Instant Pot Yogurt

Berry season is my favorite time to enjoy yogurt. It turns out, that it is very easy to make yogurt at home.

Yogurt and Berries

I hadn’t made yogurt in a long time and then I came across the recipe for “Dad’s Yogurt” in Priya Krishna’s wonderful book Indian (-ish). She boils 4 cups organic whole milk, cools it to 130 degrees F adds 1/4 cup plain full fat yogurt and then leaves it inside an oven which is off to incubate for 2 1/2 hours.

I made this recipe and it came out good - but I’ve since moved to use an Instant Pot for making Yogurt. Not that the first version is difficult in any way, but I find this easier and finally I’m using the Instant Pot that was sitting in the back room.

One thing I learned is that it is better to have an instant pot seal that you use exclusively for yogurt making. When I used my chili/soup/dals seal the yogurt had a distinct cumin flavor.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pour milk into Instant Pot. Press the “Yogurt” button and use the “Adjust” button to select boil. You can put the lid on or not at this point.

  2. The milk will beep when it is done. It will not have boiled - but it will have been brought to 180 degrees.

  3. If the lid is on, take it off or it takes too long for the milk to cool. You can even take the pot out of the cooker and place it on the stove top if you like.

  4. Let the milk cool to 120 degrees F. I’ve had success cooling to 105 - if you miss 120 I wouldn’t worry. The idea is to cool it to the point that it won’t kill the bacteria in the yogurt.

  5. I put the yogurt in a separate bowl and mix in some of the milk and stir to completely mix the two. This is probably not necessary as Priya adds the yogurt to the 130 degree milk, but it makes me feel more like I’m cooking (“Hey, look, I’m tempering.”)

  6. Use the “Yogurt” button and “Adjust” to set this for eight hours. On this setting the time counts up. I put the lid back on and leave the vent open.

  7. After a couple of hours I give it a jiggle to see if its setting. If it is I feel better but in early batches I didn’t see signs of this for four hours.

  8. At eight hours I remove the container out of the cooker. If it’s still not set enough for you, you can give it another 2-4 hours. I cool it on the counter top for two hours and then put it in the refrigerator (covered) overnight. In the morning it has set enough that I ladle it into plastic containers.