Homemade yogurt

I had promised you that I would make a post on how we make homemade yogurt without any special equipment. We love plain Greek yogurt but it is expensive for us, so we had to bring the Albanian tradition to make our own yogurt.
What you will need:
1 gallon of whole milk
1 6oz plain Greek Yogurt container as a starter (try to find one that is not non-fat)
1 big plastic container for your homemade yogurt
1 pan to boil the milk
1 thick blanket

1. Boil the milk. Be careful with the milk, differently from water, when it starts to boil it will raise and spill on the stove. If it does get on the stove, clean it immediately. Believe me it is hard to clean it when the milk is dried. If you have a gas stove, turn it off when the milk starts to raise. If you have electric stove, remove the pan from the stove, electric stoves don't cool down immediately.
2. Leave the milk to cool down until you can resist the heat with your finger
3. Take your yogurt starter and mix in some milk, so that the yogurt temperature becomes similar to the milk's temperature.
4. Pour the milk in the big plastic container. Plastic tend to keep the heat better. Mix the yogurt with the rest of the milk in the plastic container. Mix it well.
5. After you have mixed the yogurt with the milk, place the plastic container somewhere you can leave it rest for about 8 hours. Cover the container well. Sometimes I say, let's swaddle the baby, or the egg. Because it is like an egg, it is milk and it will turn into yogurt.
6. After 8 hours your plain yogurt will be ready. Place it in the fridge for a couple of hours for it to become more firm.

ATTENTION: Homemade yogurt is not like the Greek Yogurt you buy from the store. It has a little bit more water and it is more sour. If you want it more like Greek Yogurt, take a cheese cloth to take some of the excessive water and put in some sugar or fruit to help with the sour taste. Use some of your homemade yogurt as a starter for your next yogurt. The older the starter the better the yogurt.


I think homemade yogurt is the best. With one gallon of milk, you can make about 1 gallon of yogurt. Here are some pictures of our yogurt from last week. It's crazy but we make a gallon of yogurt every week or every other week. We love it that much!!!