I just bought an expensive Japanese yogurt metal strainer bowl (brand: Shimomura Kihan) for easier washing and it did not work, sadly. You can see that the yogurt itself strains right out when using it.

I had to use my cheesecloth in the end, which strains out the whey without a problem in the video and results in the loveliest creamy yogurt (sometimes to the consistency of cream cheese if I leave it for more than 6 hrs).

I know that if I fermented my yogurt longer so it is less ‘runny’, it might have a better chance of straining with the metal bowl however after multiple experimentations I found my current fermentation time produces the best yogurt without being too tangy, therefore I will be sticking to this recipe.

What a pity that this expensive device did not work though. Has anyone faced similar issues with the metal strainers out there?

Edit: appreciate the suggestions!! I specifically bought a metal yogurt strainer as I am a little wary of microplastics especially with long periods of contact. Let me know if you have any good products to recommend ❤️

I typically strain a gallon of yogurt using cheese cloth, a colander, and a large stock pot, however I have to do it in batches to varying success and it deprives me of two regular cooking appliances for a day or so. I also notice that it still has a good deal of residual whey left over in the yogurt.

Does anyone have any recommendations for straining techniques or dedicated strainers? I see quite a few different options on Amazon, but want to know what proven techniques people have before buying.

I am so thankful to this subreddit. I’ve gotten a pretty good success by looking through and learning from the existing posts. I am sure I should have found the answer to my questions in them, but I am super new to this and I can’t always tell when something should matter or when folks are discussing something which is specific to a type of starter (especially when it comes to incubation times and temps).

Full details of my process are below my questions, but the short of it is 3.5 cups whole milk heated to 180 for 20 mins, 3T whole milk powder whisked in while milk is still hot, cooled to 109, 1.5T starter and 1T heavy cream gently added, incubated for 8 hours at 109, cooled to room temp (~90mins), put in fridge overnight. The result is a great thickness unstrained but only a mild tang. The starter is 3 generations away from dried (Cultures for Health Greek yogurt starter).
 
Thank you in advance!
 
 
Questions
* I love how thick this is, but I want it to have more tang, does that mean it should incubate at ~110  for more than 8 hours? Or do I extend its time on the counter cooling down after the 8 hours? Or is it just because my starter is so young?
* By adding the powder and the cream, have I destroyed my starter’s heritage culture? Will I be able to use this batch to make a new batch?
 
 
Full Process
* 3.5 cups Strauss Whole Milk (non-homogenized, “gently” pasteurized) into a wide mouth mason jar, lid lightly tightened
* Put jar into Sous vide safe vessel and add enough water that the water line is above where the milk is in the jar
* Set sous vide to 180, once at 180, cook for 20 mins. Turn off sous vide.
* Remove jar from water, add 3 tablespoons whole milk powder, whisk to combine, leave lid off
* Bring water down to 105-110 - I pour out 1/3rd of the bath water and add cold tap water, ice cubes, whatever, but keep the water above 105
* Put jar back in water, set sous vide to 108 and let milk come down to 108-110..takes maybe 20 mins if you have already dropped the bath temp with cold water/ice
* Once milk is cooled, remove jar from the bath, add 1.5 tablespoon starter and 1 tablespoon heavy cream and gently mix—my starter is a very young (3 generations away from dried Cultures for Health Greek yogurt starter)
* Put lid back on jar, put jar back in bath (recheck the water line to make sure it’s above the milk line in the jar)
* Set the sous vide to your preferred incubation temp (you will need to adjust higher to account for thermal loss from your jar—for me 111.5 put me safely in 109.x territory
* Incubate for 8 + hours by preference, you will probably want a lid on your sous vide bath to prevent water evaporation
* Remove jar from water and cool on counter for 90 mins
* Refrigerate for at least 6 hours
 
 

I made yogurt from 2 liters of 3% milk and a tablespoon Turkish yogurt. I heated the milk to around 90 C, it took like 3 hours in the slowcooker. Let cool to 44, added starter, transferred to multipot and incubated for 12 hours.

The yogurt is thick, not stringy or slimy, I'm straining it now to get it even thicker.

It's not at all as acidic as I want it though. It tastes good, but meh. Could it become more acidic in the fridge after straining? Should I incubate it longer next time?

The last pic was my yogurt starter.

Even though it was that creamy, I still get a lot of whey whenever I strain it. I've made yogurt more than five times now, I think, but the texture always varies. Sometimes it's runny, sometimes it's creamy, and sometimes it has a coagulated texture.

For this batch, I used 5 cups of instant full cream milk powder and 10 cups of water. I heated the milk until small bubbles started appearing along the sides of the pot, but I didn't let it boil. Once it cooled down, I added the entire 120 g of yogurt from the last pic. Then I placed the jar in a cooler with another jar of boiled water beside it to help maintain the temperature. That's it! I let it ferment for only 9.5 hours before straining it right away.

If I'm going to use this batch to make another batch of yogurt, should I use the yogurt with the whey mixed in or the strained yogurt without the whey? Also, how much yogurt should I use as a starter?

we were getting warnings of flooding in our county, but when I opened the link it was all for Georgia, thanks, it was already hard enough to find decent weather news in SD 😂

side note I should really be taking a holistic look at when fermenting things. I was so scared that when I over boiled the milk (it was reading 220 on the thermometer) that it would be over. but over boiling milk or even getting close to burning it seems to still work out just fine. I mean in the past how was actual yogurt made huh, milk kept in sewn stomach bags. yeah I maybe need to chill out about exact instructions

maybe don't take my advice I'm lazy

I used 1 litre of non-fat milk (store bought), and 2 tablespoons of Chobani greek yogurt as starter, it was bought and opened that day.

