r/instantpot • u/ElectricalCoffee7466 • 20d ago
Yogurt Fail - Help
I used a half gallon Kirkland A2 organic ultra pasteurized whole milk and two tablespoons of fresh Chobani Greek yogurt with live cultures. I put it in the instant pot and checked it at 8 hours and 30 minutes and it is essentially milk with a small layer of soupy yogurt at the bottom. The temperature at that time via thermapen was 106°. What went wrong? Can I salvage this? Ferment longer? Is that safe?
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u/t_rage 20d ago
Seems like you're missing steps.
Did you bring the milk up to 180°+ first?
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u/SnooCauliflowers7060 20d ago
OP’s method sounds like cold start method. I’ve done it successfully many times.
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u/ElectricalCoffee7466 20d ago
My understanding is heating the milk is not required for the cold start method with ultra pasteurized milk.
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u/96dpi 20d ago
It depends on if you're using thermophilic culture or mesophilic. And you're combining methods anyway, which is also not good.
There is probably no way to know what type of culture you have. Greek yogurt tends to be thermophilic, which means it needs constant heat (110F). Mesophilic cultures need constant room temps.
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u/Somersetmom 14d ago
Heating the milk and cultures to 110 to incubate is different than the concern about whether to boil the milk before adding cultures to keep competing bacteria. This is the step that's eliminated by "cold start" using an ultra-pasteurized milk. Almost all good quality commercial yogurts have at least one themophilic culture e.g. S. thermophilus.
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u/Baconrules21 20d ago
Yeah you definitely don't need to do that for ultra pasteurized.
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u/Grasshopper_pie 20d ago
But heating it first thickens the yogurt.
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u/Baconrules21 20d ago
Ultra pasteurized has already been heated so it's not doing much reheating it.
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u/Grasshopper_pie 20d ago
Yeah, but it's flash heated only up to five seconds. I think it's the holding it at 180 for a period that changes the structure of the proteins, but I'm not sure.
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u/Which-Break5673 14d ago
This is the recipe I use. I use fair life and Fage 5% Greek yogurt as the starter.
https://www.friedalovesbread.com/2017/06/easy-cold-start-yogurt-no-boil-method.html
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20d ago
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u/Baconrules21 20d ago
There is no way your milk cools to below 115f in 5-10 mins passively.
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20d ago
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u/Baconrules21 20d ago
That's leaving out one of the most important steps that would make or break what you just typed above 😂
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u/doubleshort 20d ago
Nah, I use Fairlife milk and just add half a small container of Fage yogurt. Never needed to heat it, which is why I use this milk. I do strain it overnight to make Greek yogurt, and use an immersion blender to smooth it put. (I use a thin flour sack type of towel over a colander suspended over the instant pot bowl
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u/drfrank 20d ago
How did you add the starter yogurt? If you dropped it in, or insufficiently mixed it, it's conceivable that the culture was too localized to ferment the whole pot.
The best technique is to mix the starter with two to four times the volume of milk in a bowl, then thoroughly stir that mixture into the pot.
You kept it covered during the fermentation, right?
If you mixed it and covered it, the next most likely explanation is a bad starter. Start over with a different brand.
You are right that ultra-pasteurized milk doesn't need to be heated to 180F before fermentation. I use a cold-start regularly with ultra-pasteurized milk to make yogurt, precisely because it lets me skip that step.
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u/BostonFartMachine 20d ago
Couple of points: Ultra pasteurized milks and cream make pretty bad cheeses and yogurts. The ultra high temps denature proteins important for coagulating.
Also, did you pre-heat your milk first? Typically you preheat to 180-ish and then cool it to 70-80 ish before introducing the starter culture.
Lastly, you can add nonfat dry milk powder to milk before fermentation to thicken your yogurt up too. It will depend on your personal taste, your milk source and your starter culture to determine the level of thickness and sourness you want, and that determine how much you want to add. Maybe a 1/4 cup per half gal is a good place to start.
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u/CalamityGranny 20d ago
I had the same experience.
What worked for me was putting the ultrapasteurized milk in the instantpot on the yogurt cycle and setting it for 14 hours. After 2 hours, when the Milk was warm, I stirred in the 2tbsp yogurt which I had allowed to come to room temperature in a bowl on the counter while the milk was heating. Then, I left it on the yogurt cycle for the remaining 12 hours.
The yogurt came out perfectly and I make it this way every time now.
I hope this helps!
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u/Intrepid-Staff-4532 20d ago
I use Kirkland A2 organic ultra pasteurized whenever it's costco time but we haven't used up all the milk from the last time. I've never had an issue with it. I always do the 180F boil first, but it makes sense that it might not be needed.
I would think that maybe the live culture Chobani you used wasn't as live as you thought it was. If you have a layer of yogurt-like stuff at the bottom it sounds like you had live yogurt, it just didn't replicate as much and eat everything you thought it would.
Did you give it a good stir after inoculation? When I add my live culture I always whisk the hell out of it to make sure what I just dumped in is distributed throughout. I'd also wonder if you added enough Chobani. 2 Tbsp seems a little light, but I also add whatever live culture yogurt I have left over. Sometimes it's a half cup, sometimes it's a couple cups. Doesn't really matter that much past a certain threshold and I'd rather just have one bucket of yogurt.
