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March 26 2007

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How to Make Organic Yogurt

Here's how to make your own homemade, raw, organic yogurt. To get started, you'll need the following:

- 1 cup raw, organic milk (Use larger amount of milk for more yogurt, and increase ingredients accordingly)
- ¼ teaspoon yogurt starter (can purchase from Mercola.com)
- 1 drop animal rennet (optional; acidifies the yogurt for enhanced texture)
- a whisk
- liquid measuring cup
- medium-sized bowl
- a container (preferably glass) with a lid

This type of yogurt culture is fantastic stuff. In future videos, I'll show you some other great recipes it can be used in.

Let the yogurt-making magic begin! Simply do as follows:

- Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon yogurt starter onto 1 cup organic milk.
- Whisk thoroughly.
- For thicker yogurt, substitute some cream for part of the milk. (if you use all cream, you'll likely end up with sour cream).
- Add 1 drop animal rennet (optional).
- Whisk again to blend ingredients well.
- Pour mixture into glass container and cover with lid.
- Place container into your oven.
- Close door and turn on light bulb inside oven only.
- DO NOT TURN OVEN ON. Temp will reach approx 75° with light only.
- Keep inside oven overnight or for about 8-10 hours.

When yogurt's done in the morning, stick it in the fridge, and you'll have scrumptious, healthy yogurt by dinnertime!

Another method would be to use a couple of tablespoons of store-bought yogurt in your raw milk in place of powered starter culture, then continue with the above recipe. The disadvantage to this is, it's not technically raw because obviously, it's come from pasteurized yogurt.

The culture starter is a much better bet! Make it from scratch and know all the ingredients are wholesome. Enjoy it plain or jazz it up with some stevia, xylitol or fruit, and you're good to go! Delicious! Enjoy!





 
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Comment on This Article Community Comments (67)
 
 
Posted On Mar 26, 2007
Yes, way to go Luci! 

When Danone,Yoplait, and the other mainstream brands, are all offering HFCS laden junk food, labeled 'yogurt', it's high time we show everyone how to get back to basics, and slow wholesome food, in their own kitchens, with nutritious raw milk, that is so much better for all consumers, while saving money also!

I prefer my home made yogurt with fresh whole fruit (berries)!

As to allergenic comments, I personally have found many who are allergic to store bought pasteurized, homogenized, stripped, processed, chemical and/or artificial, or man made, laden grain based sweetener so-called yogurt, (like HFCS), that have no problems with this simple and good for you home made yogurt; provided, yet again, free of charge, from the good folks at mercola.com

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Russ Bianchi
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Aram Ovsepian
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Posted On Mar 26, 2007
I agree with Russ regarding the allergy comments.
Just to add to it, I find that most people who are allergic to milk are what is called "lactose intollerant". Lactose is the kind of sugar in the milk. Yogurt culture is living and multiplying in the milk by feeding on the lactose. In the end we get a wholesome product that is almost lactose free and if you are lactose intollerant you should be able to consume it.I do recommemend to slowly build up to it.

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
 I totally agree.  I wish the governmental powers that be would watch, learn and make changes in the laws of how the Big Companies can lie about the safety of our food and keep us ill so the pharmaceutical companies can feed us up on useless drugs which all come with their very own health issues.  Avarice is the root of all evil!!

Try using live, organic kefir grains as well.  Yum, Yum!

Thanks Dr. Mercola for having such a great website!

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
This is a great idea, if you can get raw milk, here in florida they can't sell raw milk, what do you do about that??

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karenrz
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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
I am delighted to know how to make my own HEALTHY yogurt.  But can someone answer a question for me?? What is 'animal rennet' and where can I get it?  I don't want yogurt that doesn't stick together.
Thanks!

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
karenrz:  Animal rennet is a thickening agent made from an animal source.  This was always in our cupboard growing up.  I remember we used it in homemade ice cream and cheese.  We just buy it at the grocery in the baking goods isle (does your store carry home canning supplies? look there), however, you may have to look around or search the web.   The enzymes in rennet interact with dairy to aid  thickening and creaminess. You can 'google' the ingredients.  Creeps some folks out. 

sujai:  There is a synthetic substitute, but that's just not natural!  I've never used it, so I can't say if it works as well.

