Transcription
Hey y'all, today I'm going to show you how to make yogurt with no fancy equipment, and it is going to come out as thick as Greek yogurt. Yes, y'all, it's going to be nice, thick, and delicious. Once you start making yogurt this way, you are not going to want to buy yogurt again from the store.
Now, I know what you're saying, "Okay girl, ain't that Chobani? Ain't that a store brand?" Actually, this is just a yogurt container. Inside is yogurt I actually made homemade. However, you're going to need to use a yogurt starter from the store that contains active bacteria. I do suggest that you use a brand that you like the thickness of.
Now, technically, you can make your own yogurt starter. I do know how to do that, but it is way more time-consuming than just simply buying like a dollar yogurt from the store and using that as your starter. However, once you start making the yogurt, you're just going to save a few tablespoons from every batch so that you don't have to continuously buy a starter.
Into a heavy-bottom pot, I'm adding half of a gallon of whole milk. I love the whole milk because the fat makes it taste rich, and it also helps it come out thick. I am then going to turn my burner onto a four. I'm going to slowly turn up the eye until it gets to about a six. I continuously stir the milk; you do not want it to burn at the bottom, so baby, you just stand there and you stir it. Usually, it takes about 10 minutes for it to start to come to a light boil.
When you start seeing these little bubbles around the edge of your pot, you're going to know that your milk is at the right temperature. It should be about 180 degrees or more, and I'm just going to prove it to you with my meat thermometer. But honestly, I typically don't even do this with a thermometer; I just watch for the bubbles, and I've never gotten it wrong. Y'all know back in the day, people wasn't even using the thermometer like that, and so, you know what? Just watch and learn, and yours can still come out good with no special equipment.
Okay, now ideally, you would want to have like an ice bath to cool your milk down to about 120 degrees. I actually don't have any ice made, so I'm just going to run a little bit of cool water over my pot and then let it sit uncovered for a few minutes until it comes down to temperature. I'm going to remove all this scum at the top; it doesn't really give a good flavor to the yogurt. You will know when the milk is at the right temperature when it feels about the temp of a baby bottle. So it should feel like a comfortable temperature; it should get down to about 120 degrees. What I like to do is take a little bit of the milk and put it on my wrist or the back of my hand. If it feels, you know, kind of like that baby bottle temperature, then you know it's ready. Bacteria need that perfect lukewarm temperature so that they can multiply, so do not let it be too hot, or it will kill your little bacteria.
Okay, I have four tablespoons of yogurt from my previous batch, or you know, of course, if you're buying it from the store, it'll be your store-bought yogurt, and I'm going to mix it with a few ladles of the milk before adding everything back into the pot. I like to evenly distribute the yogurt into the milk first so that I know I'm spreading it out well in my pot.
If you are using an organic milk that is ultra-pasteurized, you actually do not need to heat up your milk to 180 because it's already come up to that temperature during the pasteurization. You just need to heat your milk up to about 120, that lukewarm temperature, and then follow the steps from there.
I am going to place my covered pot in an oven that is off. Baby, we not baking the yogurt. Okay, I'm going to cover it with some tea towels just to hold the temperature, and I'm going to close this for 8 to 10 hours. I did not actually leave the oven light on while this yogurt was fermenting. Y'all, I ain't about to blow my oven bulb for no yogurt. Okay, I just cut it on for the shots. I just want to let y'all know, cut the oven light off and just let it sit down undisturbed for 8 to 10 hours, and then you will see that the bacteria has done its job.
Okay, but if you want that Greek yogurt texture, this is not enough. Now, you could keep the yogurt just like this, put it in the fridge, and enjoy it. However, this is too loose for me. I really like my yogurt to be very thick. I put a colander over a bowl and then added a flour sack towel. You could also use a cheesecloth, and then just place this in the refrigerator to strain until your desired thickness. I usually allow mine to strain for about 4 hours.
After 4 hours, you can see that the yogurt is visibly thicker. Baby, this is thick with two C's, baby. This is "Baby Got Back." Do you see how thick this is? It's not even falling off of the spoon. All right, but you don't have to have yours this thick. If you want yours to be thinner, then simply strain your yogurt for about 2 hours. Under the colander is going to be the way. That is essentially what gives the yogurt its runny consistency, and we have just separated that.
If you strain your yogurt and you decide, you know what, it is too thick for me, do not worry about that. The only thing you need to do is take a few tablespoons or a few cups of the whey and work it back into the yogurt. It's going to loosen right back on up again. You can toss the whey or save it to make bread, add into smoothies, or you can use it as a preservative. I am going to show you guys in an upcoming video how I use a few tablespoons of this whey to make a mayo that lasts a really long time. So I'm going to add a little bit into a mason jar and just save this in the fridge until I'm ready to use it.
Let me know if you're going to try my technique for making this thick Greek yogurt, and if you enjoyed this video. Goodbye and God bless.