Make Yogurt at Home With Just Two Ingredients (2024)

Yogurt is a staple in so many homes, eaten in meals from fast sweet and savory breakfasts, to quick protein-rich snacks, easy lunches, and one of our favorite frozen treats. Yogurt is a terrific ingredient for cooking and baking: It’s a marinade that flavors and tenderizes meat, the base for a tangy sauce, dressing, or salad, and a baking secret that keeps cake moist. But even though it is so ubiquitous, most people don’t understand how easy it is to make yogurt from scratch. While a yogurt maker makes it especially easy, you can also make yogurt without one in just a few super simple steps. Here’s how to have delicious homemade yogurt whenever you like.

Choose your ingredients

The primary ingredient in yogurt is milk. You can use any kind of milk you prefer —dairy or nondairy. Want a low-fat yogurt? Choose skim milk. Want a richer yogurt? Try whole milk. Have some mild lactose issues? Use low lactose milk or even goat milk. Have access to raw milk? Now you are getting truly artisanal. Milk that is less pasteurized is easier to turn into yogurt.

As with any dairy product, the higher the fat content in the milk, the creamier your end product will be, so choose accordingly. The volume of milk you choose will result in a slightly larger amount of finished yogurt, and while it will last a while in your fridge, without any preservatives or additives, and without the commercial seal, it will not last as long as store-bought, so make what you are likely to consume within two weeks.

The other ingredient in yogurt is, well, yogurt. Which sounds redundant but hear me out: You need bacterial cultures to ferment and culture the milk. The simplest way to do that is to introduce cultures that are already present in yogurt. If you have already made homemade yogurt you can use some of that, if you are just starting a new first batch, just buy a tub of plain store-bought yogurt — check the label to make sure it contains live active yogurt cultures — and it will become the mother of your future yogurts. From there, you are ready to go; here’s what to do.

How to make yogurt

To start, you have to scald your milk, or heat it to 180°F, (use a candy or cooking thermometer here; the temperature matters). Scalding the milk impacts its texture; the longer you hold the milk at 180°F, the more water will cook off and thicker the yogurt will be. When you are ready, remove the milk from the heat, and Cool the milk to 115°F, keeping careful watch on the thermometer. If you want this process to go a bit faster, you can cool the jars in an ice bath or even in a tub of cold water. Once you get to 115°F, stir in yogurt; about a quarter cup of yogurt for every half gallon of milk. Then carefully transfer the mixture into jars; Mason jars with lids are great for this.

Incubate your yogurt

Once the yogurt and milk are blended, you will need to let them incubate or ferment. To do so, you need to keep the mixture at a steady warm temperature of 110°F to 115°F for eight to 10 hours. The longer the incubation time, the tangier the flavor of your yogurt, so you should experiment with different times to determine your preferred taste.

There are a few different ways to incubate yogurt. If you have a yogurt maker or Instant Pot with a yogurt setting, just follow the instructions that came with your unit.

You can also incubate yogurt in your oven, with just the oven light turned on. Put your warm jars in a roasting pan and wrap them in a few kitchen towels to help insulate them. Place a probe thermometer in one jar to monitor the temperature, I love the Meater for this since you can monitor the temperature on the app on your phone, and it will send you alerts. Let the yogurt hang out in there for eight to 10 hours and then transfer it to the fridge. As the yogurt cultures, there’s one thing that is most important: Don’t open the oven door! Place a note on the oven door to warn people not to turn it on to preheat to cook something else.

If your oven doesn’t have a light, you can place the pan of yogurt on a heating pad set on medium to maintain its temperature, or even put your jars into a cooler along with some warm about 130°F water.

Make yogurt in a slow cooker

You can also use a slow cooker to make yogurt. Add the milk directly to the slow cooker, set the heat to high and heat until you get to 180°F. Then turn off the slow cooker and let the yogurt cool with the lid still on until the temperature drops to 110°F, which should take about 3 hours. Stir in your yogurt, cover and let the mixture sit in the slow cooker for about 10 hours; depending on your model, you may need to keep it on the warm setting to maintain the 110°F temperature. Then transfer the yogurt to containers and refrigerate it.

Store the yogurt

Once your yogurt is ready, transfer it to the refrigerator and store it for up to two weeks. This is when you can strain the yogurt in a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth placed over a bowl if you prefer a thicker texture. (Save the whey — it’s liquid gold in the kitchen.) If you plan to add sweeteners, vanilla, fruit, or other add-ins, be sure to set aside some plain for your next batch.