Make Yogurt In Your Crock Pot
Edited on 10/5/09 to add: Since posting this I have also discovered that you can make raw yogurt on your counter top, without the use of a crock pot or yogurt maker. All you need is a starter and the super clear directions that come with it. Not only is it easier since you simply leave it on your counter top, but you also retain the benefits of the raw enzymes! You can find culture starters here.
I have tried other methods for making yogurt, but this is by far the easiest. I originally got this idea from Stephanie and use her basic recipe. Making your own yogurt is a frugal way to get some good probiotics into your family.
Here is the cost savings breakdown for us:
- Before: we would buy organic plain yogurt from Trader Joe’s: $3/quart
- Now: I make it out of our grass-fed raw milk from the farmer: $1.75/quart
- Savings = $1.25/quart x 2/week = savings of $2.50/week = savings of $130/year
Trader Joe’s is the cheapest organic yogurt you can find. The health food store sells it for $4.50/quart. For me, it is definitely worth the savings to do the five minutes of total work involved in making yogurt in the crock pot.
Crock Pot Yogurt
Recipe notes: This recipe uses a 2 quart crock. In using a 4 or 4 1/2 quart crock I found the yogurt to have a bit of a "springy" texture. I was able to alleviate this by heating the milk an additional 15 minutes for a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes.
- Turn your crock pot to low and pour in 1/2 gallon of milk.
- Heat on low for 2 hours and 30 minutes.
- Once 2 hours and 30 minutes have elapsed turn your crock pot off and unplug it. Let the milk cool in the crock with the lid on for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours remove 1-2 cups of the warmed milk and place in a bowl. To that add 1/2 cup of yogurt with live active cultures and mix very well.
- Pour the yogurt-milk mixture back into the milk and whisk thoroughly.
- Place the cover back on the crock and wrap the entire crock pot in a thick bath towel or two.
- Let it culture overnight, 8-12 hours.
- In the morning stir yogurt (if desired) and store in glass quart jars or a container of your choice.
- For optimum texture, refrigerate for at least 8 hours before using.
I made this yesterday/today and it worked! We have yogurt! Thanks so much for this recipe!
Best,
Sarah
Do you think this would work with So Delicious coconut milk (a coconut milk dairy sub that’s intended to be drank and is in the fridge by the other non-dairy milks…not in a can)? If so, would you recommend using the unsweetened or the original (sweetened) variety? They also make a cultured coconut milk yogurt…I’m wondering whether I could make this 100% dairy-free…if not, I think I could handle using starter from TJ’s dairy yogurt with the coconut milk.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I love yogurt in the crock pot method!! I’ve found, though that in the summer, when we don’t have the air conditioning on (house temp is about 83-85 degrees), my yogurt goes much faster. I only let it cool until it reaches 120 degrees (about an hour on the counter top) and then I wrap a blanket around it for about 3 hours, and it is done. If I let it go overnight, it separates and I get lumpy, whey-y yogurt. So if anyone has the whey problem, try incubating shorter!
So, out of curiosity… would this work with raw goat’s milk?
This is amazing! I made yogurt with 4 cans (I couldn’t fit the entire 64 oz) of coconut milk and a soy yogurt starter. Iwas really suprised that it actually worked and tastes great. It has a great coconutty-tang!
Has anyone tried using a vanilla flavored milk, maybe almond milk? I didn’t know if something like that is already too processed or not.
Anyway, thanks so much for this super easy recipe!
I found this recipe online several months ago and have been using it with great success. It is so easy and always turns out great. I only wish I had a good source of raw milk. I have to use the closest I can find. There is a good local dairy that has an unhomogenized, low pasturized whole milk, thank goodness. Someday I’d love to try it with raw goat’s milk too. This yogurt makes a great yogurt cheese as well.
Great! Going to try this tomorrow when I swing by the farm to pick up raw milk.
The first time I tried this it worked perfectly. I got 2 quarts of velvety smooth yogurt with a tang, The next two times I tried it, my finished yogurt was “ropey” and did’nt have a good twang to it. Anybody got any advice??
Oops, sorry, UHT can last much longer than that, 6-9 months, apparently:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-temperature_processing
Another thing is, although UHT loses some nutrients, it will be less than heating raw milk yourself for a couple of hours due to the efficient UHT process, which is designed to sterilise without losing too much.
Why would it be necessary to take 3 hours to cool the crock pot of sterilized milk down? Why not remove the lid when it has reached 190 degrees and remove the crock from it’s heater to cool it to 105 degrees sooner so you can put in the starter and begin the incubation period? (Of course not so fast as to crack the crock.)
“Mike_A – UHT milk is basically dead milk. It is not a natural or whole food and as such we try to avoid it.”
lol, of course… after posting I had this feeling you might say that. I must be very confused, because I thought the point of you heating the whole milk for three hours was to kill any life in it, thereby making it safe, processed, dead milk.
