Instant Pot Yogurt
Plain homemade yogurt made from milk and a spoonful of live yogurt, heated and then set in the Instant Pot over eight hours.
Photograph credit: Delicious Strawberry Yogurt Dessert on Wooden Tray by Özge Arsoy · Pexels License · Pexels
How to Cook Instant Pot Yogurt
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Pour the milk into the Instant Pot. Press the Yogurt button until the display reads Boil, and heat the milk to 82°C / 180°F.
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Cool the milk to 43°C / 109°F by standing the pot in a sink of cold water, stirring occasionally.
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Whisk the live yogurt with a ladleful of the warm milk, then stir it back into the pot.
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Set the pot to Yogurt mode for 8 hours without moving it. Stir gently and spoon into jars. Chill before eating.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Keep an Eye on These
- Use a thermometer for both temperatures.
- Use fresh starter that contains live cultures.
- Strain through muslin for thick Greek-style yogurt.
About This Recipe
It looks like magic and is really a controlled bit of biology. Yogurt is milk that has been warmed to kill unwanted bacteria and then seeded with friendly ones, which turn the milk sugar into lactic acid and thicken it into a tangy, spoonable set. The Instant Pot holds a steady, gentle temperature for the whole eight hours, which does the job.
There are two stages. First the milk is heated to 82°C / 180°F, which denatures the proteins and gives a thicker yogurt. Then it is cooled to 43°C / 109°F, at which point the starter goes in. If the milk is hotter than that, it kills the culture, and if it is cooler, it may not set. Use an instant-read thermometer.
Whisk the starter into a ladleful of warm milk first, then stir it into the pot. Do not stir or move the pot during incubation. When the time is up, chill the yogurt for several hours before eating. It will thicken further in the fridge. Save some as the starter for your next batch.
To Go With It
Honey · Fresh fruit · Granola · Muesli
Keeping Instant Pot Yogurt
Keeps in the fridge for 1 week.
Quick Answers
How long does Instant Pot Yogurt take to make?
10 minutes of preparation and 8 hours of cooking, so at least 8 hours 10 minutes. The method also needs time for chilling, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 8.
Instant Pot Yogurt Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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