The BEST and HEALTHIEST Homemade Yogurt Recipe! Refika's Tips and Tricks to Make the Best Yogurt!

Savory yogurt is a much-loved staple dish in Turkey. We eat it a little differently than in Western culture. It can be an ingredient in a sour soup, our favorite refreshing national drink (ayran) or an essential sauce with dried herbs and garlic for famous dishes like Iskender kebab, dolma or mantı. We even have a yogurt dessert! The rich tradition of yogurt making developed as a way to preserve milk in the days before refrigeration. Today I want to tell you how to make the perfect Turkish-style yogurt with all my tips and tricks. All you need is milk, some yogurt and a little time. 😍 Please enjoy today's episode, and have a wonderful weekend!

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1,5 L milk
1,5 heaped tablespoons savory yogurt (or yogurt starter culture)
• Rinse the inside of the pot with cold water. Add the milk and warm it up to 39-41 C (102-105F), if using HTST or UHT milk. If using raw milk, check the tips and tricks.
• Check the temperature of the milk with your finger. It should feel pleasantly warm when you stick your pinkie in the milk for five seconds.
• Transfer some warm milk to a small bowl and whisk in the yogurt until smooth.
• Stir the mixture back into the pot.
• Place a wooden spoon on top of the pot and wrap in a towel on a wooden board. The spoon will prevent the towel from falling into the milk. The towel and wooden board will keep the mixture warm.
• Let it sit in a warm place for four hours. Transfer the pot to the refrigerator and chill overnight. For a thicker yogurt, after four hours, cover the yogurt with a kitchen cloth in a tray. Make sure the cloth is in contact with the surface so it can soak up any excess water.

Tips & Tricks
1) Choosing the pot: enamel, clay or glass are the perfect materials for making yogurt.
2) Rinse the inside of the pot with cold water to prevent scorching.
3) Choosing the milk:
-Raw milk, heat over 70 C (158 F) for 15 minutes
-Daily milk (HTST), heat up to 40-45 C (104-113 F)
-Pasteurized milk (UHT), heat up to 40-45 C (104-1113 F)

4) Thickness of the yogurt depends on the milk’s fat content. For a thicker yogurt, use higher fat content milk.
-Cow milk, (3,5% fat)
-Goat milk, (4,09% fat)
-Sheep milk, (6,24% fat)
-Buffalo milk, (7,96% fat)

Or boil the milk for an hour so you will end up with milk with higher fat content and therefore a thicker yogurt.

Alternatively, mix your milk with cream.
5) Cool the milk to 39-41 C (102-105 F) and then mix with your yogurt starter.
6) Whisk the yogurt starter and mix with milk. 1 heaped tablespoon yogurt for 1 L milk, if your starter is sour, your yogurt will be sour as well.
If you don’t have any yogurt to use as starter you can use yogurt culture, which contains Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus.
7) Always use a wooden spoon for stirring. Stainless steel is bacteria repellent, thus we don’t recommend using a steel pot either.
8) Place the pot on a wooden board and wrap in a towel - bacteria needs a warm environment to work. Therefore, don’t let it sit directly on a cold surface.
9) Place a wooden spoon on top, so the towel can’t fall into the milk.
10) Don’t close the lid – the lid causes sweating and will make the yogurt runny.
11) After 4 hours of fermentation, put the lid on and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. For a thicker yogurt, place the pot in a tray. Cover and contact with a kitchen cloth. Let the cloth soak up the excess water overnight.

Troubleshooting
-My yogurt is too runny.
Three things can cause runny yogurt:
1) Milk wasn’t warm enough
2) Lack of yogurt starter
3) It didn’t sit in a warm place
Mix a little more yogurt or warm milk into the mixture. Wrap and let it sit for another 3-4 hours in a warm place.

What is the liquid on top of the yogurt?
-The liquid is known as whey and contains protein and calcium. You can stir it back into your yogurt or pour it off and save it for a smoothie, soup, or even add it to your dog’s dish.

Why is my yogurt slimy?
- Sitting yogurt to set on low temperature can cause sliminess. You can try to strain it but it might not fix the problem.

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