Homemade yogurt couldn’t be easier, especially when you use sous vide! I’ve developed a sous vide yogurt recipe that’s done entirely using sous vide, no stovetop.
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Everyday I think of something new to do with sous vide.
I’ve recently gotten into cheese making and have been thinking about how so many elements of the process would benefit from sous vide. I decided to test that theory with yogurt up first!
There are lots of other recipes for sous vide yogurt out there, but my recipe is special. Those other recipes? They require you also use your stove top. That means dirtying more dishes, more hands on work, and it’s just annoying.
My sous vide yogurt recipe? It uses sous vide from start to finish. No stovetop, no other cooking methods period.
I’m so glad you found this recipe!
I can’t wait to be a part of your sous vide cooking today, and hopefully more to come!
I’ve been passionate about sous vide for almost a decade now. I take a different approach from other sous vide experts. While I love the science of sous vide, I want it to be an approachable cooking technique for everyone, and I don’t want you to sweat the details.
If you’re new to sous vide, make sure to read through this blog post or consider joining Sous Vide School.
I also have two sous vide cookbooks I think you’ll love: Everyday Sous Vide and Sous Vide Meal Prep.
Got questions?
Leave a comment and I’ll get right back to you!
Sous vide is the perfect method for making things like yogurt, sour cream, and cheese because you have to bring milk to such precise temperatures throughout the process.
It’s really difficult to control temperatures on the stove top – you’ll be way too low, then suddenly way too high and your milk is boiling and you’ve ruined it. Not so with sous vide!
About the ingredients
You only need two ingredients to make yogurt: milk and a starter yogurt. Once you’ve made your first batch, you can continue using that yogurt as your starter yogurt.
For the milk, get high quality, whole milk. If you’re in Portland or Seattle, I get amazing milk delivered from Milk Run.
For the yogurt, you need yogurt with live, active cultures. This is very important! Your homemade yogurt will have a similar texture as your starter yogurt, so use one you like the texture of. I used Nancy’s, which I also got from Milk Run.
Equipment
Don’t worry, you don’t need much! I do want to note a few optional but recommended supplies: silicone oven gloves (to protect your hands when you dunk them in the hot water!), stainless steel whisk (the most sterile option, good when you’re dealing with bacteria!), and a good thermometer.
There are a couple more steps than your typical sous vide cook, but for the most part this process is very hands off.
There are not set amounts of milk and yogurt. I created this recipe so you could make as much or as little yogurt as you want! That does mean there’s some math, though.
- Preheat your water bath to 180 degrees F.
- When your water bath is preheated, set your jar on a scale and make sure it’s zeroed out. Set it to grams. Pour milk until the jar is about 2/3 full. Make a note of how many grams of milk you added.
- Put the lid loosely on the jar and add to the water bath. The water should go past the height of the milk but doesn’t need to cover the top of the jar (it’s okay if it does, though). Cook for 30 minutes at this temp.
- Reduce the heat to 110 degrees F. To speed this up, add ice to the water bath. Once the water bath is 110 degrees F, let the milk sit in the water bath for 15 minutes.
- Multiply the number of grams of milk you added to the jar by .05. This is how many grams of yogurt you need to measure out.
- Remove the jar from the water bath and whisk in the yogurt. Return the lid, add back to bath, and cook for 5 hours at 110 degrees F.
That’s it! You’ve made yogurt! Well, I guess I’d definitely let it chill in the fridge for awhile before eating it, but you get it.
Top it with your favorites, like granola, fresh fruit, and honey, and enjoy it for breakfast, or use it to make a sauce for your favorite dinners. My spiced yogurt chicken or coriander and yogurt chicken would be my top recs!
Get the Recipe:
Sous Vide Yogurt
Ingredients
Food:
- 730 grams High quality whole milk
- 37 grams Yogurt with live, active cultures
Equipment:
- Immersion circulator
- Food scale
- Large jar
Instructions
- Preheat your water bath to 180 degrees F.
- When your water bath is preheated, set your jar on a scale and make sure it's zeroed out. Set it to grams. Pour milk until the jar is about 2/3 full. Make a note of how many grams of milk you added.
- Put the lid loosely on the jar and add to the water bath. The water should go past the height of the milk but doesn't need to cover the top of the jar (it's okay if it does, though). Cook for 30 minutes at this temp.
- Reduce the heat to 110 degrees F. To speed this up, add ice to the water bath. Once the water bath is 110 degrees F, let the milk sit in the water bath for 15 minutes.
- Multiply the number of grams of milk you added to the jar by .05. This is how many grams of yogurt you need to measure out using the food scale.
- Remove the jar from the water bath and whisk in the yogurt. Return the lid, add back to bath, and cook for 5 hours at 110 degrees F.
- Remove the jar from the water bath and put in your fridge. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, until it's chilled.
This turned out great, EXCEPT, it’s important not to put a cold mason jar with milk into hot water. They break. Instead, place the milk in the mason jar and put it into the water bath when you start heating the water. That way it warms up gradually and preserves the jar.
Hi Chelsea,
This worked out just fine; I was looking for a way to gently heat my milk and guessed there must be a sous vide solution – and found yours!
I put the jar in the water before heating to avoid cracking. I suggest your visitors set the initial timer for at least one hour as it takes a while for the milk to reach the temp of the sous vide or use a thermometer in the milk itself.
Finally for your metric readers, it’s 84C for the initial temp and 44C for the ferment.
Cheers!
Chris
I love this approach for a number of reasons: 1) I am cooking in the vessel that I will eventually refrigerate. Other than the dish and spoon I used to measure out starter, there is zero clean-up. 2) It scales easily. I did a 2 litre milk carton in three large mason jars, and I have yogurt to see me through quite a while. (Note that a water bath this large does take a long time to come down to temperature for the second, longer stage). 3) The high-heat stage is stress-free. Like others mention, I prefer to bring the jars up to temperature along with the water bath to minimize cracking risk (I’ve had this happen with sous vide desserts). But to not have to stir and worry about scalding is brilliant. Or, the opposite problem, using an Instant Pot method, where it often doesn’t reach the high temp properly. Sous vide just makes all that go away.
I did do a bit of draining to make the final product thicker, but that’s a personal preference and nothing to do with the methodology.
I’m so glad to hear how well this method works for you, Scott!!! And draining – great tip. I prefer thicker yogurt myself and will give this a go next time.
Chelsea – do you think this could work with oat milk?
Thanks
Donna
Oof, I have no idea! My gut says no. No enzymes, etc. But I’ve never tried it! If you do, please report back.
Is it crucial to get the water to 180? My sou vide (Anova) struggles to get up to 180 and hold that temperature, even when I insulate the tub with several layers of towels
You likely won’t get quite the same result at lower temps. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!
Michael, you’re
Anova should do it fine. A few things to think about: what type of vessel are you using to hold the jars and the water for the bath? If you are using a steel pot and it is in a cool room, the steel pot could be acting like a radiator and cooling the water down. A simple easy fix is wrap the pot with two or three layers of a heavy terry cloth towel. Another thing you can try is set up in an igloo type cooler.
The trick is you want to insulate the pot that you have the sous vide bath in? I’ve had the same issue. My sous vide works fine in the summertime but on cold winter days it can struggle unless I wrap my pot up.