the water and let the sterilized equipment sit on a clean towel to dry off.

Now, pour your milk into the pot and put in the stove on medium high heat and heat it up to 180 degrees. That’s just before it starts to boil and it gets the thin skin forming on top. I put my thermometer in periodically to check.

Once it gets there, turn off the heat and move your pot to a cool part of the stove or countertop (don’t forget a hot pad if you don’t have stone counters). It’s going to cool to 110-115 degrees (this takes about 15-20 minutes for me because of my cold counter tops and it used to take longer, so don’t feel like you have to sit and stare at the thermometer until it cools down).

Once it’s cooled, measure out 1/4 cup of plain yogurt with active cultures into one of your jars. I either use a little from a previously made batch or just a store bought yogurt with live cultures.

Add a spoonful or two of the cooled milk to the starter and mix them together. (It’s important to wait until it’s cooled so you don’t kill the bacteria.)

Next, pour the milk/starter mixture into the pot and stir it all together. Then pour the milk into the two quart jars and put on your lids. I like to use a canning funnel to do this so I don’t spill it everywhere.

Now you need it to incubate. It needs to do this for about 8 hours in a place that is warm, where it won’t get moved. You can do this a couple of ways:

Put the jars in a small cooler (I use one like this that I got at a yard sale), fill it with up to the bottoms of the lids with hot tap water, lock the lid in place and let it sit somewhere warm and dark for 8 hours. Apparently I used to wrap it in a bath towel for extra insulation but I forgot about that and haven’t been doing it since I started making yogurt again. My yogurt turns out just fine.

Use a yogurt incubator (like this one). I prefer multi-purpose kitchen appliances, but this is worth the investment if you’ll be making yogurt regularly and have enough space to store it.

I have also heard that you can use an Instant Pot to do it but I have not tried it in mine.

There are other ways to incubate yogurt that you can read about here.

Once it’s incubated and set up, store the yogurt in the fridge and enjoy!

How to make Greek yogurt

If you want to make Greek yogurt, you’ll just need some cheesecloth and a fine mesh strainer.

Strain your freshly made yogurt through a cheesecloth-lined fine-mesh sieve into a bowl for two hours (or up to overnight, depending on how thick you like it). You can use the whey (liquid) you drain for smoothies or to use in baking.

*Right after I posted this my friend Leah read it and let me know that making it in the Instant Pot is hella easy. And she showed me this reusable yogurt strainer that is super easy to clean. Thanks, friend!

**On my latest batch of yogurt, I got completely distracted with a DMV form when it was almost to temperature and then my milk boiled over. I decided to make it anyway and the result was a much thicker yogurt. I looked it up and apparently, I denatured the proteins, which makes yogurt thicker with a more mild taste. The right way to do that, apparently, is to hold is at 190 degrees for 10 minutes. Or just get really distracted and let it boil over.

Do you make your own yogurt?

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