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Making Yogurt at Home
February 14, 2007 | 39 Comments
Desis know the drill. Before you board the plane in India, make sure you have a small bottle of homemade yogurt tucked in your suitcase. When you land, one of the first things you buy from the supermarket is some milk, then add the yogurt sample as a starter, set it. Eat it with some hot mango pickle and rice, and you have the formula to alleviate some of the homesickness.
If you didn’t bring the yogurt culture with you, you start the relentless search for a desi from whom you can beg, borrow or steal the precious culture. Storebought yogurt makes a lousy starter. The additives and thickening agents in it yield stringy, slimy yogurt, not the dahi we love and crave.
We struggled for three years to make yogurt at home with storebought Russian yogurt – y’all know the brand, the one that rhymes with “shovel” – with poor results. Then we found a desi who commiserated, and lent us a teeny bit of homemade yogurt culture. All was well with the world, until … we used up all our homemade yogurt before going on vacation, and forgot to save some of the culture. Then we moved to a new city. Back to square one … trawling for a desi to procure some yogurt culture.
India is the largest producer of milk and dairy products, and dahi or Indian yogurt is an integral part of most meals. Indians regard it as a staple, not as a niche health food. We need our dahi and there’s nothing like homemade. Greek yogurt comes closest in taste and texture.
Then, comes a package in the mail from our buddy Cindy in upstate New York. She’s a gourmet cook, artist and ace gardener. Along with a bunch of seed catalogs and gifts, is a packet of yogurt culture.
It makes perfect yogurt, the way we know and like it. We’re happy campers again, and from time to time when we enjoy our yogurt, Cindy, we think of you.
Indira, here, has documented how you make dahi with already existing culture. This is a foolproof method for getting thick yogurt with full fat milk.
We use 1% organic milk, and our methods differ slightly. This is how we do it.
The first time:
Take 32 oz. of milk – we use a store bought yogurt container. If you have an unglazed earthernware container, even better. That’s what people often use in India. We put milk in the store bought yogurt container at a little above the ¾ mark, keep it in the microwave on high for exactly 6.5 minutes. Or boil it on the stovetop. The target temperature is 180F. Then let it cool to lukewarm – just slightly warmer than your hand, not hot. If you have a food thermometer, check to see if it’s between 105 and 115 F. That’s about right.
Take one sachet of Yogourmet (Sometimes we get 5g sachets, sometimes they are 10g. If your packet has 10g sachets, half a sachet will do), dissolve it in 2 tbsp. of the warm milk, and add it to the container. Stir it well.
A common method used in colder climates is to keep the container in the oven with the light on. This works well in electric ovens, but not in our gas oven. If you have trouble finding a warm spot for your yogurt to set, get a yogurt maker. We love ours.
If you don’t want to get a yogurt maker, and your oven does not co-operate, try and find a spot near your heater, or put hot water bottles in a picnic cooler, and place your milk container next to them (not touching them). Close the cooler, and you will have an incubator for your yogurt.
The next time:
Use 1 tablespoon of existing yogurt as a starter.
After a few months, if you find the consistency of the yogurt getting thinner, use a new sachet of Yogourmet along with a tablespoon of the old yogurt. This thickens the yogurt up again. That usually will happen if you haven’t been heating the milk to 180F.
The yogurt starter has an expiry date, but we’ve used ours a year past the expiry date, without any problems.
We don’t work for Yogourmet and have not been paid to campaign for it. However, we do recommend keeping a packet, available in any natural foods store or online, in your pantry if you like homemade yogurt.
Filed Under: culture, Dairy/Cheese, HOW TO, how-to-make-yogurt, NUTRITION
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39 Comments
Hello!
Thank you for the incoming link – being a desi I can relate to the whole dahi deal!
We gave up and simply use the plain yogurt containers – we have gotten used the taste now!
Keep up the writing – nice work!
-FM.
Hey Bee
Liked your blog a lot and what you wrote in your profile. Thanks also for info on this yogurt starter. Though we are not die hard yogurt eaters (being from eastern India) I am trying to incorporate it more in my meal.
sorry bee that was me earlier
sandeepa
I am so glad I got the Indian Dahi from my parents…the store bought yogurt is ghastly….for someone like me who eats yogurt daily, nothing but the best will do!
I live in a cold climate…but I have found that keeping the yogurt on the stove while cooking helps a lot, and also if you have one of those portable heaters,they work great.
Nice post!
Cheers.
I really wanna try starter yoghurt from yoogurmet. But, I have no idea where to buy in Indonesia. Is there any information?
Thanks & Regards,
Ati
I have seen the product on ebay – shipping worldwide. I am sure you can find some online. Good luck. –J
0. Sterilize EVERYTHING that will come in contact with your culture. After washing and rinsing all tools sterilize your kitchen sink. To sterilize fill the sink with water and add 1 tablespoon of iodine per 5 gallons of water. Keep your tools submerged in the iodine bath for 20 minutes. Rinse and set aside.
