Big batch o' yogurt-- a foolproof method for homemade yogurt

I make an enormous fruit and yogurt smoothie every morning for breakfast, and Cheryl likes to have yogurt with fruit or granola. We go through about 4 gallons of yogurt every 3 weeks, so we make mass quantities in each batch.  I found that if I'm making 4 gallons at a time, I needed a bulletproof process for making homemade yogurt. I've found that the most important factor for homemade yogurt is the culturing temperature, which I've gradually found to be optimal at 90 to 95 degrees.

You can make your batch as large as you need to, depending on how much yogurt you go through in 2-3 weeks. If you follow these steps, it will come out perfect every time, and last at least 3 weeks. This recipe provides ready-to-eat yogurt in about 24 hours. It allows you to cook the milk up after dinner, the yogurt does its magic while you're sleeping, you pop the yogurt in the fridge while at work, and you've got cool and creamy yogurt ready by evening or the next morning.

I culture from the Trader Joe's Organic Nonfat Yogurt, in the blue quart-size containers. There's a picture in the "Equipment" video below. Cheryl swears that this is a private labeling of Strauss yogurt, which Trader Joe's used to carry before switching to exclusively their private label.

I think that Strauss makes the best commercial yogurt around, though one can get it only in the San Francisco Bay Area, I think. If you're in other parts of the country, I'd recommend culturing with a yogurt that first of all tastes good, and secondly has as few additives as possibles, like pectin. I've never cultured with a yogurt that has anything besides milk and the yogurt cultures (Lactobacillus acidophilus), so I'd be curious to see what happens with that. I'm guessing after a batch or two, you'll have a nice clean culture that you can keep working with. 

I don't know of an ideal national brand to culture from. Nancy's Yogurt has nationwide distribution, as best I can tell, but its horribly sour, so I wouldn't use that, even though it has no additives.

Equipment

Heating

Cooling

Culturing

Final Mix

Extra Notes:

Most instructions will tell you to keep the yogurt at 105-115 when the milk is culturing. 95 degrees works much better- the yogurt comes out creamier and smoother, instead of lumpy and looking at times like cottage cheese. Some people don't heat their milk to as high as 180-- you can try that, but you'll likely get a bad batch every so often. I made a batch by heating the milk to only 100 degrees or so, and had to dump the entire batch.

You can order Cambro clear polycarbonate containers online or get them at a restaurant supply store.

Comments

[Amy Heredia]

Hi Mike and Cheryl, Thanks so much for posting this! Can you comment on whether or not this will work w/o the "starter" yogurt? Ie, should you use a little store bought yogurt to start your first batch? Can't wait to try this!

Amy

[Mike Shwe]

Amy,

Yes, you do need some starter yogurt to kick off the culturing process. I posted some notes in the blog just now, to talk about that more.

TJ's organic or Strauss is the way to go. Let us know how your yogurt adventure unfolds.

-mike

[Amy Heredia]

Hi Mike,

I tried my second batch of yogurt and it came out much runnier and lumpier than my first. Any ideas on what to watch for next time?

Thanks! Amy

[Mike Shwe]

Amy,

My first guess is that your milk was warmer this time than last time, when you cultured it with the yogurt. Or your water bath was too warm. Or was your oven already warm when you put the water bath in there? I used to get runny lumpy yogurt sometimes before I switched to culturing at 95 degree milk and a 95 degree water bath. I also now work with sterilized containers and a yogurt starter that hasnt been touched since it was made, to avoid culturing unknown creatures.

For your next batch, I would also start out with some store-bought Strauss or TJs house brand, in case youve got some bad culture going.

Let us know how the next batch turns out.

[Amy Heredia]

Hi Mike,

Third time was a charm! Followed all of your instructions and the yogurt turned out perfect. Cheryl suggested your smoothies for breakfast and they are a big hit with the entire family. Thanks for the help.

Amy

[Mike Shwe]

Sweet! You should be able to keep your culture going for many batches. Every few months, Ill buy some Strauss or TJs just to get back on track. Ill do a spot on smoothies soon, now that I splurged and bought a new blender for $60.

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