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Patri
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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
Nice video and I commend her efforts but this time I have to speak out about what she calls making yogurt (she does admit she is not an expert, and this sometimes is obvious).

Just to set a few facts about raw milk and what constitutes the 'no-heat-or-else-it-is-not-raw hysteria'.

1.  The average temperature of a cow is 101.5 F. (38.61 C).  The average temperature of a goat is between 102-104 F. (38.8-40C).

2.  Most pathogens are destroyed at 120F  (48. C)

So take a look at those temperatures and remember that you may be making yoghurt in summer temperatures, but you panic at the thought of warming milk to 90-100F???

Most people have no idea how to handle raw milk and remember only having heard somewhere that it is dangerous for you from exagerated, but vague sources.

Here is a link that hopefully explains much about the natural good bacteria in milk and how many pathogens cannot survive in it.  Any dairy in the western world, I am sure, are exercising safe methods.  They have to.
http://www.organicpastures.com/faq.html

Me, on the other hand get my goat milk straight from and unwashed utter, milked by dirty hands into a less than desireable bucket.  I just heat the milk to 110F for a few minutes and don't worry about the rest.  It is delicious, healthy and I love it.

Getting back to the video.  It is a myth that warming the milk destroyes ALL of its goodness.  Hopefull the above link has proved that.  A LITTLE, heat, a little warmer that what you would give a baby milk, is all you need.  Remember how warm that animal is anyway that it came from.  Don't panic about this.

This makes the good bacteria in your starter happily dance around making whoopy and multiply passionately.  Makes for a slightly tangier and thicker product.

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Patri
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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
...and now part 2.

HEAT the oven to about 100 F (remember the body temp of the animals) turn off the oven and place your yogurt wrapped in towels to maintain the incubation.  This is a far better method of heat distribution.  I know...one still finds the info about the light bulb.

A.  some ovens don't have one unless you turn the oven on
B.  heat is uneven.

Oh, and...no dear...don't guess and use cream...and no you don't get sour cream this way.  That takes (if you want to be fussy) a different bacteria.  Or, yes, just add a little lemon juice to thick cream and it will sour.  BETTER, is to let cream sour naturally...but folks today panic at that old fashioned tradition.

Do I know what I am talking about?  Yes.  I make goat yogurt all the time...no, I don't use rennet but I sometimes use a little dried artichoke flower (like the farmers do here in Spain) and make my yoghurt thicker this way, or even turn it into cheese.

Rennet is really rennin, made from (dead) calf stomach (usually).  It is used to curdle milk. 

Goat yogurt will never be very thick.  Homemade yogurt anyway is never as thick as the store bought, unless you use a particular combination of starter bacteria.

And although 'proper culture starter' is nice, you can make your own after the first generation of your yogurt that you started with a heaping tablespoon of high grade active culture yogurt.  Nothing wrong with that.

Patricia, food writer  www.epicureantable.com

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
...oh, and about that less than clean goat milk I get from the shepard...I forgot to mention that once home I do have to filter it a few times to get the few goat hairs out!  ;>D

Also, my comment about a little heat makes the bacteria multiply passionately...some may think 'Well, then so do the pathogens'.  This mentality assumes that milk naturally contains an equal mix of the both.  No...coming from a healthy, organic fed animal (as the goats are in my case) the good guys FAR outnumber the bad guys.  It is what happens between the udder and the processing time that is important.

Those goats are never injected with anything, and eat just about everything...even climb low trees to get to leaves and buds.

Have I ever 'chanced it' and drank a small cup straight from the goat, 'goat warm'.  Yes, it is fantastic.  Wonderful flavour.

;>D

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
I live in Columbus, Ohio and there is no way to get Raw Milk here.  Infact, it is illegal to sell or buy raw milk here.  Since raw milk is not available, can I use Organic Milk to make yougurt?