1. Pasteurize your milk to 180F. Hold this temperature for 15 minutes to denature unwanted enzymes.
2. When 15 minutes passes, rapidly cool your hot milk to 110F. The most practically method I use to fill that very same sink with cold tap water and place my milk pot into the cold water. Opening the drain slightly and letting the tap open slightly to allow for heat exchange.
3. Once 110F has been reached pour your milk into a sanitzed 1 gallon vessel and cover it.
4. Immediately fill a food cooler of 2 gallon capacity with 1 gallon of water at about 115F. Submerge your covered 1 gallon jar and close the cooler.
5. Let the cooler sit for 4 hours and your should have a thickness going on.
-I make non-fat/low-fat yougurt once per week and have no problems with the starter.
-My cold tap water in winter is approx. 35F to 40F and summer about 45F to 50F.
-I keep my kitchen at 60F to 65F.
-I keep my yogurt container as sterile as possible.
Thank you for sharing your experience. In India people make yogurt in unglazed pots as well, with the specific intent of getting more bacterial action
Accumulated wisdom of hundreds of years suggests that sterilization is not a pre-requisite for making great yogurt. Those who have the time and preference can choose to do so…Jai
The idea that my culture will get tired after a while and I’ll have to get a “new” one is strange to me. Does mine get contanimated by other bacteria? Where do “new” ones come from? I want to get away from buying culture, either in packets, or in the form of plain yogurt at the store. Any ideas?
this may work. if you culture starts getting ‘tired’, use 1/2 cup of yogurt as starter the next time, and use organic full fat milk for a couple of times. also, in india, people cut a green chilli into halves and add it to the yogurt mix to set. it seems to help. – bee
Hi Bee n’ Jai:
This is a good one. I also bring and keep losing the clture often (especially when i moved). Fortunately my new culture is fine
. My oven doesn’t have a light, so use my room heater in winters and leave the yogurt on kitchen counter in summers. SoCal sun ensures that the dahi is good. And the chillis…..i always add them, dunno’ if the help setting, but the aroma and taste is out of this world…..
and unlike many, i prefer slightly sour yogurt
, goes great for kadhis and raitas. any cures for that problem 
.
Chillies have bacteria on and around the stem area. When you want your green chillies to last, get rid of the stems and then store them in the refrigerator. When you are out of yogurt culture, use the stems to introduce the bacteria.
I was looking for information on storing yogurt cultures. I recieved some yogurt cultures from a friend who is from brazil, she lives here in Colorado now. She showed me how she was taught. Cover cultures with full fat milk, place in cool, dark, quiet place over night. Next day press out yogurt, rinse cultures, press out water, put back in glass jar w/glass cover, cover with milk again put way the same to press next day. About every 2 weeks or when giving some to others when yogurt has been stressed from travel press out yogurt rinse put back in glass container and cover with water overnight to let it rest then continue to use as normal. I am confused because all the other instructions I have read are different using heat. I go on vacation 2x a year for about 2 weeks and I don’t know how to store it while I’m gone, since I won’t be able to press it every day or every other day. I saw something about freezing it is that what I can do? I would greatly appreciate your input.
elizabeth, i have no clue how to store yogurt cultures. it would be nice to find out. as our blogging friend inji says, spread the culture around. get others to make yogurt with your culture. so when you are on vacation. it will be alive in someone else’s home. then borrow some when you get back.
To make yogurt I bought some unflavoured, natural, active culture yogurt at the grocery store and plopped a blob of it on a cookie sheet, which I carefully filled with goat milk and left in the oven at about 200 degrees most of the afternoon. I kept checking on it and at some point I had the best tasting yogurt you can imagine. I used icing sugar and coffee to flavour it, but any fruit would do the trick (with less calories than the icing sugar).
I’ve been making yoghurt with a Salton yoghurt maker for about a year with little problem. However, I’m recently fairly consistently getting about 1/2″ to 3/4″ of tiny curds at the top each batch I make. I sterilize the container before and after each batch is made and I heat the milk for about 5 minutes in the microwave and let it cool prior to introducing the culture. I use 1/2 cup non-fat milk solid which I add to the milk prior to heating it. Any ideas? Thanks.
we do not sterilise the container. use a new batch of starter, perhaps. in india, to thicken the yogurt well, people add the blackened stalk of a green chilli. it has wild yeast.
b.
When you microwave milk aren’t you killing off even the good bacteria in it as well as the nutrients and vitamins…….
