How to Make Yogurt in a Thermal Cooker

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Hey friend! Today I’m going to show you how easy it is to make homemade yogurt in a thermal cooker.

(If you don’t know what a thermal cooker is, you’ll want to read this post.)

The cool thing about this is that thermal cookers can be used for sooooo many things, and yogurt is one of them!

So hold on to your hat to see just how easy and simple this is…

How to Make Yogurt in a Thermal Cooker

Things you’ll need:

a thermal cooker (I recommend this one) (Remember, a thermal cooker can be used for a ton of other things, not just yogurt!)

1 gallon of milk, preferably whole milk as it will make your yogurt creamier
yogurt starter (I recommend this one)

Step 1:

Pour 1 gallon of milk into your thermal cooker.

Step 2:

As per the instructions on this particular package of freeze-dried yogurt start, bring your milk up to a boil.

Then let your milk lower to a temperature to between 73*-77*.

Step 3:

Sprinkle in 4 packets of yogurt start into your milk and stir it in well.

Step 4:

Put the lid on the inner pot of the thermal cooker and put it inside the thermal insulated outer pot.

Step 5:

Close the lid on the outer thermal insulated pot.

Step 6:

Bring the handle on the outer pot forward as it lightly locks it shut.

Let this sit on your counter for 9-12 hours, or until your yogurt is to the desired firmness.

Step 7:

When your yogurt is done incubating, take out the inner pot of the thermal cooker and set it in your refrigerator to come to a nice cold temperature.

Step 8:

Scoop out some of your delicious homemade yogurt and enjoy it!

Mmmmm mmmmmmm!

A Fun Way to Enjoy Your Yogurt

My family really likes their yogurt shakes and we have them most mornings, either as a stand-alone breakfast or with something else to eat.

To make a yogurt shake simply blend in your blender:

2 c of your yummy homemade yogurt
2 frozen bananas
3-5 frozen strawberries

Blend well and enjoy a nice, cool and refreshing healthy shake!

What if You Want to Make a Smaller Batch of Yogurt?

The size of thermal cooker that I used in this tutorial is the Thermos RPC-4500 4L size, which makes 1 gallon of yogurt.

What if you don’t want to make that much, but realize that the thermal cooker needs to be mostly full in order to reap the best thermal cooking benefits?

I’ve got you covered.

There’s another size of thermal cooker that would work great at making a smaller batch of yogurt:

The Thermos RPC-6000 6L with TWO inner pots (3 liters each)

OK, this one is a really cool thing. This would work great for making a smaller batch of yogurt. You can make yogurt in one of the pots, and just put water in the second pot that has been brought to the same temperature as your yogurt when it’s ready to incubate. (Read this post to understand more about thermal cookers.) Each of these pots is 3 liters in size, which is about 3/4 of a gallon.

Then, of course, this size thermal cooker is soooo handy to use with other food items. Chicken in one pot, and rice in the other. You get the idea. 🙂 Super cool! (We used this one recently when we went camping and it was so nice!)

How to Make Yogurt in a Thermal Cooker