Why isn't my homemade yogurt smooth?

Question

Last week I successfully made my own greek yogurt! I was and am very excited that I finally got it to work. But now the problem is, the yogurt I am making is just not very smooth. Store bought greek yogurt (such as Dannon Oikos and Fage) is silky smooth, thick and creamy. This texture is one of the biggest reasons I enjoy it so much.

My DIY greek yogurt has a rough consistency closer to ricotta cheese. It also has very small (1 mm) cottage cheese like curds in it. I found out that you can make Ricotta simply by heating up whey. That causes the albumin protein to turn into ricotta. The first step to make Greek Yogurt is to heat up the milk to denature albumin protein. Apparently this results in the protein staying in the yogurt instead of the whey. So I thought if I didn’t heat the milk up as hot, it would keep more albumin protein in the whey and the result would be a smoother yogurt, and a higher yield of ricotta from the whey. What I ended up with was more whey and less yogurt. More importantly, the yogurt had the same texture as before.

Does anyone know of something I can change in the yogurt making process that leads to a more silky smooth consistency?

Answer 1

You are correct that the milk is heated to denature the albumin so that it becomes part of the structure of the yogurt instead of washing out in the whey. When distributed through the yogurt properly this protein will not cause the clumping problems you are seeing.

You shouldn't expect to make ricotta from yogurt whey- even if the milk wasn't boiled it just doesn't work well.

Most yogurt problems, including breaking and clumping, are caused by poor temperature control. Heating the milk too much during incubation, over incubating, or erratic temperatures, can all cause your bacteria to misbehave. Often this causes the yogurt to be too acidic and to curdle which would explain your clumping.

As has been canvassed in other answers; the best yogurt incubation temperatures are between 100 - 110°F (38-48°C) but it seems to vary a little with the starter. The best results seem to be had from putting 110°F (48°C) milk in an insulated container to incubate rather than trying to use a heater.

Many yogurt recipes call for powdered milk to boost the milk protein in the mix. Another possible explanation is if you mixed it in insufficiently.

Answer 2

I tried three batches of yogurt in my instant pot. One regular, and TWO, GREEK. They all ended up with extremely smooth yogurt. I started with a gallon of whole 4% milk.

(I also "cheated" a bit, and added some 100% cream to all three batches.)

The first small batch, using the Instant Pot's Yogurt MODE on HIGH, heats the contents of whatever is inside the pot; i.e., jars or just milk to 180F, and then automatically shuts off. ( NO PLASTIC jars!!! IF GLASS jars, put 1/2" of WATER in the bottom!) This REQUIRES the cover, with vent OPEN. Then WAIT 45-60 minutes until it cools to 110F.

Next, set Yogurt MODE to MED, and set the number of hours, (mine, 24 hours). You CAN pour the milk into cheap plastic cottage cheese containers once it has cooled to 110F. COVER the pot by turning the cover sideways, loosely on top, (NOT put on normally).

The pot then takes it to, and holds at 110F +-2F. for 24 hours that I like:

DONE: Now COOL the yogurt -- Cooling it FIRST before eating, seems to make it smoother. Heating not only re-pasteurizes the milk, but it ALSO MAKES THE MILK DENATURE the milk as explained in the answer above, and therefore SMOOTHER!

Next batch was much larger, the rest of 1/2 gal / 64 oz. I followed the Instant Pot method above. But, this time, I took yogurt out of the containers, and put them into a strainer, with a pan underneath to catch the whey, and refrigerated it. (The stainer was NOT that fine, like MED course, and it worked fine.)

Next day, I had SMOOTH GREEK YOGURT!! I have the specific yields I will add later, but you also get ABOUT MAYBE 30-50% WHEY, and 70-50% Greek Yogurt. I personally like the slightly acid whey, and drink it when cold. The Yogurt APPEARS like it will last longer, when refrigerated, (YMMV).

I did the same with the last 1/2 gal, 64 oz, and I think it only filled a 24 oz cottage cheese container?? (I must do a sanity check, since I think I got more yield than that??). Still whatever it is, the GREEK aspect makes it MUCH SMOOTHER, and the whey gets used anyway. Is the whey "healthy"? It isn't bad for you, but not sure if it has much food value, either.

Answer 3

I ferment my yogurt for 24 hours and it comes out great, you just have to cool it for a couple hours to let it set.