Raw Milk Yogurt
HERE’S HOW IT WILL GO
You’ll take your skimmed milk and heat it up to 180F degrees
Then you’ll cool it to 110F degrees
Add your thermophilic culture and whisk into milk
Put the mixture in a place that can be 110F degrees for 8 to 9 hours
The final product will be your yogurt
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
6 cups of skimmed milk
Ice water
½ cup cultured plain yogurt
4 qt stainless steel pot (heavy bottom is best)
A whisk
A butter knife
Towel to pick up dripples
Funnel
Dairy Thermometer (or anything that will accurately read from 70F - 212F degrees)
(6) 1 cup jars with a lid
Permanent marker
½ cup measuring cup
A way to incubate your yogurt (instant pot, light on in an oven, even a cooler with a heating pad. It just needs to keep the temperature at 110F degrees consistently for 8 to 9 hours)
HOW TO MAKE YOGURT
Pour 6 cups of skimmed raw milk into the 4qt stainless steel pot
Place on the stove and bring the temperature to 180 degrees over med/high heat
Remove from heat and place pot into the ice water
Bring the milk to 110F degrees
Remove from Ice water
Add a ½ cup of Active Culture Plain Yogurt to the milk and whisk in
Place a lit on the pot and place in your yogurt incubator for 8 hours
Using a butter knife check and see if the curd that has formed easily breaks
If it’s still not ready leave in the incubator and check every hour until it’s has a firm break
Now you can pour off the whey (You can keep this and use it for other things later)
The curd that’s left will be your yogurt.
Whisk it up till it’s nice and smooth
Spoon into the 1 cup glass jars and seal with a lid
Label with “Yogurt” and the date before you place into the fridge
You’re Yogurt should last 2 weeks in the fridge
WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE YOGURT
-It’s a thermophilic culture and you can use it to start making cheese. (Thermophilic cultures require heat around 110 F degrees to activate. Unlike mesophilic cultures like buttermilk that will activate at room temps. This makes yogurt a great homesteading and practical way to start hard cheeses.)
-Yogurt is also a great way to start cream cheese. YUM
-When you eat yogurt you are giving your body an amazing amount of prebiotics and probiotics which help regulate your gut
-Yogurts are a great meal in themselves. You can add some jelly or honey to it and by the time you’re done eating a cup of it you’re satisfied and full
-Use it to thicken up a smoothie
Add some ice, orange juice, some yogurt, and honey to make a awesome summer thist quencher.
-It can extend the life of your Raw Milk. (If you have some extra raw milk that is starting to sour in the back of the fridge you can always start a batch of yogurt and get another 2 weeks out of your milk!)
-You can use some of the newly made yogurt to start your next batch.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF YOGURT
Just like most of history it’s really hard to tell where anything really starts. With milk though, humans most likely were making yogurt within a short time after they started milking animals.
Yogurt is really just fermented milk with a specific type of bacteria (cultures) add to create a creamy thicken milk.
Most likely someone placed some milk in the dried stomach of a young sheep (they would dry and seal the stomach of animals in order to carry water in it)
When the milk was introduced to the bacteria in the stomach bag it began to curdle. After the guy walked around in 100F degree weather all day he probably sat down to drink their milk and found a semi firm liquid food.
Upon trying it he realized that it tasted good and there ya go. You got Yogurt
Jump forward 10,000 years and you have the company Dannon become the 1st to mass produce yogurt in 1960’s and now yogurt contains more sugar in it than ice cream.
You can still make yogurt like our ancestors did with just using raw milk and culture but it won’t always be consistent and could taste “off”. That is why we pasteurize the milk before we add in the culture. When it becomes yogurt it will have a slight tangy taste and a smooth texture.
WHAT ARE THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF YOGURT
It contains probiotics. These help you keep your immune system healthy
It contains prebiotics. This is a type of fiber that our stomach will “eat” while the probiotics make their way to the small intestine where they are of much more use to our bodies.
There is 5 grams of protein in every cup of yogurt
NOTES ABOUT MAKING YOGURT
Use very clean utensils with making any culture
Make sure to use pasteurized milk for this if the milk is old. If your milk is less than 3 days old and you’ve got it from Tide Creek Farms you can just warm your milk up to 100F degree and add in the culture.
This is because once milk sits for a couple of days it starts to naturally ferment. The bacteria count goes up. If you introduce a culture to the raw milk it will have to fight to gain dominance in the milk. This causes an off flavor. To get a more consistent yogurt it’s best to bring it to 180F degrees to kill off any cultures that would compete against your yogurt culture.
If you store your yogurt in smaller containers it will stay fresher longer, and they’re easy to grab and go for a healthy snack on the road
Store your yogurt for up to 2 weeks.
You can turn your thin yogurt into thick Greek yogurt by simply hanging it in a thin cheese cloth or flour towel for a couple hours. This will allow the whey to strain out and your yogurt will become thicker.
WHAT’S THE BEST DISH TO USE YOGURT WITH?
Honey Greek Yogurt with Granola and strawberries
These are perfect to make for work. Just drop some strawberries (or any sweet fruit) on top of the yogurt in the cups. Drizzle some honey over them. Cover and place back in the fridge
Grab a small bag of granola
When you’re ready to eat just mix the honey and strawberries in the yogurt. Then add a spoonful of granola and mix.
Thank you for learning about yogurt
Feel free to let me know about your experience with yogurt.
I would also love to hear about your results and what you are doing with your yogurt.
