With all the yogurt making methods out there, making it in a dehydrator is by far the easiest! Find out exactly how to make yogurt in a dehydrator with these simple steps.
Being so allergic to processed dairy means that we have to make all of our dairy products from scratch with raw milk, or simply go without.
Because of that I've gone without yogurt for a long time because I simply thought making yogurt was too tricky. Turns out it's really not!
At first we were using our little yogurt maker, which made perfect yogurt, but it only made 3 cups at a time. Which is fine if you just want a 6 oz serving a few times a week, but since each member of our family eats a cup a day, that wasn't going to work for me.
So I took a good look at how the yogurt maker worked and realized that it was nothing but a mini dehydrator!
I risked ruining an entire (very not cheap) gallon of raw milk to attempt making a large batch with my dehydrator. It worked perfectly!! An entire gallon of yogurt in just a few easy steps!
Making Yogurt in A Dehydrator
If you've never made yogurt before it can be intimidating. But rest assured, it's quite simple. Just follow these simple steps and you'll have thick creamy yogurt in no time!
Before you get started take all of the trays out of the dehydrator and see what size jars fit inside. Whatever the biggest size is what you can use to store your yogurt. You can use other containers as well, but I find that quart canning jars save the most room when making so much at a time.
Ingredients
- 1 Gallon of Raw or Regular Milk
- 2 Cups Raw or Greek Yogurt you can get raw yogurt where you get raw milk
- Enough Canning Jars to hold 20 cups of liquid
- A Dehydrator tall enough to hold whatever size jars you choose. I use a 5 tray Excalibur.
Instructions
- Pour cold milk into a large pot. Bring to 140° over low-medium heat, stirring constantly.
- Turn off heat and let milk cool to 120°.
- Once it reaches 120°, gently stir the yogurt into the milk. You don't want to completely incorporate the yogurt, but you don't want a lot of chunks either.
- Ladle the mixture into glass jars and fit the lids on.
- Place jars inside dehydrator and set at 110°.
- Allow to process for 12-18 hours, depending on how thick you like your yogurt!
Carolyn says
Thank you for the info on how to make yogurt in a dehydrator with raw milk. One question: if you heat the milk to above 110 won’t it kill the bacteria in the raw milk, in essence almost pasteurizing it?
Victoria says
Hi Carolyn! Great question! Pasteurization happens at 161° (held for 15 minutes), and low temp pasteurization happens at 145°. So at with the highest temp here being 120° you aren’t pasteurizing it at all. However, what I’ve actually started doing is putting the starter yogurt into quart jars – pouring raw milk (cold) on top, leaving 1 inch headspace – Add a lid and shake gently to fully incorporate the starter. Then place the jars into the dehydrator (cold) at 110° for 15-24 hours. Works perfectly and then you know you have truly raw milk still!
It doesn’t get QUITE as thick, but it’s still nice and thick. And you can always strain it a bit if you like it thicker. Hope that helps!
Carolyn says
Perfect solution! Thank you so much! :)
James Epperly says
Simple and easy. Thanks for the recipe.
Victoria says
Hi James, glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback! :-)