If you have an Instant Pot (or maybe another electric pressure cooker), it has a "yogurt" setting that automates steps 1, 2, and 5. It will heat your milk, alert you to when to add the starter, and hold the temperature in the desired range for as long as you want. If you're lazy like me, you can skip the jars and just make the yogurt directly in the stainless steel inner pot.

i use a yoghurt machine, which is really no different from a babybottle heater. iaw. something that heats the milk to a consistent temperature and keeps it there.

step 1: put the cold milk in together with the starter. turn on the machine and get yoghurt 12 hours later.

step 2: let it cool down to room temperature.

step 3: put in fridge to cool down further. (i prefer yoghurt cold)

as a starter i use any yoghurt from the store.

different yoghurt starters yield different results.

once it's done i freeze a few spoons full of it for the next batches. an icecube tray or a home popsicle maker works well for that.

i keep several generations frozen so when one generation doesn't work out (i don't like the resulting texture) then i can go back to a previous generation.

This has been the main use of our instant pot. We got a big enough version you can put a whole gallon of milk in, then as you said, it's pretty automated after that.

Any issues you've encountered or considerations? I've been looking for an excuse to test this in mine but haven't yet.

If you regularly cook savory foods in your Instant Pot, then the O-ring might have picked up the scent/flavor of that food. The first batch of yogurt I made had a faint "taco meat" taste for that reason.

Vinegar, lemon juice, etc. didn't work to get the smell out of the O-ring, so I ended up just buying another, which I use exclusively when making yogurt. Alternatively, you might be able to just take the O-ring off when making yogurt, since you don't actually need it to be sealed, but I haven't tried this.

For a fun variation: Nordic yoghurt cultures work at room temperature. Viili (Finnish) and filmjölk (Swedish) are a bit more kefir like, and (fair warning) not to everyone’s taste. They are a combination of leuconostoc and lactococcus strains.

It might be harder to get a good starter for these in the US. Keeping a yoghurt culture in good health requires commitment too. It’s like having a pet, it needs regular maintenance.

i have been looking into actually making kefir.

a friend of mine did that. unfortunately he switched to making beer which doesn't mix with kefir before i could get his culture.

i found yoghurt rather maintenance free in comparison, especially because it is just the yoghurt, which can be kept fresh in the fridge for a few weeks and frozen for longer. it's also easy to replace by fresh yoghurt from the store. so rather worry free.

kefir culture on the other hand is a separate beast and not the resulting kefir that you consume.

the kefir culture needs to be taken out of the kefir when it's ready and put into fresh milk or it dies.

the culture also grows so you get more of it to give to your friends.

it's rather like tending to an alien animal of sorts.

watch it grow after each iteration. gently rinse it before putting it into fresh milk...

Cool! But I can't help noticing, this kind of gives lie to the OP. It claims (in the title) that starter is an heirloom. But if its changing in two or three cycles then its largely a product of the current biome, and has little or no connection with 'heirloom' versions of itself.

If you are careful you can maintain the starter culture for a long time. Using glass jars makes it relatively easy. You'll need to have 2 jars (at least). Boil the jars (with lids) along with a metal table spoon and let them cool. For a thermophilic culture (high temp), wait until the milk cools down to 50 C (122 F). Open a new container of yogurt and use your table spoon to mix a spoon of yogurt into the milk. Pour the milk into the jars. Seal the jars. Always make sure to have one untouched jar available for seeding the next generation. Always seed with yogurt from a just opened jar -- don't let the jar sit around open.

After the milk in in the jars, stick them in a picnic cooler. Pour in a water bath of 50 C (122 F)water about half way up the sides of the jars. Close the lid and wait 8 hours or so. If you want, you can replace the water after 4 hours, but after fiddling with things I've found that I don't really need to do this. YMMV.

I've kept yogurt cultures this way for years and years with no noticeable drifting. Yogurt sealed this way will keep in the fridge for a surprisingly long time too. While I don't recommend it, I've tasted it after storing in the fridge for more than a year and it was fine. You can do something similar with mesophilic (room temperature) cultures, but you have to be more careful because there are more bacteria around that are happy at 25 C than 50 C.

i used to just take the left over yoghurt from the current batch to make the next one. the result wasn't good.

then i switched to freezing a few spoons full from a fresh batch. any small containers will do.

i got to 25 generations at one point. and the frozen yoghurt kept fresh for prolonged periods of time, like when we went away to travel...

You are correct. This is also a prevalent myth in the bread making world with sourdough starters.

i think it's less of a myth but rather that knowing how to get yeast from scratch is a rather recent discovery, and before that keeping a starter from one generation to the next was probably the only way to make sure you always had some around

Today you can buy yeast anywhere. But many hobbyist bakers take pride in their yeast and keep and maintain them in their fridge like pets. It may not be entirely logical, but I do understand the attraction, it's like having your own little buddy hanging around that helps you cook, personalizing all of your baked goods.

exactly. i think once you are in the process of making it, keeping a starter around is also more convenient than buying a fresh one every time.

it's like why even bother going to the store...

the point was that a myth is something that hasn't been true for ages if it was true ever.

but keeping starters alive was certainly true for a very long time until very recently.

