How to Make Raw Milk Yogurt

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Hey friends. Do you love yogurt? In our household, yogurt is common as an after school snack or a dollop on top of pancakes. I love the creamy taste and the versatility of it.

All yogurt sold in grocery stores is made with pasteurized milk. I love to make my own yogurt, using unpasteurized raw milk. Raw milk is teeming with probiotic benefits that are very nourishing to the body. I buy two gallons of raw milk every other week. My kids use one gallon of it in cereal, oatmeal, and by the glass. I use the other gallon to make yogurt.

Keep reading to discover the benefits of raw milk yogurt, how to properly make raw milk yogurt, and the benefits of long fermentation.

Start With Fresh, Raw Milk

I first learned about the benefits of raw milk when my kids were much younger. Raw milk has more probiotics than pasteurized. It promotes the production of glutathione in our bodies, which is an antioxidant and helps to detoxify our cells. Raw milk is good for us when it comes from healthy, pasture raised cows. This podcast episode goes into detail about why we started pasteurizing milk in the first place, and why it’s unnecessary and damaging to the milk, especially when it comes from healthy cows.

Raw milk contains beneficial fats, vitamins, and minerals that can help reduce allergies, improve skin, improve digestion, build muscle, and improve weight loss. You can’t find raw milk in grocery stores, but you can often get it at farmers markets or food buying clubs. Go to Real Milk to find out where raw milk is sold near you.

Warm, But Do Not Boil

In order to make raw milk yogurt, you will need a yogurt maker, Instant Pot, or a slower cooker with a dimmer switch. I used a slow cooker connected to a dimmer switch for years to make great yogurt. I had to trial and error at first to figure out the correct setting by heating water in my slow cooker. After fiddling around with the dimmer switch and eventually figuring out which was the ideal temp (110 degrees Fahrenheit) I then taped it into position for future batches.

Now I have a VitaClay slow cooker as well as an Instant Pot. Both are capable of making excellent yogurt. However, I usually prefer my VitaClay because of the benefits incorporated to my food from the clay pot. As they state on their website:

Organic unglazed clay activates enzymes and minerals in your foods, enabling you to extract extra flavors and nutrients from your recipes while increasing digestibility. Clay is also alkalizing—everything the ancients prized in healthy cookware, superior taste and perfect texture and synergistic properties—clay working together with your foods and spices to create a synergistic partnership to let food be your medicine—right in your own kitchen.

VitaClay

I ordered a Bulgarian yogurt starter online and used that for my first batch of yogurt. This company also carries a similar yogurt starter. I saved half a cup of yogurt to culture the next batch. Every time I make yogurt now, I immediately set aside a half cup of yogurt for the next batch.

I heat the milk on a pot on the stove until it reaches 110 degrees Fahrenheit. I monitor it very closely, because if it reaches 118 degrees, the enzymes are destroyed in the milk, making it more difficult to digest.

Then I pour the warm milk into my VitaClay slow cooker, whisk in 1/2 cup of my reserved yogurt (or you can use a powdered yogurt starter), and choose the yogurt option.

Benefits of Long Fermentation

Here is where I veer off a bit from traditional yogurt making. Most yogurt makers are set at 8 hours to ferment, but I like to ferment the yogurt for 24 hours. This helps break down the lactose, a milk sugar that some people are sensitive to (including myself). It also increases the good bacteria in the yogurt, which is good for our gut health. The probiotics found in long fermented yogurt go way beyond any probiotic supplement you can buy.

In my VitaClay, I only have the option of hitting the yogurt button, which defaults to 8 hours. I simply reset it two more times to total 24 hours. In the Instant Pot, I can set the time to 24 hours for the fermentation time.

However, there is a catch. If you plan to set aside some yogurt for your next batch, it is possible that the bacteria in the 24 hour yogurt will run out of food (the yogurt culture). The simple solution is to remove half a cup of yogurt after 8 hours and save it for the next batch, then continue on with the fermentation process.

Strain Well

You’ll be left with a delicious, tangy, European style yogurt. European style yogurt is a bit runnier and liquidy. This is great for smoothies or if you want to mix in some jam or honey.

What I usually do is strain it through cheesecloth. I line a colander with the cheese cloth, place it in a large bowl, and pour half of my yogurt in. I let it sit in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours until the yogurt is nice and thick. I place the remaining yogurt in a separate container in the fridge to wait its turn. I store the yogurt and the whey in plastic quart containers or quart sized glass mason jars.

Eating the Yogurt

Yogurt is delicious. Different ways to enjoy it include:

• Top with berries, honey, and granola
• Mix into a smoothie, or make a smoothie bowl
• Blend with tuna, chopped onion, salt, pepper, and herbs for a probiotic tuna salad
• Use thickened yogurt as a topping for soups, lentils, or baked potatoes

Bonus: Use the Whey

You’ll be left with about two quarts of thick yogurt and two quarts of liquid whey. The whey is very good for you, and there many things you can use it for, including:

• Souring flour for baking quick breads, muffins, and pancakes
• Blending it into smoothies
• Adding a tablespoon to oats and soaking them in water overnight to lower the amount of phytic acid
• Adding a tablespoon to seltzer water with some sweetener to make a probiotic soda
• Using it in your skin and hair care routine
• Feeding it to your animals

Before You Go…

Check out these favorite recipes that use yogurt. Thanks for reading, and let me know how your yogurt turns out!

Rebekah