Yogurt (Dahi) from Scratch

Ingredients

• 1/2 Gallon Milk (or a pint, or a gallon)
• 1/3 cup Plain Yogurt

Instructions

1. Heat all of the milk to 185 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s about the temperature of hot coffee. Use a thermometer if you want, but it doesn’t have to be exact. Try to avoid bringing it all the way to a boil but even that won’t ruin it. Use a double boiler or as thick a pot as you have for this to avoid burning any milk, and stir occasionally for the same reason.
2. Let the milk cool to 105 degrees. That’s about the temperature of a heated spa. I use my finger to judge this. As long as you are under about 120 degrees here you should be okay. You just don’t want to kill your cultures.
3. Stir in the yogurt.
4. Store in covered container (use plastic wrap or a well fitting lid). It’s best, but not crucial, if you can keep it at around 105 degrees. I make it in a dutch oven and then put that in my actual oven with the oven off to stay warm. If it’s significantly cooler than 105, the yogurt will just take longer to set.
5. Wait about 8-48 hours depending on how warm you were able to keep the yogurt.
6. Optionally you can strain the yogurt. I recommend doing this because homemade yogurt comes out pretty thin since it doesn’t have any thickeners like corn starch or gelatin. To strain it, line a colander with cheese cloth or paper towels. Put the colander in a bowl or sink with something to raise it up like a second, overturned bowl. Pour the yogurt into the cheese cloth. Wrap it. Put a plate with some kind of weight on top such as a couple of cans of beans. This will squeeze out the whey (the yellow liquid). You can leave this for a few minutes or a couple of hours depending on how thick you want your yogurt to be. You can also add more weight to speed up the process.

Nutrition

• Calories: 148
• Carbohydrates: 12
• Protein: 8
• Fat: 8
• Saturated Fat: 5
• Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3
• Monounsaturated Fat: 2
• Cholesterol: 30
• Sodium: 95
• Potassium: 371
• Sugar: 12
• Vitamin A: 393
• Vitamin C: 0.1
• Calcium: 303
• Iron: 0.01