Okay, so I think I've mastered whole-pot yogurt-making in the Instant Pot (making yogurt in individual jars is for another post!). This is the basic concept:
1. Boil the milk to get rid of any competing bacteria
2. Let it cool down to around 115F & then stir in some yogurt starter (usually a little bit of yogurt from the store or leftover from your last batch)
3. Incubate it for 10 to 24 hours to let the yogurt bacteria grow in a nice, warm environment (length depends on how tart you like it, longer = more sour)
4. Strain it (you can make gogurt, yogurt, or Greek yogurt depending on the amount of time spent letting it drip)
I use a 6-quart Instant Pot 7-in-1, currently $120 on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-IP-DUO60-Multi-Functional-Pressure/dp/B00FLYWNYQ/
For reading temperature, I use a knockoff Thermapen instant-read thermometer: ($26 vs. $136)
https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Accurate-High-Performing-Digital-Thermometer/dp/B00OXHQL3Q/
Silicone whisk: ($10...silicone is so the yogurt doesn't pick up the metal taste from regular whisks)
https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Whisk-Silicone-Set-Stainless/dp/B012P1BBQS/
Yogurt strainer: ($19...same idea as a salad spinner, just with a mesh net inside the inner bowl)
https://www.amazon.com/Euro-Cuisine-GY50-Greek-Yogurt/dp/B0091XNL0I/
The Instant Pot uses induction heating, so it doesn't scald the milk & will beep when done. For supplies, all you need is two things:
1. Half-gallon of whole milk (you can fit a whole gallon, but my yogurt strainer bowl can only handle a couple quarts of yogurt at a time, so I just do half a gallon per batch).
2. Small tub of plain Greek yogurt with live cultures
This is the process in detail:
1. Add 1/2 gallon of whole milk to the Instant Pot & let it boil (it's automatic - 20 to 60 minutes depending on temperature of the milk, ambient temperature, etc.). Just hit the Yogurt button on the machine twice, until it says Boil (note: only do one boil; I've done a double-boil & you get little hard chunks in the yogurt that are like coconut bits).
2. Let the milk cool down to around 115F (nice & warm for the yogurt bacteria to start partying). It takes an hour or so if you take the pot out & let it sit on the counter, or about 5 minutes if you use the sink trick. The sink trick is: put a plug in your sink, put the Instant Pot's removable inner pot in the sink, and fill the sink (not the pot) with cold water. In about 5 minutes, use the whisk to stir the milk around (this eliminates any hotspots, which will give inaccurate temperature readings) & see if you're at 115F (90F to 120F is an acceptable range, just not so hot it kills the yogurt starter!).
3. Once you get down to that temperature, dry off the pot, put it back in the Instant Pot, and whisk in the yogurt starter. For your first batch, just dump in a small thing of plain Greek yogurt. For subsequent batches, keep a bit of yogurt on the side for the starter, since it already has the yogurt bacteria in it...as long as you do that, you'll never have to buy yogurt again! Bonus, you can freeze it in ice cube trays so you have frozen starter available.
4. Incubate it for 10 to 24 hours. That basically just keeps the milk nice & warm so the yogurt bacteria can multiply. The longer you incubate, the more sour & tart the yogurt will become. If you are into probiotics, one cup of 24-hour incubated yogurt has 708 billion bacteria (vs. the $35 pack of probiotic capsules at the store that only have 50-billion & probably closer to 20 billion by the time you get them):
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/legal/detail/homemade-yogurt/
Also, if you want parfait-style sweet yogurt, whisk in 1/4 cup of sugar (or however much you like) after incubation but before straining. This makes it tastes like a McDonald's parfait (note: I tried adding sugar before incubation, but the sweet flavor was entirely gone after incubating).
5. Once the incubation is done, whisk it for a minute to make it smooth & then strain for a set period of time. You're basically separating the whey (liquid) from the yogurt, which then controls the thickness of the yogurt. You can use cheesecloth, a nut-milk bag (basically a cheesecloth bag), or a strainer bowl. I like the strainer bowl because it's easy to do with just one person, has a lid, and you can stick it in the fridge overnight if you like really thick yogurt. Plus a quality nut-milk strainer bag is ten bucks anyway, and for another nine dollars you can have a hassle-free yogurt-straining system.
