How Can I Make Thicker Homemade Yogurt?

Faith Durand
Faith DurandSVP of Content
Faith is the SVP of Content at Apartment Therapy Media and Editor-in-Chief of Kitchn, and the author of three cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning The Kitchn Cookbook. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband and two daughters.
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published Apr 9, 2010
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Q: My husband and I have been making yogurt using a Donvier maker. But all too often our yogurt is super runny — like thick milk — rather than creamy. Every once in awhile we’ll get a creamy batch, but it’s totally random, and we’re unable to replicate the results.

We’ve tried all sorts of starters (different fat contents, Greek, Bulgarian, Australian, and a bunch of American yogurts), and we make sure that the starters have live cultures. We’ve followed the instructions that came with the machine. We’ve tried varying the “cooking” times in the machine, and non-fat to 2% milk. We’re at a loss, and looking for tips on how to get creamy homemade yogurt. (We’re at a relatively high altitude, if that matters.)

Sent by Jen

Editor: Jen, our hunch is that your machine may not be keeping the milk warm enough, especially given your high altitude living circumstances. Yogurt needs to maintain a temperature of 100 to 100°F for about 8 to 12 hours in order to coagulate to a thick consistency. We wonder if perhaps the temperature isn’t going high enough and staying there?

That’s just a guess, though, since we don’t use a machine to make yogurt (watch for a tutorial on this soon, in fact!). Readers, any help for Jen? This is a very interesting question for us; we’re very curious to see what you come up with!

Next question?

Related: Good Question: Does Anyone Have Tips for Making Cheese and Yogurt at Home?

(Image: Dairy Australia)

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