Greek Yogurt

Greek Yogurt is becoming increasingly popular in the United States of America, no doubt because of it’s thick smooth and creamy texture that rivals much of the soup like consistency of most commercial dairy based yogurts.

It is made by several manufacturers and you’ll likely be able to find it in your refrigerator dairy case in the grocery store. However, it not surprisingly is more expensive, especially if the product was manufactured out of the country.

The main difference between greek yogurt and regular yogurt is the thickness in consistency. Fortunately, if you’re wondering how to make Greek yogurt you can do it with one extra simple step in addition to our regular guide on making yogurt, which you’ll want to read first for detailed instructions. For best results, we recommend using whole fat milk and a whole fat yogurt starter base.

To start off, you’ll need the same ingredients we use for our basic recipe: 1 quart of milk and 2-3 tablespoons of yogurt or yogurt starter.

The first thing to do is to cook the milk to 185 degrees in a saucepan. (we prefer a double boiler – you don’t want to scald or burn it!) This gets rid of any impurities in the milk that could cause it to spoil or affect the way the bacteria do their magic.

Next, you’ll want to cool it off to be around 110-115 degrees. This is the peak temperature for the bacteria to work at making lactic acid. A cooking thermometer is an indispensable tool for this!

After that, you need to add in the yogurt or yogurt starter and allow it to incubate in your machine for 4-8 hours. The time will greatly depend on what bacterias you are using – the more bacteria, the faster this whole process is.

After it has incubated and fermented, you’re ready for the extra step to follow for making this regular old yogurt go “Greek”.

Straining the Yogurt

When you are straining the yogurt, you will need a large bowl, a cheesecloth or clean towel, a colander that fits into the bowl, and some string.

1. Put the cheesecloth in the colander and the colander into the bowl and then pour the yogurt onto it. Lift the corners of the fabric and twist it so that it squeezes the yogurt. (Note: You may want to do this over a sink!)

2. When you have squeezed out as much liquid as you can, tie the cloth around the remaining yogurt as tightly as you can and allow it to drain in the colander over the bowl for 3-4 hours in the refrigerator.

3. Untie the String & Serve and Enjoy! You can now add any flavorings.

It’s a little tricky at first making Greek yogurt, but once you get the hang of it you can enjoy this same delicious treat for a fraction of the cost of what you would spend in stores!