Easy Yogurt

Can you please explain that tip about coating the pan with water first? I thought that adding milk to water would automatically make them mix.

Be advised that using store-bought yogurt for your starter (even organic yogurt) will produce good results for a few generations, but will often start failing after the third or fourth batch, resulting in yogurt that is still partially (or mostly) milk. If you want to make yogurt that can be used over and over again as your starter, you should use an heirloom starter. These are widely available for purchase (thank you, internet) . . . or even better, find a friend who wants to share!

I picked up a good tip from the book Classical Turkish Cooking by Ayla Algar. After you’ve heated up the milk, keep it heated to 190 degrees F. for around 10 minutes for a thicker result. Then let it cool.

By heating the milk, you are pasteurizing it. If you use ultra pasteurized milk you can skip the heating part and go right to the fermentation process. This is commonly referred to as a "cold start"

Much simpler recipe: microwave the milk in a glass/ceramic container. Cool it until it is luke warm (you should be able dip your finger in it and keep it for 10 seconds barely). Add yoghurt culture to the container. Keep it in the oven with light on overnight. if it is not setting properly, put a dry red chilli in it -- it does the trick.

Does the oven need a pilot light? My oven doesn't have one. Could my yogurt rest on top the clothes drier when I'm doing laundry?

I heat my milk to 180ish then cool to 110. I use a gallon of organic milk and whisk in about 1T culture. Cover it & pop it into my gas oven. My light doesn't work but seems warm enough with just the pilot. I try to time it so that it incubates overnight. In the morning I immediately put it in the fridge to cool. I also strain it for thicker, greek-style yogurt and the excess whey is great in mashed potatoes and other things where a buttermilk-like tang is desired.

Responding to the comment about starter failure — I used to encounter starter failure after I began to make yogurt, but I found that using a store bought Icelandic skyr-type as starter avoided this problem. I prefer Siggi's due to the high content of live bacteria and protein. While this was my experience, I hope this works for anyone encountering this problem!

I differ with Steve. You can make yogurt from canned milk, powdered milk, and UHT pasteurized milk. People all over the world make yogurt, and they don't all have access to organic milk.Granted, using organic milk that has not been pasteurized with high heat is preferable, but UHT milk will make good yogurt, in fact many people skip the heating with UHT milk because that process has already changed the proteins.

I’ve been making homemade yogurt for nearly my entire adult life, and before that with my mother in my childhood kitchen. Using a starter from a previous batch absolutely does work and will provide more customisable results (once one has mastered temperature and setting times) If your prior starter isn’t working it’s an indicator that the live culture in your old starter are dying due to mishandling, or the new milk is too hot or contains preservatives, or the setting temperature is off.

I have been using organic non-fat milk for the last year, making 6 C of yogurt at a time using my starter. I leave the jar in the oven for 11-12 hours. Lately I use an Instant Pot as my incubator. I place my jar of heated milk and yogurt starter inside the Instant Pot, cover, hit the yogurt setting and set time to 10 hours, works great! Whole milk will always taste richer but for those of us who don’t eat full fat dairy, non-fat is a viable and delicious alternative.

Farenheit. Water boils at 100° C, so it can't possibly be Celsius

Is it 130 Farenheit or Celsius? Getting a bit over the disregard for subscribers who live in countries outside mainland USA in your measurements NY Times Cooking! Surely it doesn't take much to show a conversion of measurements/temperatures.

You can use a lid and layers of blanket to cover the yogurt mixture. Blankets work as insulation and keep the mixture in right temperature. We usually keep it overnight on kitchen counter and transfer it to the fridge in the morning.

I’ve been using the last few spoonsful to make the next batch for years. It works fine. And cheaper than buying packets each time.