Making yogurt at home is a lot more simple then people might think! to get started all you need is yogurt culture, a yogurt maker & UHT milk three things and a little time and your on your way to making set yogurt at home.

We shall cover the following topics:

1. Set yogurts. Greek style, Probiotic & kefir yogurt.
2. Strained yogurts – Greek & skyr.
3. Fermented milks & creams – kefir & sour creams.
4. Milk types – UHT vs Fresh.
5. Country Kitchen Cultures – our available styles classic, continental & kefir.
6. If you have questions.

The staring point for all yogurts, fermented milks & creams is:

Just three easy steps.

1. Add half the volume of milk or cream to the inner pot of your yogurt maker, mix in one sachet of Country Kitchen Culture, combine the last half of milk or cream and mix well. (some foam may form)
2. Prepare your yogurt maker per its instructions, if using one of our non electric yogurt makers start with boiling a kettle, once boiled fill the yogurt maker with hot water to the indicated line inside, place inner pot in to the water and close the lid.
3. wait in 8 to 12 hours you will have a set yogurt.

And that is the start of making yogurt, fermented milks & creams. Each style moving forward has it’s slight differences from this point forward but these three steps are the same for all styles.

This is the classic & easiest style of yogurt to make, with your yogurt maker and fridge doing most if not all of the work for you. In our ranges of  yogurt cultures our Greek style, probiotic & kefir yogurt cultures are all a set style of yogurt. With just a few steps extra steps for a set yogurt style you can be enjoying  delicious yogurt that you made yourself & those steps are:

Once set:

1. Some whey may have risen to the surface, this is perfectly normal stir back in to combine.
2. Transfer to a suitable container, place in the fridge to cool & thicken for about 8 hours.

Strained yogurt style’s need a extra step or two but the ability to decide how thick you would like your yogurt we think is worth it. Country Kitchen Cultures range of strained style yogurts are Greek, and Skyr, it’s something to note that this is original way Greek yogurt was made rather then its more modern set style. straining yogurt needs only a few extra pieces of equipment there are:

• Cheese cloth.
• Colander.
• Bowl

Once set:

1. Double line a colander with a cheese cloth and place over a bowl.
2. Transfer the set yogurt from the inner pot to the lined colander.
3. Fold in the edges to cover the yogurt, place the bowl & colander in the fridge to chill down and drain off the whey.
4. Allow to drain for one hour to remove approximately 20% of the liquid, three to four hours to remove approximately 50% of the liquid & 8+ hours for a very thick Greek style yogurt. You can also mix in the whey to loosen up the yogurt if too thick.

**please note**

All our strained style yogurt cultures come with the option of including a cheese cloth with your order.

Just like making yogurt at home, fermented milks & cultured creams like set yogurts are very simple to do.

• Fermented milks like the traditional eastern European Kefir’s are thinner then a yogurt by there very nature and will have minimal thickening.
• Cultured Creams there thickness depends on the cream you use Single for thinner & double for a thicker final product. like Country Kitchens Cultures – Sour cream culture.

Once Set/12 hours has passed. 

1. For both styles they can be poured in to a suitable container,
2. Place in a fridge and allow to cool for roughly 8 hours.

Country Kitchen Cultures are blended to work with a wide range of dairy milks. we test our cultures regularly against.

Fresh:

• Cow’s whole, semi & skimmed milk.
• Goat’s milk.

UHT:

• Cow’s whole, semi & skimmed milk.

The great debate Fresh vs UHT.

• Why do we at Cheese-Yogurt-Making recommend UHT over fresh milks?

This is quite simply ease of use – One basic principle of creating the signature thickness of any yogurt is denaturing the milk proteins and this done through the application of heat, UHT by very nature has been heat treated before it ever reaches your kitchen making yogurt making a simple and easy process. If we however go down the route of fresh milk

we add extra steps:

1. Heat the milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan to eighty degrees centigrade.
2. Once eighty degrees centigrade is reached remove from the heat and allow to cool, either by placing the pan in a cold water bath or allowing to cool naturally.
3. Once under thirty degrees centigrade your milk is ready to make yogurt with.

Unsupported milks:

• lactose free – Our current culture offering hasn’t been trialed against this milk, although we plan on starting trials shortly and will update when we have results.
• Dairy alternatives – We at Cheese-Yogurt-Making have been looking in to this and currently can not find a process that meets our own high standards for a clean label product.

Country Kitchen Cultures – Classic style cultures is where it all started for us, this particular set of cultures offers great flavor with no acidity.

Kefir – Unlike its fermented milk cousin our kefir yogurt culture is a mix of two styles taking all the benefits of a kefir culture & yogurt cultures, giving us all flavor and great bacteria we look for in a kefir with the added thickness of set yogurt.

Cheese-Yogurt-Making is more then happy to answer any questions you might have regarding yogurt making. Please drop us an email, dm or give us a call all of which can be found through our contact us page via the button bellow.

Coming Soon.. 

• Cheese making at home – the basics
• Cheese making at home – the next step.
• Yogurt making – larger volumes.
• So you want to make cheese – small scale commercial.

As these guide’s become available we shall link to them and post on all our social media channels.