How To Make Yogurt

Hi, I'm here to talk to you about yoghurt. Okay, to make yoghurt, you know it's very easy to buy in the shops but a lot of people prefer to make their own. I guess that way, you could choose what sweet you can use and you have better control of the end product.

So, it's really simple. There are about, well, there are only two ingredients actually. All you need is milk, just your normal dairy milk.

If you want to make fat-free yoghurt or very low-fat yoghurt, use skimmed milk. If you want to make a really thick yoghurt, use whole milk. So what you're going to do is you get about, let's say a liter of milk to start with.

You take that, you put it on your hob, at home, you can do it. It's really really simple, put it on like a medium heat and heat it up. You want to heat it up to about a 185 degrees Fahrenheit and that's going to be just before it boils.

Don't boil the milk because if it gets too hot, it will burn and if it burns, you'll get a really sour yoghurt. So heat it up, nice and slowly, be sure that you don't get any crossed around the edge of the pan, keep stirring, keep stirring, and when you get to the moment I talked about, 180 degrees, take it off the heat, alright. And just keep on stirring and basically leave it to cool down to about 120 degrees.

Now, so just leave it there. I think you can cool it down with cold water, if you like sitting the pan in cold water if you want, but it would kind of mess up its consistency. So the first thing to do, leave it on the side to cool down to 120 degrees.

At which point, it's time to add the starter. Now, all yoghurt is, is milk with lots and lots of bacteria. That's bacteria that make you healthy, bacteria that give you the consistency that it has.

So for the starter, the easiest thing to use is just, normal yoghurt, because actually, the bacteria is if you give it the right conditions, it'll multiply. So if you put in 3 tablespoons of just normal yoghurt into your milk that is sitting at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, it will start to multiply. So to get a really really thick yoghurt, you can leave it a - it's called the incubation period - leave it for up to 8 or 9 hours, that will be really thick and really tart, if you want it on the side, but if you run a yoghurt that's not quite strong, do it for less time.

But crucially, in order for the bacteria to multiply, it needs to be at between 95 to 120 degrees Farhenheit. Ideally, 180 degrees Fahrenheit is what you're going for. Now, keeping a liquid at 180 degrees Farhenheit is tricky.

So, the best and easiest way to do it is get a yoghurt maker, it's really really simple. I think it costs about 30, it's really easy to find. What that thing will do is it will keep your yoghurt once you put it into jars, it will keep your yoghurt at 180 degrees for as long as you want to.

Otherwise, I know some people wouldn't let you cover it because it is set to be at a certain temperature, so you could set your oven to 180 degrees Fahrenheit and leave it overnight, I know a lot of people do that. I've also seen some people taking the bowl and wrapping it up in scarves and warm jacket and stuff, and put it in the cupboard. So again, that's nothing, but essentially, keep it there for as long as you want it to be, you can come back and try it out.

After it's incubated, you will have yoghurt. It just happens overnight. Now, if you want a natural yoghurt, you just leave that as is, but if you want to have a Greek style yoghurt, actually Greek yoghurt is made with goat and sheep milk rather than cow, but with a Greek style yoghurt, all you're going to do is make it thicker.

To make it thicker, you just pour the yoghurt into a cheesecloth or muslin, something like that and hang it up. And if you leave it there for about 3 hours, all the liquid will drain out and you'll be left with a stronger thicker yoghurt which is Greek. But before you eat it, boil it and you just want to cool it down because it's reall