Easiest Raw Milk Yogurt (Instant Pot Recipe)

This is the easiest raw milk yogurt instant pot recipe! Try your hand at making delicious, probiotic rich, raw milk yogurt from scratch!

Yogurt is one of the foods of my childhood. Simple, easy to dress up, and inexpensive. This raw milk yogurt instant pot recipe can be eaten as a breakfast food, a protein powerhouse, or as a gut-promoting beneficial bacteria superfood. When I learned how to make it myself, yogurt using raw milk became even more accessible, and affordable, for my family!

What You’ll Need to Make the Easiest Raw Milk Yogurt

Ingredients

• I use raw milk, but you can also use store bought or pasteurized whole milk.
• Yogurt starter culture (an already-made, plain yogurt that you will use to culture your homemade yogurt. I use a store-bought yogurt)
• THAT’S IT!

Equipment

• An Instant Pot.
• A spoon/whisk to stir in the yogurt culture.
• A large dish towel or cheese cloth to strain the yogurt.
• A large jar or bowl to strain the whey into when the yogurt is done.
• An air tight container to store your yogurt.

How to Make the Easiest Raw Milk Yogurt in the Instant Pot

After your gather your ingredients set your Instant Pot near an outlet that you want to use. I try to set my work station up here because I don’t want to try and move my Instant Pot after I fill it up with milk.

Because I use raw milk, I will skim off some of the cream for use in other recipes before using. I don’t use a mechanical cream separator, nor do I take all of the cream, so my milk still has plenty of cream to be considered “whole milk”.

Add your cup of plain yogurt culture to the instant pot first, then add your half gallon of milk.

Whisk the yogurt into the milk until fully combined.

Put the lid on your Instant Pot and press the yogurt button. Set the yogurt setting from 8-24 hours. The longer you culture it, the more sour it becomes.

Note: keep in mind how much time you plan on straining your homemade raw milk yogurt. That time will be in addition to how long the raw milk yogurt cultures in the instant pot.

Pour off any whey that is sitting on top of the yogurt. Be careful not to pour out your actual yogurt, though!

Lay your large dish towel or cheese cloth over a large bowl. I use my Kitchen Aid mixing bowl for this.

Once the instant pot beeps, pour the finished yogurt into the cloth and gather up the edges. Secure the edges and hang the towel to allow the whey to strain off from the yogurt.

Put the yogurt into your airtight container for up to 1 week.

Extra Tips for the Easiest Raw Milk Yogurt

After using a store-bought yogurt to culture your first batch you can use your own yogurt to culture subsequent batches.

However, only use your own yogurt as the culture for 3-4 batches before starting over with a store-bought yogurt culture once again for best results.

This recipe makes about 32 oz of thick raw milk. Think greek yogurt. However, if you like a little thinner yogurt, you can drain off less of the whey to make it the consistency you prefer. If you strain off less of the whey, you’ll get more yogurt at the end.

Straining the whey for about 4 hours will yield a thinner “regular” yogurt consistency. Straining for up to 12 hours will give you a thicker “greek” yogurt consistency. If you over strain, don’t panic! You can use an immersion blender to mix back in as much whey as you need to achieve your desired thickness.

When you are ready to strain your yogurt, make sure that you have everything you need to strain, secure the towel, and hang it up within your reach. The first time I made this, I had to yell for my husband from the other room to get me a rubber band to secure the towel so that my yogurt didn’t run out of the towel!

Can I Use Goat’s Milk to Make Homemade Yogurt?

Yes! Goats milk works the same as cow’s milk in this recipe.

Why Should I make Instant Pot Yogurt?

From scratch cooking became a focus for me when my family needed to save money on our grocery budget. Believe it or not, it’s what began our food journey. The health aspect came later… almost by happy accident!

Starting to make your own from scratch food at home might be driven by a desire to save money, or to have better control over the ingredients you eat. Either way, it’s a win for your family all around!

Health Benefits of Yogurt

One cup of yogurt contains almost half of your daily calcium need. It is also high in B vitamins like riboflavin and B12, and contains phosphorous, magnesium and potassium. Thinner yogurt contains up to 12 grams of protein, whereas thicker yogurt, like greek yogurt, can contain up to 20 grams of protein per 8 oz serving!

When made with raw milk using the yogurt feature on the Instant Pot, the milk retains the good bacteria and enzymes, as well as the gut healthy probiotics Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus added from the yogurt’s active cultures.

These live cultures, trace minerals, enzymes, and probiotics are known to aid the immune system and digestion of those who eat them.

This Raw Milk Yogurt in the Instant Pot is Simple to Make

I put off making yogurt at home for years because almost every recipe I read involved large stainless steel pots, thermometers, incubators… not so simple.

This recipe however, involves only 2 ingredients and mainly your instant pot! It couldn’t be more simple.

Saving Money on Yogurt

Because this recipe only involves 2 ingredients, it’s inexpensive to make as well! When I buy yogurt from the store it costs almost $7 for 32 oz of yogurt. My kids can eat that entire container in just 2 sittings!

This instant pot yogurt has a cost much lower than that when you consider how much cheaper the cost of milk is, plus the small amount of culture starter you need! Plus, you can culture your next batch using your previous batch, up to 4 future batches, with your own yogurt as the starter, avoiding the extra cost of store bought yogurt often times.

Control Over Ingredients in Your Own Yogurt Recipes

Fortunately I’m able to find a greek yogurt that contains only cultured non fat milk, BUT even that isn’t exactly what I want. Not to mention, it’s the most expensive yogurt available to me at the grocery store.

Other yogurt options can contain fructose, modified food starch (with that fun “contains bioengineered food product” label), citric acid, “natural” flavors, the list goes on…

If you don’t want all of that in your bowl of yogurt, make this recipe! I call it the easiest homemade yogurt because it really is the easiest way!

Should I Make this Recipe Using Raw Milk

The choice to consume raw milk is a personal family decision that should be made equipped with knowledge. Some states have strict raw dairy laws that can make access difficult. However, pasteurizing milk does reduce the benefits of raw milk, like the bioavailability of key nutrients and affects the digestibility of the milk. 

If you want more information to inform your decision on this ingredient check out The Raw Milk Institute or the Campaign for Real Milk.

If you don’t feel comfortable using raw milk, or have difficulty accessing it, you can absolutely make this recipe using whole milk from your grocery store as well.

Ideas for Using Your Raw Milk Yogurt

This raw milk yogurt recipe makes plain yogurt. This is the most versatile option for my family. We almost never actually eat it plain, but we dress it up when it’s time to eat it. Making it this way means we can use it in place of sour cream in savory recipes, or sweeten it for yogurt parfaits. We use it to thicken or add nutrition to oatmeal, then sweeten the oatmeal how we like. We also use it to make fruity fillings for crepes. By leaving it plain, we allow options for all kinds of sweeteners, applications, or additions.

If you want a yogurt more similar to what you’d buy at the store, make it according to the instructions, then add honey or maple syrup to sweeten and add vanilla extract to flavor it.

Fresh fruit, granola, and nuts make an excellent addition to this homemade yogurt if you are a sweet yogurt person!

Try adding this homemade yogurt to my Healthy Fruit and Veggie Popsicles for Kids recipe to make smoothie pops!

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