Thick homemade yogurt?

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TVarmy

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I recently bought a yogurt maker, and I've been disappointed at how thin the yogurt it makes has been compared to comercial products. What tricks are there to make it thicker, other than straining it?

Currently, my recipe uses a quart of 1% milk, plus 1/2 c dried milk, plus 2 tablespoons of Stonyfield Organic. I heat the milk in the microwave and wait for it to cool.

Please move this thread if this isn't the right place to ask it.
 
I'm not a yogurt maker, but I read in some of my books that you can use gelatin to thicken the yogurt, if you're not a vegetarian.

Another thought is to use some cheesecloth after it's finished, and strain out some of the whey. If you strain it until it stops dripping, you have yogurt cheese. But if you can just put it in the cheesecloth strainer for a short time, you may get a perfect consistency.
 
Adding calcium chloride will give you a thicker yogurt too but the easiest way is to strain. Most commercial brands seem to add thickeners.
 
microwaves do strange things to proteins, i'd omit that step next time. Also higher fat milk will give you thicker yogurt, although it does reduce the healthy aspect a bit. I've also read that the yogurt will get thicker the longer you keep it at culturing temperatures.
 
I usually use dry milk only for yogurt and mix it thicker than the instructions say. I am out at the moment but I think I use about 50% more dry milk powder than the instructions call for.

I also let it set for a few days and drain off any whey that separates before eating it.
 
I've made yogurt a few times and have always added extra powdered milk. This ups the level of milk solids and makes for a thicker yogurt. I've also experimented with adding gelatin to try to make that smooth consistency I'm used to from store bought yogurt.
 
I've made the recipe that Jack Schmidling (whom you may know from the malt mill that he sells), and it really does turn out very thick, much more so than any of the commercial yogurts I've had:

http://schmidling.com/yogurt.htm

Besides the fact that it's made from reconstituted milk powder, it involves heating the milk to 180°F and holding it there for 30 minutes. Apparently this changes the casein in a way that builds a thick texture after it's cultured.
 
I just use 1 qt. whole milk and 1-2 tbsp from the previous batch. Heat the milk over the stove to almost scalded, cool to the temp range shown on the thermometor/spoon from the yogurt maker, add the starter and add it to the maker. It sits overnight, usually 10-12 hours and it seems thick enough. My picky kids don't complain at least.

Z.
 
We use 1 gallon whole non homogenized milk which gets heated to 180F and then cooled back to 90F then is inoculated with 2tbs Fage total yogurt. Place that in the oven with the light on and leave for 24 hours, always comes out great.

It's even better if you add a pint of cream to it.
 
My family has always made our own yogurt. We are Indian and its a huge part of our cuisine. When you have some around to pitch into the next batch as a culture its really easy, but in the beginning just go ahead and by some yogurt that contains live cultures. It should say on the package.

Stovetop was the old way, but now we microwave until boiling, let it cool and skim the fat off the top if you wish. When its warm to the touch (never took the temp but it feels like 100ish) mix in the culture. I like to take some of the warm milk and stir it into the culture to make the consistency more mixable then add it back to the milk. Leave it in a warm or well insulated place for several hours to set and refrigerate to conserve. The microwave is good for this, or your oven with the pilot light being the only heat presence. Yogurt is simple enough that I don't see a need to go through all the calculating bells and whistles we do for beer.

Makes great yogurt when you get the hang of it, and you can play around with the different milkfats or adding honey etc. Easy to strain into a Greek style yogurt also.

We generally use 2% milk fat, and its thick enough for me. If you've gotten yogurt from an Indian restaurant before you'll know the general consistency. I don't find powdered milk additions to be necessary, but if you like your yogurt Dannon thick, you might.
 
How much dry milk powder would you add to a half gallon of liquid milk?

I used to add enough powdered milk to make the same volume as the milk I was adding it to. In other words, if I were using 1 qt milk, I would follow the instructions on the powdered milk and add enough to make 1 qt from powdered. Lately I've been making yogurt cheese so I don't bother beefing up the milk as I'm straining anyway.
 
Non-fat dry milk powder is processed at very high temps and pressure, which over-denatures the protein structure; rendering it very unhealthy. we should all avoid this pseudo-food product.

Microwaving anything, fat, protein, vitamin or mineral messes with its structure and should also be avoided. Also heating milk to 180 degrees seems like overkill- overkill of nutrients, esp.

Reduced fat, homogenized, pastuerized milk is the din of western industrialized food. Too bad.

The fatty acid profile of whole milk is what makes it so nutritious!! The lipid hypothesis (that eating alot of saturated fat supposedly causes high cholesterol and a host of other diseases) is flawed and downright WRONG. these studies failed to recognize people were also eating a large amount of TRANS fat, white flour, and white sugar, which are really the inflammatory foods that signal your body to make cholesterol.