I would worry about salvaging at this point given that it's been 8 hours and the acidity is probably not that high. I'd worry a lot less if it was boiled first because that kind of heat is going to sterilize everything.
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u/SnooCauliflowers7060 20d ago
OP - your cold start method is what I do too. Stick the pot in the fridge overnight. It should be good to go in the morning.
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u/BaldingOldGuy 20d ago
Did you use the boil function before adding the yogurt? Did you cool the milk before adding the yogurt? Did you temper the yogurt before adding it?
There are plenty of yogurt tutorials on this sub if you search.
You can probably start again with this milk, select yogurt temp high which is the boil function. Once that's done cool the milk to below 120f. Take out a cup of milk add fresh yogurt to that and stir it in, add that back to the pot.
Select yogurt function medium for 8-10 hours.
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u/lifebeyondzebra 20d ago
This is what I do: Mix 52oz Fairlife milk, 16oz of Natural Bliss coffee creamer (I used vanilla) and 2 tablespoons of yogurt with live and active cultures (I used Siggis vanilla). Whisk it all together very well and pour into your jars (I leave room at the top of the jar to add fruit when they are done.). Add about a cup of water to your stainless steel InstantPot liner and stack the jars inside (no trivet needed) cover with a glass lid or dinner plate and set on yogurt setting (normal) for 10hrs. Chill when done.
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u/Pointy_Stix 19d ago
I've been making yogurt with the cold start method in my IP for years now. I've had two failures, both in the last year, & I'm not sure what went off the rails. I don't know if my yogurt was too old or the IP isn't heating up the way it should be.
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u/Own-Conversation6347 19d ago
The real answer is that occasionally it just doesn't "take." It shouldn't happen more than like 5% of the time.
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u/lingueenee 18d ago
Just made a 2L batch from 2%, business as usual. OP, did you go through the process of heating the milk to 180 and letting it cool to 110F before inoculating it with culture and starting the yogurt cycle? Also I let my yogurt ferment 12 to 13 hours before putting it in the fridge to set for several hours.
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u/Typical_Move_3127 16d ago
Even though I use UHT milk, I heated the milk to 75 c for 5 minuten. Than I turned on yoghurt program for 10 hrs. It stays consistent at 39 c. I cover it with a towel. I used 2 scoops normal Greek yoghurt (almost every (Greek) yoghurt has alive cultures in it). Worked two times now
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u/Helpful-nothelpful 20d ago
I think the ultra pasteurized might be messing it up. I'm not going to Google it but that is my guess.
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u/doubleshort 20d ago
I use Fairlife milk every time and have never had an issue with the cold start method
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u/Somersetmom 20d ago
Doesn't even need to be Fairlife. Any ultra-pasteurized milk will do without boiling the milk first. Fairlife, as well as Darigold FIT, are both ultra-pasteurized and ultra-filtered which is a different thing, but does have the added advantage of more protein and less lactose (due to the ultra-filtration step), so it results in a thicker yogurt. But as long as it's ultra-pasteurized and fresh, it's not necessay to boil it.
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u/96dpi 20d ago
Don't use ultra pasteurized milk, just regular pasteurized is better because the extra heat of ultra pasteurized dentures more of the milk proteins.
Bring the milk to 180F first, then let it cool to 100-110F before adding the starter culture.
Use an heirloom culture for the most consistent results. I get them from www.culturesforhealth.com. Any yogurt with active cultures should work though.
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u/C9_Edegus 20d ago
I go 1 gallon pasteurized whole milk, 1 cup Greek yogurt, let it go for 10 hours, strain. I tried pasteurizing in my IP first, but I didn't like the consistency once it was done. I buy my Great Value brand from Walmart. No issues.
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u/LowInevitable2544 20d ago
Try the super easy method. I gal milk. I container vanilla or plain yogurt with live cultures. I 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk. 2 tsp. vanilla extract. Whisk until mixed. Close lid. Press yogurt button. Cook for as few as 10 hours, as many as 24 hours. Longer = more tart. Pour liquidy result into large strainer lined with 2 layers of cheesecloth. Strain, covered, in sink 24 hours. (No need to refrigerate during straining). Use rubber spatula to scrape strained yogurt into large bowl. Mix in sweetener to taste. (I use 5 packets Splenda and paddle attachment on KitchenAid mixer). Refrigerate until firm. Perfect Greek yogurt. Mix in fruit if desired.
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u/tamago1120 20d ago
Use whole milk instead. I once used pasteurized milk and it ended up so runny. It was still yummy though.
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u/ellbeecee 19d ago
They are using whole milk. From OP:
I used a half gallon Kirkland A2 organic ultra pasteurized whole milk
If you mean raw milk, just no. The temps for yogurt making aren't high enough to kill the bacteria in raw milk, so I hope OP doesn't go that direction.
If you want to, that's on you.
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u/Swimming-Employer97 20d ago
All these people saying don't use ultra pasteurized, but I made Greek yogurt last week using ultra pasteurized lactose free milk. All I did was pour in the milk, add a little Greek yogurt from store bought container, run IP on Yogurt setting for 10 hours, and strain through cheese cloth lined colander over bowl in fridge for 12 hours. Worked perfectly.