Instant Pot Boiling Start Yogurt (Thick Yogurt)

Boiling Start Yogurt is thick and creamy, and can be strained (removing the whey) to become Greek Yogurt.

Two MUST KNOW’s before you begin:

1. Milk —- just about any cows milk will work. It is not necessary to purchase any different brand or quality than what you usually drink. Of note, the fat content impacts the final flavor:

   • Whole milk: sweet, creamy flavor with enough tanginess to be yogurt

   • 2% or Skim milk: sharp flavor with aftertaste that can be a bit sour

2. Yogurt —- you’ll want Plain or Unflavored with live cultures:

   • ALL yogurt have live cultures - even the inexpensive brands

   • Once you’ve made yogurt, you can use a few teaspoons of your homemade yogurt to provide the live cultures for your next batch. The extra whey will also provide the live cultures needed and can be substituted 1:1.

This is a step-by-step recipe to make Instant Pot Boiling Start Yogurt, assuming the Instant Pot has a pre-programmed option for yogurt. 

My favorite way to make this yogurt is overnight, since it typically cooks for 8-9 hours in the Instant Pot.

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Instant Pot Boiling Start Yogurt (Thick Yogurt)

Clean and sterilize inner pot if needed.

To the inner pot of the Instant Pot, add:

1 qt (32 oz) milk

Select "Yogurt"

Press the "Adjust" button once, display should read “boil”

• Instant Pot will automatically start and begin heating the milk.

Cover with a glass lid or tinfoil:

• No official glass lid? Check your cookware collection for one that fits the inner pot

• Recommended - do not use the pressure lid:

  • yogurt doesn’t require pressurization and

  • the sealing ring retains aroma that may affect the final flavor of yogurt

About every 5 minutes, remove cover and whisk, stirring all along the bottom of the pot.

When machine beeps, remove cover, stir and check temperature using an instant read thermometer.

Desired temp: 180F to 183F

• If machine stops before milk reaches desired temp, use "Sauté" setting to keep heating, stirring & checking temp regularly.

Once desired temperature is reached:

• Fill sink (or large diameter pot) with a few inches of cold water

• Transfer inner pot to sink (do not allow any water into hot milk)

• Cool milk to optimal yogurt percolating temperature:

Between 95F to 110F

Return inner pot to Instant Pot and whisk in:

1 1/2 tsp yogurt with live cultures 

Cover with the glass lid (or tinfoil).

Select “Yogurt” (note: may need to press “cancel” once or twice before selecting “Yogurt”):

1. Display will read "8:00," adjust time if desired*

2. Instant Pot will automatically start and begin counting up from 0:00. 

3. When it reaches the total time, 8 hours later, display will read: yogt 

Transfer yogurt to a one quart container and refrigerate. Yogurt will thicken slightly and expect to see some natural separation of the whey. 

Serve cooled with favorite fruits or granola. Sweeten with honey or sugar as needed.

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Brenda’s tips:

• Serving size: ~1 qt or six 2/3 cup servings.

• Boiling Start Yogurt tends to be a thicker consistency than Cold Start. 

  • Boiling denatures the proteins, improving their ability to bond = thicker yogurt

  • Boiling start also shows a natural separation of the yogurt & the whey (yellowish liquid). For even thicker yogurt (Greek style) strain boiling start yogurt through butter muslin. 

    • See Window to B’s kitchen below for more…

• *Looking for a more tangy yogurt flavor? Add more time to the Instant Pot. The flavor will naturally occur by increasing the time to 9:00 hours. This step is recommended by many yogurt blog posts

• A few recommended resources if you want to understand yogurt better:

  • This Old Gal - Greek Yogurt

  • Cultures for Health - Yogurt Tutorial

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Window to B’s kitchen…

The difference in consistency between Cold Start (left) and Boiling Start (right) Yogurt.

How To: Greek Style Yogurt

HOW TO: Greek Style Yogurt

Following directions in recipe, prepare:

Instant Pot Boiling Start Yogurt (Thick Yogurt)

Note: Expect up to half of the finished products to be whey (the yellowish liquid that naturally separates from the yogurt). If you start with one quart of milk, you will end with roughly 2 cups yogurt and 2 cups whey. Consider multiplying the recipe if more yogurt is desired.

