As I was watching Grains in Small Places’ videos over the weekend and she had one about making yogurt. Because I’ve made yogurt for years and years and tried so many techniques before coming across the Instant Pot recipe, I almost passed over this video – Yogurt 2 Ways with a Bonus Cream Cheese recipe.
I do not know where I got this info but for all my cultured recipes, I’ve thought I should not use ultra pasteurized milk but that’s what this lady was using for the “cold start” method.
The recipe I’ve always used to make yogurt was to heat the milk (store bought pasteurized) to 161, hold it there for 15 – 20 seconds, then let it all cool down to room temp. I could put the milk container in an ice bath to cool it down faster but most of the time, I left it sitting to cool down on its own. Sometimes a skin would form on top of the milk and I’d have to skim that off. Yogurt takes approximately 8 – 10 hours to make AFTER the milk has cooled. What happened way too often is that I would forget about the milk and then it would be way late in the night before the yogurt was finished.
This lady made her yogurt in jars in quart jars, and that step alone makes this so much easier than pouring the milk directly into the Instant Pot. She pours milk directly from the carton into the jars, places the three jars into the IP container, adds water and hits the “yogurt” button.
That was so, so much easier than making yogurt the way I’ve always made it.
The half gallon of milk , along with the yogurt starter, didn’t quite fill three jars. I think the jars would have been too full if I had used two jars.
We had some of this yogurt this morning for breakfast, added a few blackberries and chia seeds. I did not strain this yogurt at all and, for whatever reason, it was as thick as the strained yogurt I’ve always made. We both decided it was the best yogurt I’ve made and I’ll say it’s the easiest!
I did use one of the jars to make her cream cheese. That is straining now so I’ll report back on that one later.
Jane says
I just discovered making yogurt in jars in my dehydrator as my instant pot is old with no yogurt button. Works great.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Great idea! I use the dehydrator to make sour cream. Wonder if I could make yogurt at the same time??
Jane says
The yogurt I made has to culture at 110 degrees for about 9 hours. I’ve never made sour cream but if it requires the same temp, it should work.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
The Instant Pot has all that figured out. I don’t do anything but hit the “yogurt” button. I can set it for 8, 8.5, 9 – however many hours I want it to culture. The longer it cultures, the more tart it gets.