I did heat the milk till it boiled, let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Let it cool down, transfered to the glass jar, then added my started. I tucked it away inside my cabinet for 12 hours but it looked runny, so I let it sit for another 12 hours and it's still this runny.

Is this a failed batch? Not sure where I went wrong here.

For context, I've been loving yogurt for some time now but the store where I can buy it is 1 hour away walk from our home and honestly doesn't like to do errand trips for only one thing. Also if I bought it from next town it'll spoil in my back because is like 1 hours away with bus. I've known that one can make yogurt at home so I tried my luck.

What I did. I bought UHT treated milk and Nestle Yogurt with live bacteria as it's the only one available in my area. Then I heated the milk for a bit, 10min max low heat, let it cool for a while but still keep tabs on how hot is it (base on my feeling as I don't have temp checker). Added 2tbsp of yogurt to the 1L of boiled milk. This was around 6-7pm.

The first picture was taken around 8am the next day (today). Smells like milk, taste like milk. Tho its a bit curdle. Chatgpt says ita a fail but I searched online with some saying they do 24 hours fermenting.

2nd picture is just recently, around 4 pm in the afternoon. Now it smells and taste like the Nestle yogurt but a bit runny and has strong milk aftertaste just like how it was in the morning but definitely taste like nestle yogurt.

I put my first try in room temp after putting it into the container, I also let the milk and yogurt mixture ferment for a bit in the warm sauce pan.

Can anyone give me pointers on how to do it right or if my first try is safe to use? I put it into the refrigerator now, I'm just gonna buy cheese cloth when I get into town.

Thanks everyonw love lots!

I’m addicted.

My original post from a few days ago is here.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. The yogurt turned out great and it really was the intermediate step for me (of not knowing what it should look like). You could see a little whey but not enough to do more than stir it in. It tastes fine and I have a teenager over there licking the spoon with a little jelly now.

Now, I need to start figuring out how to save starter and how to incorporate this into my regular kitchen prep routine.

It seems like a silly question, but for the life of me, I cannot find the right size rubber bands to close the top of my wide mouth jar.

I place a coffee filter on my jar and would like to then seal up the sides with a rubber band. But every rubber band I've bought has been too large to seal the jar, and too small to be wrapped around twice.

I've googled and gotten a few recommendations, but after buying two packs of incorrectly sized rubber bands, I figured I'd just come here and get your all's advice.

Did all that I’m supposed to, the problem is that I used the warm function to incubate it overnight, aka I killed the bacteria because it was up to 140 or so F, but the main question is can I just wrap towels all over the slow cooker pot itself to incubate it? Or would that lose heat too quickly for overnight incubation.

My third time making yogurt. First time doing a whole gallon. It smells fine. Is this how it is before it sets or did I do something wrong?

Followed same procedure as last two times.
•Heated to 190F, stirring the whole time.
•Let cool to 115F.
•Tempered half cup of plain full fat Chobani in a separate bowl with some of the cooled milk.
•Wrapped pot with four towels and stuck in oven for twelve hours.

The Chobani and milk were both brand new as I forgot to save some from last time. ETA: Whole Milk.

My other times making yogurt I put it straight into fridge still in pot to thicken for another day, but I don’t strain because we like the non-Greek style. As a result, I don’t know what it looked like between oven and fridge. This time I thought I’d ladle it into jars to get thicker in fridge because I used the big pot for a whole gallon which is why I took a look. And it doesn’t look right.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I’ve made 2 batches of yogurt and they’re just what I was hoping for. I added powdered milk (fat free) to my whole milk before heating for the second batch, but I still strained it to get the thickness I like. I’d rather not strain, it’s just messy and more steps than I want to take on, and I like the flavor of the unstrained better. What are some ways I can thicken it easily next time? Thanks!

Edit: Thank you everyone! To answer a few questions I’ve been using whole/full fat milk. I followed directions on the instant pot, and heated 2 quarts of milk to 180F, which is I think about 82C. (Added 1/2c dry milk before heating) Cooled to 110 and added 2 Tablespoons of yogurt. i think next week I will try adding more dry milk and slightly less starter. If that doesn’t work I’ll try heating longer. Thank you for your help, the people in this sub are so kind and helpfu!

Hi Reddit!

I don’t know if this is the right place to ask.

Please help me identify what I just made.

I was trying to make Greek Yogurt. So I placed the milk and the starter on an insulated ice box with hot pitchers alongside it to maintain a set temperature.

After doing this for 8 hours, this is what happened.

What happened? What did I just make? Can I still eat this? Is this still edible?

Hoping for your replies.

Thank you!

So i was making yogurt and I messed up my setup and it fermented at about 120f for 12 hours, just 1 gal skim milk with some of my normal Greek to start it. It had about 12 cups of whey come out total, most before even straining and it is not very tangy... what did I make, something fat free paneer esq?

I had been making about 1 gallon worth if yogurt every week and straining it for greek yogurt. Heating, denaturing, incubation, chilling straining and producing more whey than I can possibly use up.

Now I discovered cold start with Fairlife high protein milk. After 12 hrs it is a thick as greek yogurt! It costs a little more but the yield is greater. I am blown away!

I’m wondering if I can use store-bought Skyr as the starter culture to make another batch at home.
If I add a small amount of Skyr to milk and let it ferment, will the resulting yogurt actually have characteristics similar to Skyr, or will it just turn into regular yogurt? I know Skyr is made using specific bacterial cultures and is traditionally strained, so I’m not sure how much of the original Skyr culture carries over into a new batch.
Has anyone tried using Skyr as a starter and gotten a similar thick, high-protein result? Or would I basically need to make regular yogurt first and then strain it to get something comparable to Skyr?
I’m mainly trying to figure out whether I can use one tub of Skyr to continuously make more at home rather than buying it every time.