While living in Azerbaijan during my Peace Corps days, I would watch my host mothers make yogurt at home and relish the thick, creamy, sour taste alongside meals of dolma or fresh green beans and bread. When living on my own in that country, I learned to take large, clean, glass jars (bankalar) to a woman selling yogurt on the street, who would pour her homemade yogurt in so I could enjoy it at home. I appreciated how there was no waste of packaging. It was so different from my yogurt experience in the US, where yogurt tended to be sold super sweetened, in small plastic containers. After moving to Asheville, I contacted my local food co-op and other bulk-selling natural food stores, but no one offered bulk yogurt. Frustrated, I decided to try making my own.
There have been a few failures along the way, but I’ve developed a method that’s fairly easy and that works most of the time, using my Instant Pot as an incubator and as an aid to scalding the milk to the right temperature without worrying about it boiling over. Here it is on YouTube; hope it can inspire more folks to make their own yogurt at home.