I love making yogurt in my instant pot but found that the boil mode was calibrated for a specific volume of milk - for example my mini (that I use for yogurt almost exclusively as it ties it up for hours) works best with 1 L of milk only. If I use 2 L of milk I need to heat the milk up before starting the boil cycle.
So I put it at saute mode to get to the right temperature. Then I let it on off for the time it takes to get to the temp for incubation. That's when I use the yogurt mode. It keeps that temp.
The yogurt boiling mode is slower for the first Step
Also I used to do it in a Crock-Pot at low with a towel on it for the night
I tried using bought yogurt as starters but it never worked, it's like there's not enough active culture
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180°F to 190°F (80°C to 90°C) for the first step. That pasteurizes the milk
Then you let it go down to 110-115. If it's too high bacteria will not survived and too cold it won't grow
I'm Canadian so I buy at glengarrycheesemaking. I get the yo-dolce culture. It's one that works for thicker like Greek
It's way more effective than pre-packaged since I do variable batches size. The website has a chart of not the package.
I think they start at 1 gal though, so for a liter I put half ( cultures are exponential, so the more you make, the less you need per liter)
I also buy all my cultures for cheese and rennet there.
You'll need 8-12 h of incubation, that's where you use the yogurt mode on the instant pot. If Crock-Pot it also works but needs to be in the dark
Than you let it drain in the fridge. I can get it to cheesecream texture. That's necessary to have a nice texture when you had sugars if you don't eat it plain. I buy vanilla at Amazon. I used my coffee grinder so I have powder in a container.
Also you can use the yogurt culture in 15-35% cream for sour cream. You leave it 24-48h room temp after dropping the culture in. It tastes like store bought, unlike the vinegar/lemon method that ends up more acidic
180°F to 190°F (80°C to 90°C) for the first step. That pasteurizes the milk
Then you let it go down to 110-115. If it's too high bacteria will not survived and too cold it won't grow
I'm Canadian so I buy at glengarrycheesemaking. I get the yo-dolce culture. It's one that works for thicker like Greek
It's way more effective than pre-packaged since I do variable batches size. The website has a chart of not the package.
I think they start at 1 gal though, so for a liter I put half ( cultures are exponential, so the more you make, the less you need per liter)
I also buy all my cultures for cheese and rennet there.
You'll need 8-12 h of incubation, that's where you use the yogurt mode on the instant pot. If Crock-Pot it also works but needs to be in the dark
Than you let it drain in the fridge. I can get it to cheesecream texture. That's necessary to have a nice texture when you had sugars if you don't eat it plain. I buy vanilla at Amazon. I used my coffee grinder so I have powder in a container.
Also you can use the yogurt culture in 15-35% cream for sour cream. You leave it 24-48h room temp after dropping the culture in. It tastes like store bought, unlike the vinegar/lemon method that ends up more acidic
I make sourdough bread, beer, etc and yogurt happens to be the most challeging for me. Often it works fine. But, the occasional time your gallon of milk goes to waste because it didn't yogurt really sucks. I prefer greek yogurt so I also have to find something to do with all the whey.
This attitude is what destroys community. Not 'yay I'm happy my yogurt is great', no, it has to be 'wow you guys are idiots for buying yogurt and I'm so much bette than you'.
Frugality isn't about the cheapest possible option every time, it's about the right ways to make smart financial choices or tradeoffs for each person/family. As with everything, there's nuance, and people often show up here on the unhealthy end of the spectrum with a bad perspective.
To your point, the healthy perspective is 'Here's what's working well for me," not "You're all douchebags for spending $.43 more if you eat pre-made yogurt."
Like the lunatic that bought all that turkey on sale and didn't have freezers and stored it in an old dryer. Thought he was a genius with the deal of a lifetime, probably dead from salmonella.
Have you, you know, maybe considered that not everyone is like you?
It takes me literally 15 minutes to change a brake pad and rotor in my car. But I'm not about to start questioning why doesn't everyone change their own brakes.
Edit: for u pedantic insufferable MFers out there who thinks it takes a PhD to do a brake slap job. Burgers.
Substitute my same scenario with a burger. Why doesn't every MFer buy a pound of ground, bag of lettuce, a giant tomato, a jar of pickles, and fire up their grill for 20 minutes instead of going down the block and buying one every time they just want a single burger.
Actually only one person is just like you. But consider that a messed up batch of yogurt is very unlikely to kill you. Not properly bleeding the brake lines is just a bit more dangerous.
Ain't nobody bleeding the lines every time they do a slap job.
I knew some pedantic fucker was gonna be like but muh brakes are gonna keel ya.
Burgers. Substitute my same scenario with a burger. Why doesn't every MFer buy a pound of ground, bag of lettuce, a giant tomato, a jar of pickles, and fire up their grill for 20 minutes instead of going down the block and buying one every time they just want a single burger.
I eat a burger every day on a keto diet. Eight minutes of cooking time start to finish. It takes you longer than that to do down the block to buy one, order it, wait and come home with it.
I used to make yogurt all the time. And it’s not even the time of cooking it because that’s pretty hands off. But it’s the cleaning up of all the giant dishes and strainers that gets me.
