No blah blah before the recipe & Ingredients this time!

Stuff you’ll need:
*An instant pot with a yogurt setting.(for this recipe at least.  you can also do it on a stovetop but i’m not writing about that at the moment)
*Milk (i use whole)
*Yogurt or starter (you basically need yogurt to make yogurt…that’s just how it works. You can order some special yogurt starter if you want. For me it was easier to just get plain yogurt at the store.  I use Fage. But on a day – or week- where i don’t feel like going to the store i might end up ordering a starter. If i do, i’ll update the ‘recipe’ here if it makes a big difference)

And stuff that you’ll probably also want to use:
*thermometer to measure correct temperature
*strainer
*cheesecloth
*large bowl
*measuring cup and small bowl

Ingredients:
1 Gallon MIlk (whole) for an 8 qt IP. Maybe 1/2 gallon to 3/4 for a 6??  I have an 8, so that’s the numbers I’m working with. I’m sure you are smart enough to know how high to fill your own sized IP.
Yogurt (i used about 1/2 c for the gallon.  So, 1/4c for 1/2 gallon and 1/3c for 3/4 gallon? That’s how I’d do it)

Instructions:
1. Pour the milk into the insert/container of your IP. (Sigh that I even have to write that, but heaven forbid someone just pour it into the IP itself and not the container/insert).
Close the lid – you don’t have to worry about whether it is on seal/close or vent/open, that doesn’t matter.
2. Push the yogurt button. It will probably have the letters ygrt on the readout. Push it again until it reads ‘boil’
Let it do its thing until it beeps (i think it was about 30 minutes). The milk should then be hot enough. With your thermometer it should read at least 180 degrees.  So far mine has sometimes read just over 180, and sometimes over 200. If it is well below 180 just run the boil cycle again.
3. Once it is at 180 take the insert out of the pot. Cool the milk until it is between 110-120. You can either set it in a sink partially filled with cold water and ice (to cool it more quickly) or just on a counter to cool off on its own. I leave mine on the counter. It seems to be about an hour or so.
4. Once the temperature is in that 110-120 range, scoop about a cups worth of milk out into a small bowl. I’d suggest the small bowl be larger than a cups worth 😉 .  Add the amount of yogurt or starter to that small bowl and stir/whisk it together. Pour that back into the ip insert and stir into the milk. Try not to stir along the bottom of the pot where the milk sticks to it from the boiling.
5. Put the insert back into the IP and press the yogurt button again until times are displayed. Mine goes to 24:00 first, then to 10:00.  I use the 10:00 or adjust to 12:00. I think I like 12:00 better, but many times 10:00 works out better for my schedule for the day.
6. Put the insert in the fridge and let it cool for a while. Four to five hours? I’m not sure because I get it out at about 3 hours and do another step. If you like a more runny yogurt you don’t need to do anything else except put it in its containers after it has cooled.
(Why the question mark on the time? Because Ted gets up earlier than I do and puts it in the fridge for me. Then I’m up about 1-2 hours later and when i’m ready I do the next step, which is about 3 hours from when he refrigerated it.)
7. For a thicker yogurt:  Put a strainer over a large bowl and line it with cheesecloth. Pour your yogurt into the strainer. Put it back into the fridge while it drains. With a full gallon, my strainer gets filled almost all of the way to the top! Let it drain until you like the consistency.
8. Divide your yogurt into individual containers and enjoy!
9. Use within 2 weeks.

Some extra stuff.
I take some of the yogurt aside to use as a starter the next time.
After taking that first bit aside, i sweeten the rest of the yogurt with a some vanilla, and either honey or sugar. It doesn’t need very much.
I put fruit into the bottom of my containers then top with the yogurt.
Usually I put the fruit and a bit of sugar into a saucepan and stir it up for a bit until it has softened and made a bit of ‘sauce’ with it, then put it into the jars.
I use both 1/2 pint and pint sized mason jars.
Fruits I use: Strawberries, Peaches, Cherries, Blueberries, Raspberries.
With the leftover whey from the straining you can use that in place of water when you make bread or dough for rolls or pizza, or pancakes. I mostly dilute it about 3 to 1 (water to whey) and pour it into my veggie containers in the garden.