Go to great lengths to procure FRESH from the farm raw whole milk, it is a health food you can relish with abandon! Lots of good fat your body craves, plus vitamins, minerals, enzymes galore! Add cream to make it richer and know that this too is healthy and what your body wants!

This makes the best yogurt! But if you must use store bought, go for organic, cream-top, vat pastuerized (whole) milk.

Heat Raw milk to 110 (store milk to 120), let it cool slightly, and whisk in a few Tbsp's organic yogurt or Fage. put it in a dehydator set at 90 for 8 hours, or in a cooler of very warm 90 degree water (you might have to add some hot water once) for 8 hours.

Strain in cheesecloth for an hour after you have cooled it in the fridge some (otherwise it will strain very quickly).

Commercial yogurt all uses thickeners, or it is strained. You can try pectin to thicken if you like.

If you strain in cheesecloth for longer, it makes the best cream cheese! add a pinch of good sea salt and you will be in cream cheese heaven!

This is the healthiest way to make yogurt- full of enzymes and minimally processed. CHEERS!!
 
I make yogourt from whole Jersey cow milk and follow a slightly different method.
I heat the milk to pasteurize it then cool it down to 52 C and then add yogourt culture AND 1 tablespoon of (1/4 cup previously boiled water cooled with 3 drops rennet).
My yogourt always turns out thick and creamy. It's a tip mentioned in 2 of my cheesemaking books.
 
I agree with lizimamabear about the microwave and the whole milk.
Microwaves kill your food. Good fat in whole milk.
I just use a cooler lined with a blanket to ripen my yogourt and leave it overnight. The temperature varies very little.
We add homemade jam from either cranberries or strawberry/rhubarb.
Yummy!
 
I used to strain yogurt at my first job. We made cucumber ranch dressing with it. The trick was to use a mesh strainer with a coffee filter in it. Put that on top of a one gallon bucket to keep it suspended and catch the liquid. Keep it in the cooler overnight.
 
We make yogurt very simply here all the time and it turns out great.
We just us 2% milk off the shelf at the grocery store and have never had a problem. We buy a 16oz pack of greek yogurt to start but after that just save a bit from our batches to start the next batch.

We don't mess around with temps we just go by look and feel.

1. Pour 1 gallon milk into pot big enough to hold one gallon of mik. Bring to nearly a boil, when the milk starts to foam and look a bit like dish water, it is time to take off the heat. Keep stirring it though because burned milk on the bottom of you pan is the hardest thing ever to get off.

2. Pour your hot milk into a bowl, I have used glass or plastic, it all works. Let it cool there. I know people have an exact temperature that you cool to, but, when you can stick your finger in it and leave it there while you count to 10 it is cool enough.

3. Take your greek yogurt and slowly stir it into your warm milk.

4. Once it is all stirred in with minimal lumps. Cover it, wrap it up in some bath towels or other insulation. and forget about it for about 10 hours, we usually leave it on the counter at night and come back to it in the morning.

5. In the morning, your yogurt should be starting to look a bit like yogurt. I take a bowl, and set a colander in it, then I line the colander with a clean flour sack towel. Scoop all your yogurt into the colander, then I wrap the edges of the towel over the top of the yogurt. Stick it in the fridge for about 6 -8 hours.

6. You will have wonderful thick greek yogurt, it is like eating icecream. We pour honey on it or mix with fruit, whatever your heart desires. At this point you can remove the yogurt into a new container, cover and keep in the fridge. You should also have a nice size bowel of whey. Bake some bread, make some ricotta or throw it away.

Hope this helps. This has worked great every time we have used this process.
 
bleak said:
I've made the recipe that Jack Schmidling (whom you may know from the malt mill that he sells), and it really does turn out very thick, much more so than any of the commercial yogurts I've had:

http://schmidling.com/yogurt.htm

Came across this thread last night. Looking to try cheese makeing but no rennet or citric acid yet so I tried this yogurt recipe tonight. Hopfully it turns out good. It did burn a little bit on the bottom while on the stove but I was stiring allot. I put it in my electric smoker after cleaning it, to keep it at 110F Hopfully it doesn't pick up any smokeyness but I thought it would work good to keep a steady warm temp
 
Studies have shown that just a couple of minutes at 180 will only denature a small % of the enzymes that limit thickening. You want to keep it there (I do 90C) for a good 20minutes. After doing so, I had MUCH thicker yogurt. You can strain too but it's a pain imho. I use a Tbsp/qt. innoc. rate. Incubate in my homemade incubator for as long as it takes to get it as sour as I want it. 110F. Longer incubation will only make the yogurt more sour, not thicker. I prefer not to add powders, but the added solids will help make the yogurt thicker.
 