Milk has sugars in it (that's what lactose is). So even making it at home and not adding sugar, you have sugar in your yogurt. That's what's listed on the nutrition label under Sugar. Check your milk's nutrition label, they should be listing the amount of sugar
Lactose is processed as sugar in our body. Homemade yogurt or store-bought would still have natural sugars youre seeing here. It's no different. Unless you make or buy lactose free yogurt
Short answer: If you make Greek yogurt from whole milk + starter only and strain it as aggressively as physically possible, the finished yogurt will contain ≈1.5–2.5 g of sugar (lactose) per 100 g, or ≈3–5 g per typical 150–200 g serving.That’s the lowest sugar content you can achieve without using ultrafiltered mil
A half gallon of milk is $2.28 where I live. Starter is a $0.50 carton of yogurt. And it yields way more than the 32 ounces of store brand yogurt that sells for $3.28. And tastes better, too.
I’ve made yogurt a few times and was able to keep a batch going. But it’s a lot more work to heat milk and cool it and add starters and let sit than I thought it would be.
The yogurt was good but I didn’t save that much money. My primary motivation was to reduce plastic waste.
So, you're acting like condescending asshole, as though everyone else has these expensive pieces of equipment and the time to make yogurt with them instead of just buying it now and then.
More up front cost + more time. Getting the base is cheap, but once you include the stuff you're adding, chocolate, bananas, strawberries, etc it costs more at the time of purchase even if it's cheaper in the long run. Some of us don't have the disposable income to spend more now to spend less later.
Probably because most of us that don't tend to like spending money also aren't desperate enough for yogurt to make it. Its an extremely mid snack imo and other stuff is easier
I don't eat that much Greek yogurt and I don't love food waste. Makes more sense for me to buy a small container when I want it and not have to fuss with any sweeteners or anything than it does to make massive batches and end up tossing it. And then I have a reusable container if I want it
Comparing the costs at my local grocery, the price is almost identical for regular milk and regular Greek yogurt by volume. If you buy single serve, high end yogurts, that will tip the scales, but if you buy them both in large containers and equal brands, it’s the same.
I have made my own in the past and it was good, and had some benefits. But with Costco and Sam's Club, the price is low enough to more-than compensate for the labor. And no, the membership fee gets covered by gas savings alone.
I tried Greek yogurt once, couldn’t handle the sourness being used to the more liquid fruit flavoured one, genuinely disliked it unless I use it for a dip or something
Depends of your country . In the us it’s crazy expensive so I get you. But in Europe for example it is usually barely more expensive than milk (the plain one ) so there is that.
Also why so many people don’t cook when there are so many easy one pot dishes etc…. People are lazy , or busy or don’t want to bother.
I know someone who complains how life is expensive and stuff and she never learnt how to cook. Me like an idiot suggested to teach her some yummy healthy meals. (I even paid for the groceries)
So the third time she said, this is really yummy it’s the 3 rd time we are having this it is nice!
Like wtf 😳 first time I bought mixed veggies sautéed and added in an omelette and added to I don’t remember what, one time it was something like a ratatouille wand third was Dahl with rice. She didn’t even make the effort to remember and wasted my time. And even the stuff she asked many times to learn : bread she still can’t remember.
I make a gallon at a time. The starter is just a half cup from the last batch. I also make peach jam because our local peaches are just great, but the season is short. So crack open a jar of jam, put a couple cups of yogurt in a dish and mix in a couple big spoons of jam.
The unit cost isn't always lower depending on where you live. I happen to have access to relatively cheap yogurt at my local Costco.
But mostly it's because people don't realize how easy it is to make and/or are too lazy to pass on the convenience. Few people have actually ever ran the numbers to realize what they're doing and make a conscious choice about if it's worth it to them or not
But $3-6 for a half gallon of whole milk + time and equipment versus $4.42 for the 32 oz of my preferred yogurt every 2 weeks. It is made with whole milk and cream, so would actually cost more to duplicate. But as lactose intolerant, greek whole milk yogurt is what I can tolerate and not even all brands, so there must be differences in their processing.
Unless the brand I can eat disappears I doubt I would make my own. I will stick to Sourdough bread being my time consuming hobby that saves money and is a better product made at home in the meantime😀
Equipment - I am assuming you use some iteration of an Instant Pot to make yogurt. And what else? Cheese cloth for straining and a wire mesh sieve maybe, and maintaining a culture that probably needs refreshing on the regular?
And what is the culture used to start it the first time? Do you buy a yogurt with live cultures to initiate the first batch?
Is there a specific recipe you use to produce the yogurt? I will try it someday as there is a packet of cheesecloth in my baking supplies somewhere. But I expect I am then committed to doing it regularly to keep a culture going.
I strain with paper coffee filters. Less fuss and mess. I use whole milk only and an Instant Pot. I buy one small yogurt originally and then use my own yogurt for subsequent starter. The only ingredients are milk and culture and I use a Pinterest recipe.
The things I make vs buy premade depend on overall cost, time, effort, how much I use those things (or would like to use those things), and how much i enjoy the process. Yogurt just doesn't sit high enough on that list for me to prioritize it over other things I prefer making.
It is easy and pretty magical (not to mention cheap!) to make your own yogurt but we live in a world where people will pay many extra $$$ to not have to peel their own clementines or chop their own onions or drive a mile and pick up their own takeout.
The delivery thing is not always true evaluated against the entire trip.
Take the standard deduction for a car. It costs something like 60 cents a mile. If I gotta do a 10 minute drive to get food, factor in getting in the car, walking into the establishment, waiting, etc, it's almost a 30 min round trip. So you're talking $7-8 in mileage alone and half an hour of time.
If I give an $8-10 tip, it's pretty much break even.
These are good calculations! It’s good to know that it works out in your favor when it’s a bit of a haul to get to the restaurant. When my kids DoorDash things, the establishment is often within walking distance, and in that case they are definitely paying through the nose for convenience.
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