Easy No Cook Homemade Yogurt

When I first learned how to make no cook  homemade yogurt , I was amazed at how easy it was! There are only two ingredients required and you make it on your countertop. Easy peasy! No cooking, heating, boiling and no special yogurt cooker.

My interest in making homemade yogurt started almost ten years ago. I had always wanted to learn how to make yogurt but when I read instructions online for the cooking requirements it felt like too much work to take on for a mama already struggling to balance caring for a baby and working in town.

Then one day I saw an ad on our local Craigslist for someone selling yogurt starter culture that required no cooking. I was intrigued! I connected with the gal and bought a little bag of starter culture and thus began my adventures in making no cook homemade yogurt!

Types of No Cook Homemade Yogurt

Over the years, I’ve made two different strains of homemade no cook yogurt. There are more varieties out there, these are the two I have experience with and both are so easy to make.

Both of these strains are considered heirloom strains that make yogurt by using a starter culture in milk. The starter cultures the milk to create a delicious homemade yogurt bursting with healthy bacteria to nourish our bodies.

The beauty of using an heirloom yogurt culture is that it’s not single use, you can keep using it over and over again to continue making yogurt.

Piima yogurt

Piima yogurt is the first strain of no cook homemade yogurt I made on my counter top years ago with no cooking required. It is a Scandanavian heirloom yogurt culture. It has a mild flavor and a thin consistency. You can find the Piima starter culture here.

Viili yogurt

Viili is the current strain of homemade no cook yogurt we have been making. Viili yogurt is a traditional Finnish mesophilic yogurt. I chose this strain since it makes a thick, creamy yogurt with a mild flavor that my kids prefer.  You can find the Viili yogurt starter culture here or if you are in Western Montana, email us for current pricing for our yogurt starter culture.

How to Make Homemade No Cook Yogurt on the Countertop

We currently use organic pasteurized milk from a local dairy to make our no cook yogurt. A few years ago when we were drinking raw milk, I didn’t know there were some extra steps to making heirloom yogurt when using raw milk. Unfortunately it stopped culturing properly and that was the end of our Piima yogurt culture.

If you would like to use raw milk, here’s an article from Cultures for Health on how to properly use raw milk to make homemade heirloom yogurt.

Ingredients needed to make no cook heirloom yogurt:

Pasteurized milk and a yogurt starter culture. That’s it!

Directions: 

Step 1: Place a clean glass jar on the countertop. Pour in 1 cup of milk.

Step 2: Stir in 1 Tablespoon of yogurt starter culture.

Step 3: Cover the jar with cheesecloth and let it sit on the countertop for 12-24 hours. The amount of time needed for it to culture and firm up depends on the temperature in the room. In warmer months it cultures more quickly than cooler months.

Once the yogurt has cultured and is a yogurt consistency, it is ready to eat. The key is to make sure you keep out enough of the starter culture to make your next batch of homemade no cook yogurt!

If you aren’t planning to eat the yogurt immediately, put a lid on it and place it in the refrigerator. I’ve kept a jar of homemade yogurt in the refrigerator for a week or two at a time with no issues and it cultured the next batch just fine.

Our favorite use for homemade yogurt is making smoothies. The ultimate family favorite is a peach smoothie made with local organic peaches we preserved over the summer. There’s nothing like drinking a delicious local peach smoothie in the middle of a cold Montana winter day, it tastes like summer!

Have you ever made homemade yogurt and have any tips to share?