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Making yoghurt in a slow cooker

QrizB
Posts: 15,226 Forumite

Honestly, it works, but you need a little bit of technology ...
We've had a basic electric yoghurt maker for 20+ years (it was a wedding present) but a week or two ago it stopped getting hot. It's not designed to be fixed by the user (I think the casing is glued together) and I was more likely to destroy it than fix it, so I looked at other options.
Yoghurt makers seem to have become more complicated over the past two decades! Our old one made one 1-litre pot of yoghurt. Most of the current options are designed to make individual-serving-sized glass pots, which I'm sure are more Instagrammable but are too fussy for me. Also, yoghurt makers aren't cheap
and this is MSE so I looked to see what else I could use.

I tried fermenting yoghurt in the airing cupboard, but our tank is too well insulated (& the cupboard to cool) so after five days all I had was off milk.
What hot kitchen appliance is the same sort of size as the yoghurt maker? Ah, how about a 1.8 litre slow cooker (example)?
I'm sure all the slow cooker fans reading this will be yelling at their screens "but that's far too hot for yoghurt, you'll kill the culture!". And you're right, even on "warm" it will get to 70-80C and we really want 35-40C for fermenting yoghurt.
Enter the little bit of technology I mentioned earlier; a plug-in temperature controller (example). This will control the power to the slow cooker, turning it on and off to maintain your fermenting temperature.
Method:
- Put 1 litre of UHT milk into your yoghurt fermenting pot (I used the pot from the old yoghurt maker, but eg. a Kilner jar or jam jar would also work).
- Stir two dessert spoons of live yoghurt into the UHT milk (this starts your yoghurt off).
- Add 2-300ml of warm water to the slow cooker (you're going to be using it as a bain marie).
- Put the fermenting pot into the water. The water level should come well up the pot, but not overflow the slow cooker. Top up the water if necessary.
- Put the temperature probe from the controller into the water, where it won't fall out.
- Put the lid on the slow cooker. If the lid won't fit because the fermenting pot is too tall, use eg. a pudding basin instead.
- Plug in the temperature controller, Set it to hold at 35-40C.
- Plug the slow cooker into the controller.
- Turn the slow cooker on at the lowest setting ("warm" if you have it, otherwise "low").
- Check occasionally to make sure everything is OK (I started mine off in the afternoon, but it wasn't quite done by bedtime so I left it running overnight).
- After 8-12 hours, the yoghurt should be done. Turn off the power and remove the fermenting pot to cool.
- Once cool, transfer the yoghurt to the fridge.
I've done this once and it worked perfectly.
Any thoughts from the forum?
N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Shell (now TT) BB / Lebara mobi. Ripple Kirk Hill member.
2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 33MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 33MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
Not exactly back from my break, but dipping in and out of the forum.
Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!1
Comments
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Thanks for this recipe! Might have to try this - seems like a reasonable home method1
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We were discussing only today whether we could make yogurt in a slow cooker and decided it would be too hot, so it's interesting to read about this method.
However, our bread maker also makes yogurt in about 8 hours, although my attempt to use soya milk today appears to have failed! I used the last bit of the live milk yogurt from the last batch.2 -
2childmum2 said:We were discussing only today whether we could make yogurt in a slow cooker and decided it would be too hot, so it's interesting to read about this method.
However, our bread maker also makes yogurt in about 8 hours, although my attempt to use soya milk today appears to have failed! I used the last bit of the live milk yogurt from the last batch.0 -
Our bread maker has a yogurt setting, but I don't think they all do (my last one didn't)0
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My electric pressure cooker/slow cooker has a yoghurt setting. I'm never very successful with home-made yoghurt, I like thick Greek style and when I've tried it at home it's usually too watery and bland tasting. I believe as long as you've got the right temperature at the start you can make it in a Thermos.
I had one of those insulated pot types but only had success using the Easi-Yo packets, which I thought was no cheaper than buying it. Your way sounds effective, I didn't know you could buy a temperature controller. Was that something you already owned?Life is mainly froth and bubble: two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own.0 -
PollyWollyDoodle said:Your way sounds effective, I didn't know you could buy a temperature controller. Was that something you already owned?I bought it specially for making yoghurt.Sending £15 on a gadget to let me make yohurt might not sound very MSE, but natural yoghurt is about £1 for 500g in the shops and we get through one or two tubs a week. We make ours using full-fat UHT milk, which is about £1 a litre and makes a kg of yoghurt, so we're saving 50p-£1 a week. It'll pay for itself before the next equinox.N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Shell (now TT) BB / Lebara mobi. Ripple Kirk Hill member.
2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 33MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.Not exactly back from my break, but dipping in and out of the forum.Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!1
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