Easy & Delicious Small Batch Slow Cooker Yogurt

If you’re a part of the homesteading community in person or online you may have heard that making your own yogurt is super easy.

I am here to tell you, as a complete beginner, that it’s true!  While I’m writing this post I am eating a bowl of my second ever batch of homemade yogurt.

Despite eating about a quart of Greek yogurt every two weeks for the past four years, it has taken me over a year to attempt the process myself. 

The reasons I avoided making homemade yogurt were:

• I thought it required special equipment
• I thought you had to make a giant batch
• I was afraid of making something that would make me sick

The reasons I took the plunge into making yogurt:

• I found out that I could make it in a slow cooker
• I learned how a starter culture of beneficial yeast/bacteria take over a growing medium
• The price of food has increased and whole milk is significantly cheaper than yogurt right now

My first try at making yogurt was successful, but not everything I dreamed of. First and foremost, I did not like how thin it was. I tried to strain it to make Greek yogurt but my yogurt just ran right through the sieve. Second, I did not like that all of the recipes I found made a whole half-gallon of it. I eat a lot of yogurt, but I don’t eat yogurt fast enough to go through a whole half-gallon quickly and my homemade yogurt started getting really thin in the fridge.

The second batch of yogurt I made was much better! Instead of a half-gallon of milk, I only used a quart of milk. This made a much more usable amount of yogurt that fit in my normal store-bought yogurt container.  To thicken up the yogurt I did three things: 1. I added more starter yogurt per milk. 2. I incubated the yogurt culture at a higher temperature. 3. My yogurt was already thicker, but I strained it through a bandanna to make it even thicker.

Some safety things to keep in mind while experimenting with yogurt in your kitchen are:

• Temperature! The milk needs to reach between 185-220 degrees Fahrenheit to get rid of any bad bacteria and then the culture needs to incubate around 110 degrees Fahrenheit to make sure that the proper types of good bacteria are the only bacteria that grow.
• Sterilization! Make sure that your final yogurt container and the tools you are using are clean and sterilized to prevent bad bacteria from contaminating your culture.
• Smell & taste test! If it doesn’t smell or taste like fresh yogurt you buy from the store, don’t eat it. Plain and simple your health is most important.
• Look! If you see mold, or it just doesn’t look right throw it out.

If you decide to try your own batch of homemade yogurt I hope you enjoy the process and product as much as I have! Just remember not to eat it all, because you will need 1/2 a cup to start your next batch.

Additional Resources for those who are interested:

• Washington State University Extension – Yogurt Made Simple
• University of Alaska Fairbanks – Making Yogurt at Home