Once yogurt has completed it’s percolating time (8-9 hours), instead of directly transferring the yogurt to a storage container, follow these steps:

1. Drape and secure a butter muslin bag or cloth over a 2-qt water pitcher

   • There needs to be a few inches of clearance beneath the bag/cloth for the whey to gather in the pitcher

2. Carefully pour the hot yogurt into the butter muslin bag/cloth

3. Whey will immediately begin to drain through the butter muslin bag/cloth, while the yogurt stays in the bag/cloth

4. Cover pitcher and refrigerate, up to 12 hours for super thick Greek yogurt

5. After elapsed time, remove pitcher from refrigerator and carefully remove the butter muslin bag/cloth, full of yogurt, from the pitcher

6. Transfer the Greek-style yogurt into a storage container, or into individual serving containers, being sure to extract all of the yogurt from the bag/cloth

7. Pour the whey into a storage container

8. Store the Greek-style yogurt and the whey in the refrigerator

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Brenda’s tips:

• 1 quart milk results in 2 cups Greek-style yogurt and 2 cups whey, assuming refrigerated straining of 4-8 hours.

• Some great ways to use the whey, replace the milk/water in:

  • Pancakes

  • Brenda’s Favorite Dough

  • French Bread

  • …try any recipe with milk or water

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Window to B’s kitchen…

Instant Pot Cold Start Yogurt

Cold start is the fastest method and results in a delicious, though fairly soupy, yogurt. Perfect for use in some recipes calling for yogurt, such as coleslaw or chicken salad.

Two MUST KNOW’s before you begin:

1. Milk —- just about any cows milk will work. It is not necessary to purchase any different brand or quality than what you usually drink. Of note, the fat content impacts the final flavor:

   • Whole milk: sweet, creamy flavor with enough tanginess to be yogurt

   • 2% or Skim milk: sharp flavor with aftertaste that can be a bit sour

2. Yogurt —- you’ll want Plain or Unflavored with live cultures:

   • ALL yogurt have live cultures - even the inexpensive brands

   • Once you’ve made yogurt, you can use a few teaspoons of your homemade yogurt to provide the live cultures for your next batch

This is a step-by-step recipe to make Instant Pot Cold Start Yogurt, assuming the Instant Pot has a pre-programmed option for yogurt. 

My favorite way to make this yogurt is overnight, since it typically cooks for 8-9 hours in the Instant Pot.

---

Instant Pot Cold Start Yogurt

Clean and sterilize inner pot, if needed.

To the inner pot of the Instant Pot, add:

1 qt (32 oz) pasteurized milk (any milk fat, whole milk recommended)

1 1/2 tsp yogurt (with live cultures) 

Whisk together, cover with the glass lid (or tinfoil)

• No official glass lid? Check your cookware collection for one that fits the inner pot, or use tinfoil

• Recommended—do not use the pressure lid:

  • yogurt doesn’t require pressurization and

  • the sealing ring retains aromas that may affect the final flavor of yogurt

Select “Yogurt”

1. Display will read "8:00," adjust time if desired*

2. Instant Pot will automatically start and begin counting up from 0:00. 

3. When it reaches the total time, 8 hours later, display will read: yogt 

Transfer yogurt to a one quart container and refrigerate. Yogurt will thicken slightly. 

Serve cooled with favorite fruits or granola. Sweeten with honey or sugar as needed.

---

Brenda’s tips:

• Serving size: ~1 qt or six 2/3 cup servings.

• Cold Start Yogurt tends to be a thinner, milkier consistency than Boiling Start. 

  • Boiling denatures the proteins, improving their ability to bond = thicker yogurt

  • No boil results in delicious yogurt, but there is some loss of structure, making it runny 

    • See Window to B’s kitchen below for more…

• Brenda doesn’t recommend straining out the whey on Cold Start Yogurt. The yogurt consistency makes it difficult to cleanly separate.

• *Looking for a more tangy yogurt flavor? Add more time to the Instant Pot. The flavor will naturally occur by increasing the time to 9:00 hours. This step is recommended by many yogurt blog posts

• A few recommended resources if you want to understand yogurt better:

  • This Old Gal - No-boil Yogurt

  • Cultures for Health - Yogurt Tutorial

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Window to B’s kitchen…

The difference in consistency between Cold Start (left) and Boiling Start (right) Yogurt.