Homemade yogurt is so good and fresh tasting! It is packed full of probiotics that improve your gut health and digestion. It is also so simple to make!
Okay, so yogurt making is an age-old tradition passed down from generation to generation. Old recipes like this one, have wired steps that people seem to just accept without question. As if these steps are written in stone, hard facts, unchangeable, the whole recipe will crumble to pieces if not followed to a tee. Such as heating up milk just to cool it down, “why?” I asked myself.
Because back in the day, they used whole unpasteurized milk straight from the cow. Raw milk has some bacteria in it and if you were to incubate your unpasteurized whole milk you might have bacteria growth. This is why you sterilize all of your equipment before incubation as well.
My grandma had a pork recipe that was passed down from her mom and she had taught it to her daughter. Her daughter asked “mom, why do we cut the roast in half?” Grandma was not sure how to answer, because she didn’t know. She only knows that this is the way they always did it.
Spurred on by her daughter’s unanswered question she called up her mom. Feeling a sense of deja vu she asked “mom, why do we cut the roast in half?”
“Because I only had a small pan, and that was how I got it to fit.”
Feeling silly for continuing to cut the roast in half when there was no longer a reason to do so because her pan was plenty big enough now. These are the silly things we do when recipes are passed down from generation to generation.
I have always stopped and asked myself why? Whenever I have to do anything really, but particularly if it seems counterintuitive. Like heating milk up just to cool it down or cutting a roast in half for no apparent reason.
Homemade Yogurt
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1-gallon milk
- 4 Tablespoons yogurt with live active cultures
That’s it, yogurt is incredibly simple. You can use any kind of milk you want. Whole milk or fat-free. Soy milk or almond milk. However, if you use raw unpasteurized milk you need to heat your milk to 160 degrees and then cool it down before you incubate your yogurt for fermentation. But otherwise, if you buy your milk from the store it’s probably pasteurized which means they have heated your milk to 160 degrees before you bought it.
Pour your gallon of milk in your instant pot, add your starter culture of 4 T of yogurt and stir together. Put your lid on and set your steam vent to be sealed. Turn to your yogurt settings and put how many hours you want your yogurt to cook.
The longer you cook your yogurt the thicker and tangier your yogurt will be. So you can play with this a little till you find your preferences. For me, I do 8 hours when using regular milk. For soy milk I found it to be too runny at 8 hours so I increased the time to ten hours of cooking time.
Once done I separate the whey from my yogurt to have a thicker yogurt. You don’t have to separate out your whey but I found it to be too runny and a little too tangy. I have a steamer pan that I like to use lined with cheesecloth you pour in the yogurt and let it separate out overnight or longer to your desired thickness. For me, if I used whole milk, I would leave it overnight to strain. However, for soy milk, if I want it nice and thick I will give it a day or two to strain.
Once it’s separated out, pour your whey into a half-gallon milk bottle and save it for later use. I love the whey in my smoothies. It gives a wonderful tanginess and a thicker body to smoothies that are so good. Plus it has probiotics and protein. Whey is what they make protein powder out of. However, they usually use the whey that is leftover from cheese making rather than yogurt because it is sweeter but it’s whey protein all the same.
You can also bake with your leftover whey. It’s great as a liquid substitute for baked goods. I use it in pancakes sometimes instead of milk. Whey water facilitates weight loss, strengthens muscles, as well as boosts digestion.
Sweeten your yogurt to taste with your sweetener of choice. I usually just add sugar and a splash of vanilla extract.
Put your yogurt in a container and store it in the fridge. I enjoy my yogurt with some fresh blackberries on top. But add whatever you enjoy. Homemade granola is really yummy too!
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DO CARDIO TO LOSE FAT and do weightlifting to gain muscle, right? New research from Australia suggests that we may be…link.medium.com
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