How To Make Turkish Yogurt
Homemade yogurt with just two ingredients. No equipment is needed. Mom's tips are included in the recipe.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 liter whole milk
- 4 tablespoons plain yogurt at room temperature
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat milk over medium heat until it boils. Stir occasionally.
- Reduce the heat once it boils and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. This will help you get a thicker yogurt. Remove from heat and let it completely.
- There are two methods we can apply to understand the right temperature of the milk before making yogurt. First method is old-fashioned (moms) method: After letting it cool down for a while, dip your finger into the pot. If you can count until 5 when your finger is inside, the temperature is okay to make yogurt. Second is with a thermometer: Let the hot milk cool down. It is ready when you see 40C/110F on the thermometer.
- Put 4 tablespoon yogurt in a bowl. This is the starter. Pour about ½ cup milk into this and mix. This is to heat the yogurt a bit. Pour this mixture into the milk and gently mix it.
- Put the lid ajar and place the pot at a place in your home which has the least air circulation. Alternatively, you can keep it in the oven(off). Cover the pot well with a large and thick kitchen towel or a small blanket. Let it sit for 2-3 hours (in summer) or 4-5 hours (in winter).
- After this time, remove the kitchen towel and the lid. Let the pot sit there until it cools down completely. Then transfer it into the refrigerator and chill overnight before eating.
NOTES
- Don’t remove the milk from the heat just after it starts to boil. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes to end up with a thicker yogurt.
- Remove the milk from heat and let it cool down a bit. To understand whether milk reaches the right temperature, use your finger if you don’t have a thermometer. Dip your finger into hot milk, if you can tolerate its heat inside for about 5-7 seconds (not more), it’s ok. It mustn’t be too hot or less hot than necessary. If it is too hot, you will get a sourish yogurt and if it doesn’t reach the right temperature, it takes longer time for the yogurt to form. It even won't turn into a desired yogurt if the milk is colder than it is expected to be.
- Let the milk-yogurt rest at the warmest place of your home. Ideally, it is best to take the pot with hot milk to this place and let it wait there to reach the right temperature. It warms this place at the same time, which is a necessary step for thick yogurt.
- Put a thick blanket under the pot (one of your jumpers will work just fine for this, its arms can hug the pot to protect it from cold). And then mix it with the starter in the way explained above. You can pour it into jars at this step if you like or just keep it in the same pot.
- Put the lid on the pot, but don’t cover it completely as your milk-yogurt mixture needs some air inside. You can even use a suitable colander instead of its lid. This will help evaporation and yogurt will not be watery.
- Then cover the pot with another blanket very well. Don’t forget we must protect it from cold.
- Let it sit about 3 hours in summer when it is very hot, and about 4-6 hours in winter. Check it after this given time and if it is still not thick enough, keep waiting for some more hours.
- Then, uncover it completely and wait for another 1 or 2 hours without the lid this time.
- Next, when it reaches room temperature, gently place it in the refrigerator and wait it there for a day to have a better result.
- You can place a paper towel on the surface of yogurt if it’s still so watery. This will absorb excessive water in it. You can throw the paper towel away and put a new one each time you take yogurt from the pot.
NUTRITION
Calories: 221kcalCarbohydrates: 16.9gProtein: 11.9gFat: 11.8gCholesterol: 35.9mgSodium: 152mgSugar: 17.8g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
ADDITIONAL INFO
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