Home made plain yoghurt (Yogurt)

Housewives in India and Africa make homemade yoghurt all the time.  They do it as a routine and without a yoghurt maker or a thermometer.  Homemade yoghurt  is a healthy source of protein, calcium, magnesium, and other essential vitamins, whose active bacterial cultures aid in digestion. You can make yoghurt in your own home for a fraction of the cost of the typical store-bought type and it requires no special equipment

Like most things homemade, yoghurt you make yourself is just better.  It tastes better and has no artificial preservatives.

For making yoghurt, you need a starter yoghurt. Starter yoghurt is yoghurt that has been made with active live cultures; this is the friendly bacteria that will turn your milk into yoghurt. You can buy a small container of  plain yoghurt at the grocery to use for this purpose. Make sure that the container says  Made with live cultures or something of this nature.

 

Ingredients:

  • Milk:  1 pint Organic Whole milk (you can use semi skimmed or full fat milk too but the yogurt will be slightly runny)
  • Small pot of  yoghurt  (yogurt) containing live bacteria to use as the starter culture.

Method:

1.   Boil the pint of milk.

2.   Allow the milk to cool down.

 

3.   Lots of recipes will mention  temperature of 112°F to 115° which is right for making yoghurt.  You can also dip my finger in the milk and make sure the milk is warm to touch.

4 .  Add 2 tablespoons of live yoghurt to the milk and stir. You may find that you need to add an extra spoonful of the culture during the winter months. 

 

5.   Cover the container and keep in an airtight and warm cupboard. In the winter, I tend to keep my container in the microwave or a large insulated container I have.  If using the microwave,  I  add a boiled kettle next to my container to give the microwave some warmth . Sounds crazy but it works!! I know of friends who keep a hot water bottle next to their container. In hot countries, it is a lot easier to make yoghurt.

 

6.  This is what my homemade yoghurt looked like:

Do you have any yogurt making tips?

Read here about me making yogurt using Chili stems.

You can also make fantastic yogurt in the Instant pot.  Recipe here

Homemade yogurt is used for making the following dishes:

  1. Kidney Bean cutlets dipped in Yogurt and Mint topped with Zhoug
  2. Dahi vada 
  3. Raita 
  4. Kadhi

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