How To Make Yogurt at Home

My mother has been making excellent homemade yogurt for decades now, but I never really took the time to observe her when she did it, so I myself had no idea what to do. The day after Thanksgiving, I asked my mother how she does it.  She very graciously agreed to show me.

Boiling milk
(If you want to avoid a crust forming, stir constantly.)

Ingredients:

milk, plain yogurt for starter




Instructions.

My mother pours the milk into the bowl containing yogurt starter

1. Take milk, of whatever quantity you choose, and boil it.
2, Allow the milk to cool back down to room temperature.
3. If there is a crust formed, remove it.
4. Add one teaspoon of plain store bought yogurt for every cup of milk you boiled. This will be your yogurt starter, as it contains a live culture.
5. Stir the yogurt tablespoons into the milk until it is all as homogeneous as possible.
6. Pour the mixture into glass cups of individual serving size.
7. Place in a warm spot for eight hours. (For us, the warm place was the oven, periodically warmed just  a little, but not enough to actually bake anything. But in the summer you could achieve the same result by placing the cups in a hot car parked outside.)
8. Chill the yogurt in the refrigerator before serving. 

The finished product

This kind of yogurt is called לבן (leben) in Hebrew. It is not sweet at all and has a nice, slightly  tart taste.

Of course, you could add fresh fruit for a very special dessert. But we like it plain.

Let your family taste the yogurt and see what they think!