HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE YOGURT THE OFF GRID WAY

This is how I make yogurt here on our off grid homestead. But whether you’re off grid or not, how to make homemade yogurt the off grid way is super simple and takes little effort!

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Yogurt was one of the first dairy products I learned to make after we brought home our Canadienne dairy cows. I was a bit hesitant to try it out, But it was so easy it quickly became a staple product in our lives.

As long as the cow is in milk, there will be yogurt in the fridge.

Below is my homemade yogurt recipe, supplies list, and some other helpful information. Plus near the bottom I’ve made a troubleshooting Q&A!

If you just want the printable recipe card use this button to jump to the recipe at the bottom of the page!

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What type of milk to use for homemade yogurt

I’ll start by telling you what I use. Then I’ll give a rundown on other options and what people find easiest and most effective;

I always use skimmed milk from our canadienne cows. Because cream is so precious, and yogurt makes up just fine with skimmed milk, I take the cream to use for other things (butter, ice cream, etc).

I also use fresh milk rather than milk that’s over about 2 days old.

This is because fresh milk makes the best yogurt, and it will last longer in the fridge. I’ve made yogurt with milk that was 5 days old and it did work out fine, but I noticed a slight difference in taste and it didn’t hold up well after a few days in the fridge.

Some people use their full fat raw milk instead of skimming it. This creates a rich and creamy yogurt! And some people use store bought milk. I have no experience with store bought milk yogurt making.

Supplies needed for making yogurt

Here is your short supplies list for yogurt making;

(I’ve linked them incase you need to buy any supplies, these are the items I buy/own and use daily!)

• glass jars
• tea towels
• large enough pot for your jars to fit in
• thermometer
• water
• culture (yogurt)
• good quality cooler
• milk

*However much milk you have will depict how many glass jars you need. I normally do 4 quart sized jars so I use 1 gallon of milk.

How to make homemade yogurt instructions

Fill your clean glass jars with your milk, I usually leave 1-2 inches of headspace.

Line the bottom of your large pot with a tea towel and set the pot on your stove. The tea towel keeps the jars from jittering and moving around, as well as creates a bit more space between the heat source and the jar of milk, preventing uneven heating.

Set your jars inside the pot.

Fill the pot with lukewarm water until it reaches about 3/4 to the top of the jars. Make sure not to splash water into the jars. If you’re worried about splashing you can put the lids on the jars while you fill the pot with water and then remove them when your finished.

Turn on the heat to medium and allow the internal temperature of the milk to rise to 180 degrees. I like to occasionally stir the milk in each jar to keep the temp as even as possible.

Once your milk reaches 180 degrees turn off the heat and carefully remove the jars from the pot.

The milk will now need to cool down to a temperature of 110 degrees. I prefer to let the jars naturally cool instead of doing a cool water bath or sticking them in the fridge because I don’t want to risk over cooling them, plus it’s just easier to leave them alone.

You can set the lids on top of the jars to prevent bugs and debris from getting into the milk, just make sure they’re set on loosely.

We’re going to inoculate the milk with a live bacteria (the already made yogurt), and the bacteria likes warmth. But too much heat will kill the bacteria. This is why we want to get the temp at 110 degrees before adding the culture.

Once the milk has reached 110 degrees you’ll want to add your culture. I always use yogurt from my last batch, but if this is your first time making yogurt you can use plain greek yogurt from the store, just make sure the container says LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES or else it wont work.

Slowly stir in 2 tbsp of your yogurt culture into each jar. I don’t worry about being exact so I just get a good spoonful and call it good enough. You don’t want to go too far off of the 2 tbsp though, or you’ll run into problems.

Put the lids on the jars and tighten. Now the incubation period begins.

You want to keep the jars warm for as long as possible so that the bacteria in the culture can do its thing. My go-to way of doing this is a good quality cooler and a jar of hot water.

The cooler method

I’ll use the leftover hot water remaining in the pot and pour it into a large glass jar (sometimes I heat it back up to make sure it’s nice and hot but not boiling). And I’ll put that jar, as well as my 4 other jars of prepared yogurt into my YETI cooler. I lock the cooler and put it somewhere out of the way for 24 hours.

Most recipes tell you to let your yogurt incubate for 9-12 hours but I like to do 24 hours to get the benefits of a longer ferment. This gives our yogurt that tang we all love!

After your desired incubation time open the cooler lid and pull out a jar. It should look like yogurt now. If it still looks like milk than something happened and your yogurt didn’t set. In all of my yogurt making I’ve never had a failed batch using this method.

You can now put the yogurt in the fridge if you want regular ol’ yogurt. If you want greek yogurt though, you’ll want to hang your yogurt in cheesecloth for another few hours to drain out any extra liquid. I always skip this step since we love the consistency of our yogurt.

Troubleshooting Q&A

Why is my homemade yogurt grainy?

There could be several reasons your yogurt is grainy;

• the culture you used had additives
• too much culture was added
• culture wasn’t stirred into the milk thoroughly enough
• overheating the milk or heating it too fast

Although grainy yogurt isn’t preferred, it’s still perfectly fine to eat. Add some fresh milk to it and turn it into popsicles, or make a smoothie with it.

My homemade yogurt didn’t set, can I still eat it?

The failed yogurt is still safe to eat! Stick it in the fridge and use for desserts, smoothies, or in cereal.

I let the temperature get higher than 180, is it still ok to use for yogurt?

It’s still ok to use milk that went over 180 degrees. You’ve killed more bacteria doing this but your yogurt should still turn out ok for you as long as it didn’t go too high over 180.

I forgot about my homemade yogurt during the incubation process, is it still safe to eat?

This depends on how long you forgot your yogurt in the cooler. Once I forgot my yogurt for 2 days in the cooler. When I dashed over to it and opened a jar it looked and smelled perfectly fine. So we ate it. ha!

Do your research on leaving homemade yogurt out and base your judgment on what you’ve learned and how you feel. For us, as long as it smells and looks ok, we eat it.

What’s the difference between greek yogurt and regular yogurt?

Greek yogurt has been strained in cheesecloth before it goes to the fridge to strain off any excess whey. Whereas regular yogurt keeps all of the whey and isn’t strained.

Homemade yogurt recipe

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE YOGURT THE OFF GRID WAY