Making Your Own Yogurt

White Mountain Foods | September 29th, 2016

Q: I tried making yogurt with your yogurt and it didn’t work.  What happened?

A: Making good yogurt is a balancing act between culture, temperature and incubation period. The closer your starter yogurt is to its “Purchase By” date the fewer active bacteria it has. While older yogurt still has plenty of bacteria to be beneficial to our digestion it may take larger amounts to properly inoculate milk to produce yogurt. We suggest one half to three quarters cup of our yogurt to one-gallon milk. For best results add the yogurt starter to milk that is 109 degrees F. Any hotter and the culture will die. If the milk is too cool, 105 degrees F and below, the culture will be sluggish and possibly not make yogurt. If you heat a gallon of milk up to 109 degrees, add the culture, wrap the gallon in a towel and sit it in a warm place over night the temperature should stay about right for proper incubation.

For smaller batches you are going to need some kind of heat source. A good electric yogurt maker is the easiest way. If your end result is too runny with no separation (curds and whey) then you didn’t have enough culture or not enough heat during incubation. If separation occurs then you had too much culture and/or too high of an incubation temperature.

Find more questions and answers about our yogurt in our FAQ.