Homemade yogurt - without yogurt machine

I don't have any yogurt machine at home,  recently I saw a promotion of yogurt machine, I was tempted to buy one, but then I got a recipe from a friend, which needs a crock pot, well, I don't have one at home.
So... what I tried is to use a heavy duty pot without any towel wrapped around, my first batch was not completely very successful yet it is not liquid like milk, it's runny yogurt.

Then I did some research on internet, I learnt that there are several factors to make yogurt successfully: temperature & time
Yes you need to maintain at certain temperature and you need patience! It's a long process for the active bacteria to be active and react under optimal temperature!
A food thermometer is really important in my opinion. If you later make it all the time, you will find it energy & time saving!

So I tried the 2nd time, it was much better this time! I even tried to strain the yogurt to become greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is richer and firmer than conventional yogurt because it is strained after incubation. The yellow liquid strained out called whey, it is rich in protein. It is used to make your next batch yogurt or sourdough bread....

This is my 2nd batch, strained for 6hours, it becomes very firm

This is my 3rd batch, without any strain but the texture is like regular yogurt, not runny




















Again I searched on internet the nutritive value of greek yogurt, since everybody talks about eating greek yogurt, is it really better? click here to have a look.

I discovered my thermo is the best tool to make yogurt (lucky) - it can keep maintain the same temperature for quite long time! if you don't have one, you can use an oven or a crock pot to make it
- recipe of using oven is here
- recipe of using crock pot is here

If you don't have oven neither crock pot, you can still use big towel(s) to help!

The recipe below is my trial by using thermo OR simply by "the stove + towel" method














Ingredients
2L milk*
2tbsp whey or 2tsp yogurt (either homemade or commercial)

*I used whole milk, some say you need at least 2% fat, some say fat-free... you can try out skim milk or non-fat milk, but no guarantee...

Instructions
1. Heat the milk until about 180°F/ 82°C at low heat

If you have no food thermometer, you can simply heat the milk at the lowest heat for 2hours 45minutes

If you find any "skin" on the surface, remove it

2. Let the temperature drops to 110°F/ 43°C - 120°F/ 48°C, then scoop a cup of milk in another bowl, add in whey or yogurt, stir well. Then pour it back to the remaining milk. This way you can evenly mix the yogurt and the milk

3. Put the pot into the thermo, let it incubate for at least 12hours, I do leave it for 16hours in the thermo (because heat released completely at last hours). You might need more or less time according to your environment and tools that you use, you need to try out to see how long you need

If you have no thermo, don't panic, you can use a large towel or 2, eg beach towel, to wrap the pot around, it is to maintain the temperature as long as possible. Then put it at a warm place!

4. Do not disturb the yogurt during the incubation, when the yogurt is ready - that means you can see the yogurt at the edge of the pot is solid enough to be able to separate from the pot when you move it a bit

5. Now if you want to make greek yogurt, place a bowl below a fine sieve, strain the yogurt through the sieve
Note: some say use cheese cloth, but I prefer sieve as it is easier to wash! If you use cheese cloth, fold it into 2 or more layers to strain away the whey
Strain the yogurt during 3-6hours according to the firmness of yogurt that you want

Useful tip: How to strain the yogurt without losing a lot of yogurt - click here

6. Pour the yogurt into a container and store in the fridge several hours before serving
You can now serve it plain or with honey, sugar, fruits, dried fruits....

Enjoy!