Obviously this heating process is to *increase* the life in your milk and make it even more whole. Silly me.
I suppose it is basically a case of wholier-than-thou milk? 🙂
Ah well, enjoy boiling your live milk to increase its nutrients until it is really live. I’ll make do with my non-live, unnatural, empty-food yoghurt from fake cows fed on pseudo-grass.
Take care.
Yum…I am eating my first batch of raw milk, homemade yogurt, crockpot style! Thanks for the great recipe. I never liked plain yogurt from the store, but this stuff is good. I do have a question though…My yogurt has little bits of cheese like balls in it. I even ran it through a strainer, but they are still there. Any idea how to get rid of them?
Thanks!
FoodRenegade – Yes, it is pasteurizing the milk. The reason we use our raw milk is because we know it comes from grass-fed cows and can’t get that in a pasteurized milk. I have tried making yogurt by only heating the milk up to 110 degrees, but we really disliked the results. Do you make raw yogurt, if so what type of results did you get?
Another question…when making a new batch do you just use some from your old batch and add to the milk? That would make sense, but wanted to make sure.
I tried this today and can’t wait to unwrap the Crock Pot in the morning and see what I have wrought. Thanks for the idiot-proof instructions!
Thank you for the great info!!! Come visit our little eBay store! God Bless!
Hi! This might be a silly question, but I am new to this whole yogurt making business. 🙂 I’m wondering how you know you’ve heated the milk up enough in the beginning? Is it supposed to get to a certain temperature to kill off (whatever it’s supposed to kill:)? The other recipes I’ve read for yogurt say to heat it to a certain temp at first. My crockpot only has low and high settings so I just wanted to make sure I was doing what I needed to do since my young kids will be eating this. Does that make sense? 🙂
From what I understand the culture will become contaminated by other strains and lose its potency over time which is why you need fresh culture from time to time. One tip I read elsewhere is to get a container of the plain yogurt and then freeze it in ice cube trays. Use one cube per recipe and you can stretch it for quite some time.
I tried this and it flopped. After the cooling period of 3 hours I could tell that it wasn’t very warm. Yet, I went ahead and added the culture and wrapped in a towel. The milk had cooled down way too much. In the morning, it was just room temp. milk.
Vicki – I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. Because all crock pots are different you may want to let it heat up for an additional 30 minutes or cut the cooling time by 30 minutes. Again, sorry it didn’t work.
Thank you!!
I don’t get this recipe…why heat and then cool in a crock pot? That’s so slow. Why not just heat the milk on the stove, put into the crockpot to cool (bringing up the temp of the crockpot at the same time), add culture, wrap and leave it overnight. Maybe I’ll try that and see if it works.
I think the advantage to heating and cooling in the crockpot is that there is no effort involved! You just turn it on and wait for the beep. When I make it on the stove top, I am keeping an eye on it, checking temp, stirring to make sure it doesn’t burn. This crockpot method requires little time and turns out great every time for me. I follow her time recommendations exactly in my four quart crockpot. I do let it culture for 12-15 hours to get a slightly thicker and more sour yogurt.
can you double this…I have a gallon of raw milk I would like to use??
This looks like something I want to try. Does anyone know if I can cut the recipe in half and it will still come out correctly?
Vicki – I had this problem, too.
Today, I’m going to try again, but this time, get a heat measurement of where the milk is before I add the culture into it.
I think external temperature — of the kitchen — may factor into this. I’m doing this in winter, in New England, and no matter how warm the house gets — the kitchen is often a bit cooler (unless we’re cooking in the oven, too.)
Still, we’ll see how this next batch goes.
If it doesn’t work the second time, I’ll just go buy a yogurt maker. The problem of the crock pot method is that if it doesn’t work, you’ve spent — essentially — a full day waiting to find out it hasn’t worked.
But I’m hopeful that by monitoring the temperature before the culture goes into the milk, it’ll work this time.
Wrap the crockpot up in severalTowels, this insulates it,, THEN put it in your stove *not turned on* with the Light on and keep it on ALL night until you check up on it in the morning …….It stays a LOT warmer in there. and YES the temp of your house/kitchen makes a HUGE difference and is more regulated this way 🙂
I used this recipe and it was perfect! The next time I heated the milk on the stove with a candy thermometer. When the milk reached 180 degrees F, I poured into the crockpot, already warmed on low. Then I pulled the plug and followed the rest of the recipe. So delicious.
I tried this and ended up with milk with a faint smell of yogurt. Is there anything I can do to thicken it up at this point? Can I put it back in the crock pot? What temp? How long? Or am I stuck with a 1/2 gallon of really runny kefir?
Liz – I am sorry it did not turn out well. You could try heating it up and culturing it again. Is your kitchen warm enough?
I’ve had this happen to be several times (and I’m still trying to figure out why). I just turn the crockpot back on low again for 2 hours and then it will begin to set up. Wrap it for 6-8 hours and you have yogurt and have not wasted a whole bunch of milk.
