How to Make Homemade Greek Yogurt

Once you start making homemade Greek yogurt, you will kick yourself for not trying it sooner. I did! Making yogurt is actually easy and saves money.

For most of my life, it never occurred to me that anyone would make homemade Greek yogurt. Then I read blog posts from healthy living bloggers saying they made their own yogurt and I even had a friend tell me I should try it. I finally did try making homemade Greek yogurt, but, like anything, I had to develop my own technique that would work for me.

Why would you make homemade Greek yogurt?

1. You can save money. If you use Greek yogurt as much as my family does, I’m sure you will appreciate saving money by making your own. I buy my Greek yogurt from Aldi for $3.89 for a 32 ounce container. On average we go through about 6 containers per month, which comes out to about $280 per year spent on just yogurt. With this method you can make 32 ounces Greek yogurt for the cost of a half gallon of milk (sometimes as low as $1) and you are even left with whey you can use in recipes too.
2. It’s easy to make! No, it is not quite as easy as buying a container from the store during your weekly grocery shopping trip, but it really is easy to make. While the whole process will take about 10 hours, very little of that is hands-on.
3. It is healthier. When you buy Greek yogurt, you need to pay attention to whether it is truly Greek yogurt or “Greek-style” yogurt. Greek-style yogurt is not filtered to remove the excess whey like true Greek yogurt. Instead, fillers are added to give the yogurt its thick texture.

Why don’t more people make homemade Greek yogurt?

My guess is most people don’t think making yogurt could possibly be easy. I sure didn’t! I was reluctant to try it for a long time. Now I regularly make homemade Greek yogurt for my family.

If you are a fan of the sweetened, fruity yogurts that come conveniently packaged from the store, you may be wondering what you would do with plain Greek yogurt. I have no problem in this area. In fact, I can easily come up with 10 things to do with plain Greek yogurt.

What do you need?

Equipment:

• 2-4 glass jars – whatever you have. I use old spaghetti sauce jars.
• Large pot to hold the jars and boiling water
• Candy thermometer
• Oven space for incubating yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1/2 gallon whole milk
  • A half gallon will fill 2 quarts, 3 of my spaghetti sauce jars or 4 pints.
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt with active cultures
  • 2 tbsp yogurt per quart (32oz) of milk.
  • 1 tbsp +1 tsp per 22 oz jar (This is what I use for my spaghetti sauce jars.)
  • 1 tbsp yogurt per pint (16oz) of milk

*You can also use your homemade Greek yogurt to make future batches of yogurt*

Step by step yogurt tutorial with pictures

(Plus tips for alternative methods to use in your own yogurt making process.)

Use whatever jars you have on hand! Just make sure they are about the same size so when you put them in a pot of water they will heat evenly. I use glass spaghetti sauce jars that hold about 22 oz liquid.

Make sure your jars are clean and dry. Removing outside labels is optional 😉 Fill your jars with milk. Be sure to leave some space for stirring in starter yogurt later.

Place filled jars in a large pot on the stove top. Put a candy thermometer in one of the jars of milk. Add water to the pot to the same level as the milk in your jars.

Boil water and watch thermometer until temperature reaches 160°F, but not more than 180°F. This is to sterilize the milk and will take about 10 minutes. (Tip: If you would prefer to heat your milk in a glass dish in your microwave, Bren at BrenDid.com has a microwave yogurt tutorial.)

Turn off heat and remove jars from the pot to cool. Place the jars next to each other and cover with a towel to allow them to cool evenly. Allow them to cool to 110°F. This could take at least one hour depending on the temperature of your house.

When the milk temperature has gotten down to about 120°F, pre-heat your oven to 110°F or your oven’s lowest temperature setting. My oven’s lowest setting is 170°F. Once your oven is pre-heated, shut oven off and leave oven door closed. (Tip: If you don’t want to occupy your oven for several hours, Katie at Kitchen Stewardship gives instructions for incubating yogurt in a cooler out of the way.)

Once milk temperature has gotten down to 110°F remove candy thermometer. Add 1 tbsp. plain yogurt with active cultures per pint of milk. Stir well.

Put jars on a cookie sheet in the oven and put towel over the jars to maintain temperature. Turn on oven light to help maintain internal temperature in oven. Let jars incubate in oven for 8-10 hours.

After 8-10 hours, when you check your yogurt, you will notice some separation at the top where the clear whey has separated from the yogurt (similar to how a container of store-bought yogurt looks before you stir it.) You have now made plain yogurt that you can either store in your refrigerator or filter to make Greek yogurt. (Tip: Did you know peanut butter lids fit on narrow mouth mason jars?)

Filter your yogurt by placing a mesh strainer over a large bowl and placing a coffee filter in the strainer. Stir your yogurt and pour it into the coffee filter. For a half gallon of yogurt you will likely need to do this in 3-4 batches. Place the whole bowl in the refrigerator and let drain anywhere from 4 hours to overnight. (Tip: For a faster filtering method, you could use cheese cloth or a clean tea towel to filter all of your yogurt in one batch.)

The longer you filter your yogurt, the thicker it will become. You can save the whey to use in recipes. Whey goes great in place of milk in pancakes, and I like you use it in oatmeal.

Make sure you reserve 1/4 cup of homemade Greek yogurt to start your next batch of yogurt so you don’t have to buy more yogurt next time. For best results, yogurt and whey should be used within 2 weeks.

Now that you can make your own homemade Greek yogurt, be sure to check out my 10 things to do with plain Greek yogurt.