The culture you receive will contain one teaspoon of dehydrated yogurt starter. Reserve ½ teaspoon until you are certain your first batch of yogurt has set properly. Since the dehydrated culture is shelf stable, you can also reserve the second ½ teaspoon in a cool dry place to be used as a back-up in case your original culture needs to be replaced.
You will initially make one cup of yogurt. Once this first cup is finished culturing, you will be able to use it as a starter to make larger quantities of yogurt.
Greek yogurt is best made with one part heavy whipping cream and three parts whole milk. Greek yogurt can be cultured with only whole milk but the resulting yogurt will not be as thick or rich.
Whenever possible, we recommend using wooden utensils and glass jars (such as canning jars) when working with cultures. Do not store yogurt or yogurt starter in a metal container.
Do not consume any yogurt which smells, looks or tastes unpleasant.
Making the Initial Batch of Yogurt:
Heat one cup of milk (and/or cream) to 160 degrees. Allow the milk to cool to 110 degrees.
Place ½ teaspoon of the Greek yogurt starter in a glass or plastic container (we recommend using a pint-sized wide-mouth canning jar).
Add ½ of the cooled milk to the starter and mix well. It is very important that the dried starter is fully incorporated into the milk.
Add the second half of the cooled milk to the mixture and mix well.
Cover the yogurt and incubate at 110 degrees for approximately 4 ½ hours. Check the yogurt after 4 ½ hours. If it has not yet set, leave it to culture checking it every 30 minutes or so until it is set. Yogurt can be incubated in a yogurt maker, large dehydrator, crock pot or oven if your oven temperature can be set at 110 degrees.
Allow the yogurt to cool for two hours.
Place the cooled yogurt in the refrigerator for six hours or longer before use.
Making Subsequent Batches of Yogurt:
Heat one cup of milk (and/or cream) to 160 degrees. Allow the milk to cool to 110 degrees.
Place 1 ½ to 2 teaspoons of the Greek yogurt from the previous batch in a glass or plastic container (we recommend using a pint-sized wide-mouth canning jar).
Add ½ of the cooled milk to the starter and mix well.
Add the second half of the cooled milk to the mixture and mix well.
Cover the yogurt and incubate at 110 degrees for 4 ½ hours. Yogurt can be incubated in a yogurt maker, large dehydrator, crock pot or oven if your oven temperature can be set at 110 degrees.
Allow the yogurt to cool for two hours.
Place the cooled yogurt in the refrigerator for six hours or longer before use.
When it’s time to make a new batch, yogurt from a previous batch is used to make the new batch: Yogurt from batch A is used to make batch B, yogurt from batch B is used to make batch C and so on. To perpetuate the culture, be sure to make a new batch of yogurt at least every seven days. Waiting longer than one week between culturing can weaken and eventually kill the culture.
Important Information:
You can make up to a quart of yogurt at a time by mixing two heaping tablespoons of yogurt from a previous batch into a quart of new milk. Be sure to mix well.
Whole milk makes the thickest yogurt. Yogurt made with low fat milk is likely to be thin and not set well. For best results, we strongly recommend using one part cream to three parts whole milk (the higher the cream-to-milk ratio, the thicker the finished yogurt will be).
If you are culturing multiple products (e.g. different varieties of yogurt, buttermilk, kefir, Kombucha, etc.) be sure to keep a distance of at least several feet between cultures so they don’t cross-contaminate each other. Over time, cross-contamination will weaken the cultures.