Hello, I just found your blog and love it! I make yogurt using the method that Alton Brown (“Good Eats” host) recommends, heating the milk to 180 degrees, cooling it to 120 degrees, then putting in the starter and setting the bowl/pot on a heating pad covered in a towel overnight. Always turns out great and you don’t have to worry about the kitchen temperature! I always drain some of the whey out of mine because my family likes it nice and thick, and I find the whey handy to have around anyway.
I have always made yogurt in a much simpler manner. Boil milk on stove top, stir and keep at boiling point for few minutes. Leave container on stove top till the temperature comes to luke warm, or reduce temperature to luke warm as convenient. Pour the luke warm milk in a plastic or a glass container. Add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of yogurt( I use unflavored yogurt from the store initially for culture/starter. Thereafter my home made yogurt becomes by far much better starter). Mix well with a hand wisk. Cover the container with an airtight lid, place in a lunch bag (insulated to hold temperature). Remove after 6-8 hours for a perfectly set yogurt. Quantity of starter yogurt culture is adjusted depending on the amount of milk, mostly 1/4-1/2 of a teaspoon is enough for 1/2 gallon or 3/4 gallon of milk. Its important to bring the milk to boiling point and boil for few minutes. Also critical that the milk is luke warm when being placed in the insulated lunch bag.I do this last thing at night and find perfect yogurt in the morning. If the yogurt comes out stringy try another brand for starter, and ensure the milk is luke warm when placing in lunch bag.
I was wondering if there is anyway to make the vanilla flavoring my kids love?
Amy – Absolutely! Once it is cultured add a little vanilla extract and sweetener to taste (honey, stevia, maple syrup, etc.)
Well, I tried this last night…but I think I let it cool down too much because this morning I have room temperature milk smelling a bit like yogurt. I’m wary of reheating it and trying to culture it again, but I hate to waste all that milk! Any ideas? I’m reading through the comments to see if this has been answered, but all I’ve seen is someone saying you can probably reheat and culture again, but nothing definitive. Thanks!
Clara – Yeah, I think a lot of people have been having fails on this during winter because of the cooler temps in the kitchen (myself included). If it’s runny and smells like yogurt it may be yogurt. It probably won’t be that great on it’s own, but you could use it in smoothies. I wish I could give you a definitive answer, but I can’t.
I have not tried the crock pot method but do use my oven.
I heat up 4 litres of milk with 1 cup dry powder on the stove until it reaches 82c then put the pan in the sink with cold water and allow the temp to drop to 48c then I had 1/4 cup of yogurt and place the pan with lid in the oven with the oven light on.I leave it over night or even up to 24 hrs.It usually works very well. I add the milk powder to help firm up the yogurt as we like it thicker.
If I have spare whey we make milk shake with it by adding frozen fruit , milk etc.
I have made this upwards of 20 times and it worked each time. I think by accident I discovered when the house is cool to put a heating pad on top of the crock and then the towel. I set it to low when it was only sort of cool, and then on med. when I thought it was especially cold in the house.
I always do 2 crock pots at once, as we have a large family. I start it at 4:30, shut off at 7:00, put in starter at 10:00, cover it up, tuck it in and wake up to yummy yogurt.
If I start it in the morning, start at 8:00, turn off at 10:30, starter in at 1:00, tuck it in, and I have yogurt done at 9:00.
all winter I have just put the crocks in the garage when done to deal with later because it has been cool enough, I was very spoiled. Now I have to decant right away so it can fit in fridge 😉
Thanks for making my yogurt making soooo easy!
Boil milk in a saucepan, let it cool until its lukewarm. Preheat your oven at 350 for just 5 mins. Add the milk to a airtight container, add 3 spoons of yogurt and mix slightly. Cover the container in a small blanket or towels and place it in the oven at night. Yogurt will be ready in the morning. Make sure your oven is not turned on after you’ve placed the mixture.
How do I add the different fruit flavors like strawberry, blueberry, cherry, etc?
Quentin – You would add them after the overnight culturing process. So once it has sat overnight and then chilled 6-8 hours you can stir in some pureed or whole fruit and berries and honey to sweeten if you’d like.
If you are lucky enough to have a vintage gas range, prepare your warm milk and add your yogurt or starter, then wrap up and put in the oven. The pilot light will keep the mixture at the optimal culturing warmth.
The first time I made this it worked perfectly but the last two attempt have not worked, it’s still liquid. What am I doing wrong? I don’t think I did anything different than the first time but it’s not working. Suggestions?
Melissa – Unfortunately I have had mixed results as well. Before I posted this recipe it worked consistently. Now it is hit or miss. One thing I noticed was that when the kitchen temps were cooler it didn’t work as well.
see my comments this date. have made yogurt successfully now for 6 months or more.