Question for those who make yogurt from scratch

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Tubbs216
Tubbs216 Posts: 6,597 Member
in Recipes
I just did this for the first time this weekend and was pleased with the result. I used my crockpot and followed the recipes which said to heat the milk initially to 185 and then cool it to 110 before adding the culture.

My question is whether that first step is necessary, when I'll always be using regular grocery store milk. I can see the need if using raw milk, but regular 2% is already pasteurized, so why would I need to heat it up that high again? It would save a lot of time to be able to just heat to 110, add the culture and then send it on its way.

Thoughts appreciated.

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  • Dee_84
    Dee_84 Posts: 431 Member
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    I make yogurt in my crock pot and keep it on low for 3 hours before turning it off to cool down.
    I am not quite sure why to keep it the temperate high for so long but I think I read somewhere that it make the yogurt creamier. But I'm not sure if that is true.

    I also saw recipes where it said to heat the milk to 185 and then cool it down, there was no period of keeping the milk hot. So it might work without.
  • Tubbs216
    Tubbs216 Posts: 6,597 Member
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    Thanks for your reply. The recipe I used didn't say anything about keeping the temperature that high for any period. I just heated until the milk hit 185 and then turned the crockpot off immediately. It took quite a long time to cool to 110 and at the time I was wondering why that first step was needed. The yogurt thickened well and was creamy; I wonder if it would be creamier if kept hot for longer...

    Maybe I'll do some experimenting with a small batch and see what happens if I just heat to 110.
  • tong806
    tong806 Posts: 9
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    I was used slow cooker to make my yogurt, and I always do that before I went to bed, and I used a timer to control the time. (http://www.easy-homemade-yogurt.com/Slow-Cooker-Yogurt.html) this page is how to use slow cooker to make yogurt.

    (http://www.easy-homemade-yogurt.com/Outlet-Timer.html) this page is how I use the outlet timer to control the slow cooker, so it saved my waiting time.:wink:

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