Strain time depends on what you like & how the batch turned out. If you strain it for a few minutes, you get Gogurt, which is really liquidy, drinkable yogurt. They sell food pouches if you want to DIY for snacks or kid's meals:
https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Food-Pouch-Pack-Homemade/dp/B00TXBSHBQ/
Starting at about 30 minutes, enough liquid whey drains out that you start to get pudding-like yogurt. After an hour, it starts getting into custard-thickness for Greek yogurt. If you like it
really thick, just stick the strainer bowl in the fridge overnight. After straining, spoon it into an airtight storage container, such as a mason jar or Thermos. Also, don't throw away the liquid whey, it works similar to buttermilk (i.e. pancakes!). Here's some ideas for stuff you can use the whey for:
http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/recipes-with-yogurt/18-ways-to-use-whey-a-by-product-of-greek-yogurt
So at this point, you will have a flavorless, plain yogurt (maybe a tart plain yogurt if you incubated it for awhile) that you can dress up to your liking. My current favorite combo is putting two spoonfuls of raspberry jam in a mason jar, filling it with yogurt & berries, and topping it with crushed Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal. Mix it all together with your spoon & you get a nice little breakfast parfait or mid-afternoon protein snack. You can also use the yogurt to make frozen yogurt (lots of recipes on Pinterest & Serious Eats), as well as a bunch of other stuff like naan, smoothies, baked goods, etc. Unflavored sour yogurt can also be substituted into Mexican dishes for sour cream. Also, according to google, one cup of plain Greek yogurt has about 17 grams of protein in it, so it makes a pretty good healthy meal.
As far as planning ahead, I work mine around my work schedule. When I wake up, I'll boil the milk (~30 minutes), then cool it down in the sink quickly (~5 minutes), stir in the yogurt starter, and let it incubate while I'm at work. To save myself the hassle of coming home long after the incubation is done, I simply set it to 24 hours so that if I get home 8 hours later or 12 hours later it doesn't really matter, it just gets a little bit more tart. From there, lately I've just been dumping it in my straining bowl & letting it sit in the fridge overnight. So basically you start one batch in the morning & can eat it the next morning.
It varies how much you get out of it (straining can reduce volume quite a bit), but half a gallon can make up to a quart or so, which is enough for a couple days, so you can just make a batch every few days & always have fresh, cheap, zero-filler, customized yogurt on-hand. Actual prep time is maybe 5 minutes total...(1) dump milk in & press boil button, (2) let it chill down to 115F & stir in yogurt starter, (3) pour it into strainer, and (4) pour it into storage containers. So it's very little actual hands-on time in terms of work, it's just spread out over time. If you like to do minimal work for a good output, you should check out both bread machine bread & no-knead bread. A couple starter links:
http://catch42.pbworks.com/w/page/91703094/Ridefree
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread
I like to make bread just about every day. RideFree's 13-cent loaf takes all of 2 minute's worth of prep a night. No-knead takes about a minute at night (hand-stir the ingredients together & cover), then another minute the next day to poof out the air & let it rise, and then the bake time in the oven (it's an entirely different type of bread from a bread machine loaf tho). So if you don't mind a little planning ahead, you can have stuff like fresh bread & homemade yogurt available every day with minimal effort & at a nice little cost-savings. Also, if you have an Instant Pot & you're into eggs, you can make soft, medium, and hardboiled eggs REALLY easily:
https://instantpot.com/tag/hard-boiled-eggs/
http://www.hippressurecooking.com/cracked-soft-medium-and-hard-boiled-eggs-in-the-pressure-cooker/
http://healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com/2011/04/pressure-cooker-hard-boiled-eggs.html
Special note, pressure-cooking them makes them pretty easy to peel too!
http://www.homemademommy.net/2015/12/easiest-peel-hard-boiled-eggs-instant-pot.html
Hardboiled eggs make great snacks with a little salt on top, as well as sliced into salads, chopped into egg salad, making egg-salad sandwiches, etc. Man, I love these little machines, they make life so much easier! :thumbsup:
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