Making yogurt at home is fairly simple. It is not as easy as making milk kefir, but close. It also saves you a lot of money. You can control all of the ingredients at home and customize the flavor to your taste. Make a big batch of homemade yogurt to save you time!
The recipe and method I am sharing with you is for a thermophilic culture. You can either purchase the packets online or buy yogurt from the store. I bought a small serving of grass fed yogurt from the store which has been pasteurized.
It is necessary to use a pasteurized yogurt as a starter. The bacteria from a raw milk culture will be competing with the raw milk or any other culture added. The result will be a different fermented product. It will not harm you to use a raw milk yogurt to culture it, but do not expect the same results.
Keep in mind that this yogurt is not as thick as store bought yogurt. To make it thicker, you must strain it through a tea towel or cheesecloth.
How to Make Raw Milk Yogurt
Ingredients
- 1/2 gallon grass fed raw milk
- 6 tbsp pasteurized organic grass fed yogurt
Instructions
- Heat up milk in pan gently so as not to scald the milk. Stir periodically. Watch the temperature closely.
- Heat up to 100° (no more than 105° to preserve the enzymes). *While heating up milk, heat water in a separate pot to approximately 100°.
- Stir yogurt in with a little bit of the milk so it does not clump together. Pour the mixture into the remainder of the milk and stir well. Pour into glass mason jars. Put mason jars into a small cooler and fill up with the hot water up to the neck of the mason jars.
- Close the cooler and leave for 8-12 hours. For the GAPS diet, it will need to be fermented for 24 hours. You may also use a dehydrator or a yogurt maker to make the yogurt. Just set the dehydrator to 100-110°. After this time period, your yogurt is ready to eat!
- ***For a thicker yogurt like Greek yogurt, pour finished yogurt into the middle of a tea towel. Tie with a rubber band to secure and place over a glass bowl for the liquid whey to drain. If you let all the liquid drain, cream cheese is left in the tea towel.
Please let me know what you think in the comments below! I am happy to answer any questions.
Dear Sarah,
Everytime i try to make the raw milk yogurt just as you described, it clumps up when i add the culture (store bought plain yogurt) no matter the way i add it. Mix in separtely at first or directly adding it. It always curdles right unless i boil the milk to 180f degrees. 🙁 any suggestions thanks
Hi MJ – my only suggestion would be to make sure the yogurt culture you add is room temperature or warm (not above 100 degrees though) and then mix it in with a little warm milk before adding to the entire mixture?