Powdered milk is very unhealthy because of oxidized cholesterol. Homogenization of milk is also bad because it probably promotes atherosclerosis (plaques in your arteries), which leads to heart disease. Non-homogenized whole milk is best for yogurt, or whole goat milk. However, goat milk will make a runnier yogurt because its proteins are different from cow's milk proteins and will not form curds well. Bringing the cow's milk up to 180 degrees will help the yogurt be thicker. If it's already pasteurized milk (recently pasteurized and not sitting in your fridge for a couple of weeks), then it's probably fine to just heat it to around 100-110 degrees and add the yogurt culture. I always let the yogurt incubate for around 24 hours because I like lots of bacteria in there. Low temps of around 100 will help the yogurt not be so tart even after 24 hours. Very delicious!
 
When the wife and I make yogurt we heat milk in mason jars up to ~165 in my brew pot full of water, then we let it cool on the counter for a while until it is <~100 pitch some Greek yogurt, stir it up, put a lid on it and put it into a cooler with some super hot water. The results are pretty good. Always thick. You should let it sit for 4 hours minimum, but up to 24 for yogurt, I think longer will turn it into sour cream. If you want I could try and find the link for the recipe she uses.
 
I use regular whole milk from the local store and use slow cooker, Dannon Brand All Natural Plain Yogurt as the yogurt starter, follow this website Slow Cooker Yogurt . It is easy, and if you want the thicker yogurt, try to wait about 8-10 hours, I make my yogurt success every time just follow the website's steps.

Good luck!:)
 
I use an electric heating pad set on low. I put a small metal baking pan on top in which I place as many quarts or pints of mason jars filled with my yogurt mixture that I want to turn into yogurt. The jars are topped with plastic wrap and then covered with a dish towel for at least 10-12 hours.

I have used gelatin and nonfat powdered milk for thickening. Both work well, but the powder works better. If you don't add any thickener, I have found that the yogurt is thin and kinda stringy. It tastes fine and I have been making it for at least 5 years.

I wish I had access to Jersey cow milk, but I live in the city!
 
How did you defeat the automatic timer on your heating pad? All of the heating pads I've seen in the last decade have an automatic timer that shuts the pad off after about an hour and a half.
 
For the older style heating pads with no timer check the Salvation Army or garage sales, good luck

thick yogourt can be obtained with the 'right' culture, Jersey milk is the best, we have our own cow...
 
To make a yogurt thick, you have to see the kind of milk you are using. Making yogurt with whole, 5%, or non-fat milk, a higher fat content will definitely give you a thicker, creamier yogurt.
 
I make 3 gallons about once a week. Non homogenized, somewhat local milk (Snowville Farms). Heat to 185°F (180°F comes out too thin)>cool to 115°F>pitch 1T/qt previous batch starter>target temp-105°F>pour into star san-ed mason jars>innoculate overnight in waterbath inside preheated cooler. I've tried many permutations, but this method gets me thick, just sour enough yogurt. I do strain my morning portion overnight in a gold cone coffee filter resting in a qt. pyrex measuring cup. I'll use whole, 2% or a combination of both. The initially culturing was w/ Chobani plain Greek-after a couple of dud trial runs.
 
Some techniques are:

Use milk with a higher fat content (%100 grass-fed whole cows milk has good fats like CLA and Omega-3).

Pasteurize it on a stove top to 185 deg F then cool it down. This will denature the whey proteins and help them coagulate when cooled.

Gelatin is the most popular thickener followed by tapioca starch and agar agar.

Use a Bulgarian yogurt starter which are known to help produce thick yogurt.

Of course straining will help... I like to use a Boullion strainer.
 
I recently bought a yogurt maker, and I've been disappointed at how thin the yogurt it makes has been compared to comercial products. What tricks are there to make it thicker, other than straining it?

Currently, my recipe uses a quart of 1% milk, plus 1/2 c dried milk, plus 2 tablespoons of Stonyfield Organic. I heat the milk in the microwave and wait for it to cool.

Please move this thread if this isn't the right place to ask it.
I made a great batch today Calcium chloride is normally used in cheese. for pasteurized milk or maybe older raw. I had some raw so I decided to try it in yogurt. i only had pickle crisp 70 gram water an 30 gr pickle crisp....30%...same as cheese making teh raw was over 5 days old so I though I'd try it. It really would not hurt it.
liquid..I added 1/4 teaspoon before the starter ....best yogurt I ever made It also could have been the fact that I over heated it a bit 120...could have been both did my usual ferment worked great the whey did not even separate....Oh I added a pint of cream to 2gal milk.. of course can not guarantee I am still straining it I will see what happen.. not really going to fast
 
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