Homemade Yogurt

Homemade yogurt requires just two ingredients and no special equipment.

Prep time: PT540M

Cook time: PT30M

Rating

4.74 stars (19 reviews)

Keywords

best homemade yogurt, best yogurt recipe, easy yogurt, easy yogurt recipe, homemade yogurt, homemade yogurt recipe, how to make yogurt, labna, labne, labneh, whole milk yogurt, yogurt from scratch, yogurt recipe

Ingredients

1/2 gallon milk (skim, 1%, 2%, or ideally, whole organic milk)
1/4 cup yogurt (plain yogurt with live active cultures; ideally whole milk), room temperature

Steps

First, heat the milk: Rinse a large heavy saucepan (3-quart or larger) with cool water. Add the milk. Bring the milk to just below a boil (210 degrees) at medium low heat, about 15 minutes. Stay nearby, because the milk will froth up and as it begins to boil it will rise up swiftly in the pan. Remove from the heat immediately.
Next, cool the milk: Allow the milk in the pan cool down to 110-115 degrees, stirring occasionally. If you are not using a thermometer, the equivalent is when your pinkie can just withstand being swirled in the milk for ten seconds. Arriving at this temperature can take an hour. If the milk cools below 110 degrees, gently warm it up to 110-115 degrees. If in this process of reheating, the temperature goes above 115 degrees, wait again until it comes back down to 110-115.
Add the starter. Spoon a few tablespoons of the milk at this temperature into the yogurt (rawbi) starter, then stir that starter yogurt into the milk. You will notice a skin forms on the surface of the milk; that can be stirred right in with the starter, or spooned out.
Incubate the mixture. Cover the pot with a lid and lay a kitchen towel over that to promote warmth. Set the pan aside, undisturbed, in a warm spot for anywhere from 8 to 10 hours, or overnight. An ideal incubator is the oven, turned off (the oven can be heated on the lowest setting for a minute before placing the pan in, just to encourage warmth, but be sure to turn it off immediately).
Chill the yogurt: Remove the pot from the oven. The milk will have thickened into yogurt. Place, undisturbed as of yet, into the refrigerator for 1-3 days to further set the yogurt before eating or straining to thicken.

Nutitrion

Serving Size: 1 cup
Calories: 147 kcal
Carbohydrates: 11 g
Protein: 8 g
Fat: 8 g
Saturated Fat: 5 g
Cholesterol: 29 mg
Sodium: 93 mg
Sugar: 12 g
Unsaturated Fat: 2.3 g

Reviews

Magda on 2025-04-30 (5 stars):
Best cook ever. Love her love for great food and wholesome cooking.
Tracy Goss on 2024-09-20 (5 stars):
Thank You for your wonderful Pinterest boards! I have found so many good recipes. I was wondering if you knew how to make lactose-free Laban? I have a very significant lactose Intollerant problem and find that I can’t eat the regular Laban anymore. I have tried to eat Lebneh, but I still have digestive problems eating it…even though they say it’s okay for people with lactose intolerance. I found a product by FAGE that is lactose-free and it’s the only brand that I can consume safely. Unfortunately, it’s so expensive! I thought I would try to make it myself. However, my attempts have failed thus far. Can you give me any suggestions? Thanks so much. Tracy
Mai on 2024-07-08 (5 stars):
Uh oh,,,about a month ago I found your recipe and made it to the letter. Pulled the starter out first then proceeded to drain (nut milk bag set in pan that has the steamer set in pan an loosely fitted lid because of bag) missing the “letter” of recipe to ferment then strain! It still came out quite good. Of course my only experience was from straining commercial yogurt bought on sale and not the thickness I prefer. It def was mild but for my purposes it was fine. During the first making I read the great comment thread here and found the one that used the microwave! Since it’s getting hot here in Southern California I thought I would try it. Between the two makings I got into a Reddit or Quora thread and the failure rate astonished me as well as put a unwelcome level of doubt on my already huge success (lol the one attempt) those people are in great need of your expertise Maureen. As planned I tried the microwave method which thankfully I had taken a screenshot of, because I couldn’t find it to leave a reply for the poster due to saving not just my energy but the electricity, both cooktop and the extra AC! I’m on my third batch of said technique and I’m thing you should add this to your optional directions. After seeing for yourself of course. The starter being the main reason for taste the method should not be an issue. Stitto may have scoffed but once tried she would probably see the advantage of not have scalded milk everywhere or on skin (first time out was a whole gallon and a bit scary when it began to boil) plus the handling for less abled of us over a certain age might be a safer option. This batch used same starter from first and goofed on the amount but so far it looks good. Now it is in the fridge for a few days and then we’ll see. Also going whip in stand mixer after straining because I am a texture person. Those poor folks that failed also did not know about starting over with same milk and threw their batch’s away! They need your help! :))
Mary on 2024-06-21 (3 stars):
Great! I am going to try making it
Claudia Marieb on 2024-06-02 (5 stars):
I've made this three time. All three times it came out perfect. I had hit or miss results with other recipes, but for some reason, even so simple, this has been the most delicious and most consistent results. I love the pinky test for 10 seconds. Simple, and right on!