This is in response to people who have asked about yogurt culture storage, for use after returning from a vacation. I always store a couple of table spoons of the yogurt (in a small freezer-use container) in the freezer. On returning, I thaw it to room temperature and use as usual. It has always worked well.
hi!
just thought I’d let you know that my sis was craving for yogurt in the USA and the store bought yogurt was not a match for our desi homemade yogurt.
I suggested she use limejuice in cup of milk to get the starter. It failed miserably. Then I suggested she leave a cup of boiled milk on her kitchen counter top or better still in the sun till it spoilt and then use it as a starter and it worked!!!! I was thrilled and she makes yogurt regularly till date and is thrilled. Ofcourse now she always has starter handy.
lisa
hi
i wanna ask if any reseller yogourmet in indonesia
hey, thanks for the article..
can u please tell me.. from where can i buy this yogourmet culture in USA ?? is it available in common stores??
thanks in advance
wholefoods, any natural food stores, or online.
hey all
made some dahi with skim milk doing the alton brown recipe-food network
try it out
The yogurt that rhymes with “shovel” does work as starter as long as you don’t use the nonfat/lowfat kinds.
Great pointers on the yogurt. I did it, and it turned out well. Question: I got some raw milk (unhomogenized, unpasteurized, straight from the cow), and made yogurt. Slightly different results, but I had been warned of this. Do you have any experience with this?
in india this is the type of milk people use. boil it, cool it to lukewarm and proceed.
Hi, Here’s my question:
If I were stranded on a deserted island, and had a milk cow, an electric stove, and all of the proper utensils to make dahi, how would I:
1)Make dahi from scratch
2)Get the “starter” dahi
Remember, I’m on a deserted island and cannot access the outside world. I can’t get the “starter” from anyone. I’ve got to safely make the “starter” myself. How would I do this? How would I prevent the inadvertent culturing of harmful bacterium throughout the process?
All over the Net it seems as if the “original starter” was handed down from the Gods or something! Where did it come from? Please explain.
Please help this poor victim of “civilization!”
Thank you in advance,
BBB
you need a green chilli with a blackened stem. or two or three. that black stem has many wild yeast.
Hi,
Thank you for the reply above in which you wrote:
“you need a green chilli with a blackened stem. or two or three. that black stem has many wild yeast.”
What is a “green chilli” called in the USA? Better yet, what is the Latin name of the species of plant/fruit that you are referring to as “green chilli?”
Thank you in advance,
BBB
it’s called a chilli pepper.
Hi,
Thank you for the clarification (I think). Does anybody know the Latin name for the “green chili” that is being referenced above?
I found this link which may prove helpful for others seeking the same info as me:
http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/category/vegetables/peppers/chillies/
BBB
I used this starter – the yogurt was amazing. My husband, a yogurt loather, went so far as to say ‘I might actually eat yogurt again’.
I spent a while searching for it in whole foods – it’s in the Baking aisle and cheap at $2.99 for a box of six 5gm packets. Having that picture of the box really helped me find it.
Hopefully more batches made with yogurt from the first batch will turn out as well as the first. Thanks! After years of store bought yogurt – this is good stuff.
[...] 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt (preferably home-made) 1 cup ice cubes 2 tbsp home-made berry jam (or sweetener of [...]
Hi, what do you mean by “blackened stem” of green chili. Do you just leave it to dry until black?
Thanks for all this helpful suggestions!
when the chilli is overripe and old, the stem turns black.
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[...] that the end result “sets” at the right temperature can be a big pain the rear (read my saga here), but even a three-year old can make [...]
YOu don’t need an oven or a yogurt maker.
Use a crock pot and keep the water at 110 degrees
Thankyou so much..a very elaborate procedure..I got the starter from an organic store in Maryland and followed the procedure given here…the results were amazing..perfect yogurt !! Thanks again..great job
I just started making my own yogurt after getting some starter from my parents. I love your description of angling to get starter from another desi. So true. I actually checked it in my luggage when I came back from my parents.
The last batch I made though stayed milky after I had left it in the oven w/the light on overnight. I left it out a little longer but it eventually just had tons of water on top and sort of smelled bad. Any idea what I did wrong?
Going to look for this starter!
your starter probably ran out of steam. or you used instant milk powder.
thanks…it must be a problem with the starter (I didn’t use milk powder…just 2% milk + prior homemade yogurt as starter). i was wondering where i could have gone wrong!
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HELP, I HAVE SOME YOGOURMET CULTURE, W/ EXPIRATIONDATE OF 1997, DO I DARE USE IT SINCE IT IS A FOIL PKG? MAY TRY W/ POWDERED MILK FIRST, IF WORKS THEN I CAN GET SOME GOAT MILK.
BECKY @ GGYIAYIA@YAHOO.COM
I am reporting that my 13 year old Yogourmet culture, using pwd milk made a great tasting yogurt. Made w/out a yogurt maker!!!!!!!
:0 :} Becky
Now to try w/ goats milk!!!