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
Yes, AC786 - you can use organic pasteurized milk.  They are heating the milk here anyway.  Also, and more importantly than my opinion, the Weston A. Price Foundation, a big force behind the raw milk movement and cited in another post here, says so.  The culturing or fermentation restores the healthy bacteria and enzymes.  The same goes for cheese.  They advise to stay away from non-fermented, non-cultured forms of pasteurized milk, and make sure it's organic when you do use it for fermentation or culturing.

Just my opinion.
Duane

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
If you are saving money then you probably have your own cow.  I pay twice as much for my real milk as I would at the store and the gas to get there is more than the price of the milk but it is well worth it!  

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
I used to make yogurt with dry powdered milk and starter.  To keep it warm, I put the jar in my heated water bed for several hours and presto! Yogurt!  That has been a few years ago. Just thought I would share a unique way to make it.

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Posted On Apr 16, 2007
HELP!  I can't get mine to turn out!!!

I used 2 cups raw milk, 1 starter package of yogurt starter ( from the website www.cheesemaking.com and 1 drop of their animal rennet.  Put it all in my electric yogurt maker and 6 hours later I had a large hard lump of cheese and lots of liquid.  Tried 2 times.

I also tried  putting just the raw milk and 2 tbsp greek yogurt from the store ( this has always worked in the past when I heated the milk to just below boiling - but won't when I use the unheated raw milk).  The consistency here was runny just like kefir.  I was afraid to use the rennet again.

What can I do to get a nice consistent yogurt texture?

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Posted On Nov 15, 2007
Pineahead, I make raw goats milk yogurt all the time with a yogurt maker. The instructions with the Y.Maker says that you must boil the milk because the raw milk interferes with the culture and it doesn't work. I tried a few times making it without boiling and wouldn't work. So I tried it that way, and it comes out great. Unfortunately, not raw any more.

I use 1 quart raw milk, 2 tablespoons of goats milk yogurt, either store bought or from the last batch, no rennet or other culture. Boil the milk 2 minutes, cool to 110°, pour small amount into culture, pour back into pan with the rest, then pour into about 6 yogurt cups. I usually heat in maker for 8-10 hours. Comes out GREAT!

Cindy

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
Yogurt does have strains of beneficial bacteria, but if you really want a food containing a wide spectrum of probiotics (and many more billions of them), you should get yourself some Kefir grains.  The brand of this "Culture Starter" (Body Ecology) that she is using also sells Kefir Starter, but beware, it is NOT the same thing.  It does not have the actual kernels which are a base of protein/polysaccharide/lipid complex. Buy the actual kernels which allow you to make batches of your own yogurt until you die.  (Basically, these bacteria will outlive any of us humans if you take proper care of your kernels-and that's not hard to do). It's a one time purchase.
To learn about Kefir the following page is terrifically informational: http://users.chariot.net.au/%7Edna/kefirpage.html#welcome

You can buy the kefir grains at a place in CA (I have nothing to do with their business, I just have used them to buy my "fil mjolk" (scandinavian probiotic yogurt base) and my kefir grains.  Their site is: www.gemcultures.com/dairy_cultures.htm  

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
Can you use raw goat milk for this yogurt?

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
absolutely raw goat milk would be fine! thats what im doing! ill report how it goes.

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
For Jules in Florida: it's true that raw milk can't be sold for human consumption in Florida (but you can carry a concealed hand gun, so the powers in Florida clearly have their priorities straight!), but you'll find that many of the organic grain-fed beef and poultry farms also sell raw milk and cheese products, though they are labelled as "animal feed."  Check for a farm in your area, there are several in the panhandle and a couple each around Gainesville to Ocala and one or two further south.  I haven't found any on the Atlantic side...  good luck!

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
whoa, wait a minute sunsetrock! i would NOT advise drinking raw milk from grain-fed cows, even if their grain feed is organic. those cows will not be healthy and their milk will not be healthy. i am a total supporter of raw milk (from cows and goats) but i also advise that you MUST be sure about the health and living conditions of these cows. remember, pasteurization started because the cows were living in less than ideal conditions and so their milk was suspect. know your dairy farmer. 

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Posted On Mar 27, 2007
Is there a substitute for animal rennet?

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