Each chain is different, I don’t think they all evolve the same way. And I think the flavours do settle, or rather each family’s heirloom is one evolutionary pathway.

There’s other examples in cheese (the flavour of a small batch maker) or beer as well, I think.

You don't even need to buy any starter, it is sufficient to buy a pack or bottle of cup of one of those 'active' fermented products - yoghurt, filmjölk, kefir, etc. Use the stuff until you have about 10% left, now add fresh (pasteurised or sterilised, up to you, no need to heat it to some special temperature as long as it is fresh enough), shake it so the two are mixed, warm the pack or bottle a bit (in hot water or in a microwave, you want it to end up somewhere around body temperature) and put it in a warm spot for a day (or longer, or less, your choice). I generally put the pack next to the water heater as that keeps it warm enough but not too hot. Once ready you use it until you have about 10% left, repeat the above cycle, use, etc.

Any plain yogurt will do as long as it has active bacteria. Fage plain yogurt works well.

even some sweetened fruit joghurt will work in a pinch. (it won't result in more sweetened fruit yoghurt though ;-)

I've tried that and the result isn't as good as the ones I can get at the super market. Especially texture wise. In Greece where I live you can get an 1kg jar of yogurt for less than 3 euro. So it's not worth it the time to make your own.

Yeah I imagine making your own yogurt in Greece would be like making your own baguette in France: You can certainly do it, but there's probably someone local who has perfected the art and is making it at scale for less money than you'd spend.

You probably did this, but just in case: If you want thicker texture, you also need to strain it (e.g. through a cheese cloth) after it has set.

Agreed that you probably won't save money making your own yogurt, though. It's only worth it if you like the end result significantly more than what you can get at the store.

That's different from 'real' yoghurt though. In Dutch we call yoghurt.. well, yoghurt, whereas if you strain it through a cloth it loses much of its sourness and becomes a lot thicker. Its then called 'hangop' as its become a different product, but I have no clue what the proper English name would be.

"Real" yogurt is culturally variable. Greek yogurt (or, at least, what's sold in the USA as "Greek yogurt"; I've never been to Greece) is specifically strained for thickening.

We have mild, normal, Greek and Turkish yoghurt in Dutch supermarkets, but no hangop, and it tastes distinctly different from Greek yoghurt. If I had to compare it I'd say it has the consistency of Greek yoghurt but the taste of mild yoghurt. I know I know, that sounds pretty much like Greek yoghurt but as a dairy lover there is enough of a difference to matter :p

Pull this page through DeepL or Google translate if you're curious: https://www.womenshealthmag.com/nl/voeding/feiten-fabels/a23...

In the US we normally call the strained version "Greek yogurt".

You will definitely save money over the very thick (Fage) type yogurts. Those are typically upwards of $1/small cup here in California, which I heard is because Fage strains 4x more than most "Greek" yogurts. So it may cost them a lot more to make the product with the large amount of waste. However, you can also strain that much at home, and given the price of milk, you will certainly come out ahead.

Apparently, this is the type I make. It's much thicker than any Greek yogurt I've ever bought. My batches yield approx. 60oz from a gallon of whole milk. Which is considerably cheaper, and better tasting imo, than store bought.

This is true. Fage needs 4 liters of milk to make 1 kg of yogurt. This is pretty much standard for all Greek type yogurts, at least the ones sold here.

Whole milk is best. Store purchased, live, active culture yogurt (which is indicated on the container) will work as a starter. I place the jars in a large water-filled pot with a sous-vide cooker to maintain a warm even temperature overnight. (I forget the exact temperature I use). In the morning, I place the jars in the fridge and when I come home from work, voilà. I have great homemade yogurt. The consistency can be slightly runny. I've heard of people using emulsifiers to remedy this, but I don't bother.

Adding a couple of tablespoons of milk powder to the milk before heating thickens it up very nicely.

Some people also strain the result through a couple layers of cheese cloth to make it thicker.

Optionally, strain the finished yogurt to thicken it. A thick, spreadable yogurt is great for toast or as a base for dips and sauces.

And don't discard the whey (the drained remains).

It is protein rich and goes very well substituting water in pie dough, buttermilk in pancakes or added to waffles or dough. You can use it also for American biscuits.

You can also water many of your houseplants with it. Not JUST whey, mind, but you can give them whey.

in austria the whey is flavored with fruit and sold as a drink

You can just buy a high quality, plain yogurt for the starter. No need to track down the powder.

We end up using a decent yogurt from the store instead when we run out. We haven't been great at keeping the yogurt train going.

Kefir is really easy, as it works at room temperature.

My next plan is to start making labne. It's expensive here relative to yogurt. :)

kefir takes more maintenance though to keep healthy.

i described the process here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19269804

I also add some non-fat milk powder. It adds some extra protein and slightly thickens the resulting yogurt.

No thanks. Milk is garbage, lactose is garbage, and casein causes cancer [0].

0. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4166373/

The study you linked does not back up your claim.