I’ve been trying to make yogurt lately, but all I’ve ended up with is failed yogurt! Okay, in all honesty, the first batch didn’t exactly fail. It just ended up really runny. 🙂
I don’t have a yogurt maker and had read of several different ways to make yogurt, even without a maker. So armed with this knowledge, I got it ready and wrapped my jars of milk/yogurt in a heating pad and wrapped a towel around it. This was supposed to be a thick Greek yogurt and needed to culture for 24 hours. Next day I went to get it out of the heating pad and put it in the fridge, to my surprise it was cold. No heat at all.
Come to find out, the heating pad shuts off after 2 hours. 😛 So, my yogurt cultured, but it was a bit thin and runny.
The next try involved the cooler method. Putting the jars into a cooler with warm water and sealing the cooler for 12 hours. Well apparently my water was too hot and it killed the culture. Leaving me with thick (sour?) milk. It didn’t taste good at all, so I set about to find other ways to use it.
Image courtesy of [Master isolated images] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Back story over now; here are 13 ways to use failed yogurt:
- Start baking. Runny yogurt can be used in place of:
Milk
Sour Milk
Sour Cream
Buttermilk
Yogurt
Evaporated Milk - I found this recipe and we loved it: Egg Custard Pudding.
- Definitely try using it as the moisture in your bread! (I’m working on a yogurt bread recipe right now)
- Make frozen yogurt! (be sure to add a bit of fruit and honey so the kiddo’s will love it)
- Make smoothies.
- Add it to your scrambled eggs, omelets and quiche.
- Speaking of breakfast: think awesome pancakes and waffles!
- If you soak grains, use really runny yogurt instead of water.
- Kids love yogurt drinks.
- Add a bit of honey and vanilla extract.
- Give small amounts of it to your pets. (our rats LOVED it!)
- Soak your hands (or feet) in a small bowl of it for wonderful, soft feeling skin.
- Wash your face with it.
My failed yogurt and my runny yogurt is all used up now. But the question is: Do I really want the next batch to turn out? I mean there are only so many things you can do with yogurt, but there seems to be lots of uses for the failed runny kind!!!
My Favorite is WHIPPED JELLO! It can have the texture of the yogurt whips that you buy in the store!
Hmm… how do you make that?
My fav yogurt recipe: http://www.momontimeout.com/2015/06/how-to-make-yogurt-in-a-slow-cooker/
Draining the excess whey is the key to nice, thick yogurt. I use 1% straight from the store.
Your post was hugely helpful as I was impatient and didnt strain enough this time. Going to use the runny stuff in a mountain of pancakes today & freeze for the teenager’s fast breakfasts. Thanks!
So glad I could be of help! I’ve actually started putting a small amount of gelatin in from grass fed beef as I needed a way to add it to our diets better so it works really well!
~smile~ I’m not even going to ask about the rats!
I’ve not even tried making yogurt yet, but I’ve been thinking about it.
Laura
Harvest Lane Cottage
Awwww, I wish we lived closer- its getting close to time for our freezer pigs to go to the butcher and they can eat a TON of sour milk! They love it, and I love porkchops, so we could probably work out a deal 😉
I was thinking the same thing- I love having the pigs around. They make me feel so much better about having a batch of cheese go bad or something. Dairy products are their hands-down favorite thing to eat! 😀
Hi there Kendra 🙂
This is such a helpful post.
I have always thrown out my yogurt fails. Who knew there were many other uses for it…I ended up buying a yogurt maker from a thrift store, and I haven’t had any failures since 🙂
I will be sure to make better use next time my yogurt turns out runny…
Thanks for sharing 🙂
I ended up up buying a dehydrator, because I had been saving for one anyway and when I learned that the one I wanted actually had a yogurt setting… Well that was enough to make me take the plunge!
I have been using a yogurt culture that I mix and sit on top of fridge overnight. As long as I make at least one cup a week I can keep the culture going indefinitely. It sure is handy for after school smoothies. One likes packing frozen smoothies in his lunch.
That sounds very handy 🙂
Are you trying with raw milk? (Or trying to keep raw milk raw with a low temp?) It’s my understanding it’s always runny that way because the bacteria from the milk is in competition with the bacteria from the yogurt culture. If you’re not working with raw or trying to get raw milk yogurt, one trick you could do is to hold the milk temperature at 180 for 20 minutes before allowing it to cool down to 110-115 for adding the yogurt culture. Now it’s not “greek” thick that way mind you, but still thick enough you don’t have to strain out whey. I’ve been doing it for this way for years with great success. Either way, hope you get things worked out!
I bought an Excalibur dehydrator that I had been saving for anyways. Someone told me that they used the yogurt setting on it with great results.
I do use raw milk and only take my temp to 160, but these last few batches done with my Excalibur have been very thick and smooth! Finally 🙂
So whenever my yogurt turns out runny I just use cheesecloth and drain it for up to an hour. It gets thicker and I have whey left over. Now if my husband would let me put whey in our smoothies I’d be all set. What’s a good use for whey?
Not sure really. But you can put it in your smoothies and you don’t notice it 🙂
I use the yogurt method given at thefrugalgirl.com except that I add 1/2 to 1 cup dry milk powder when I put the milk in the pot. We go through a gallon of yogurt in less than 10 days. With the added milk powder, you do do end up with another cup or two of yogurt on top of the gallon. Some people use gelatin as a thickener. We now make vanilla yogurt-1/2 cup sugar and 3-4 tbsp vanilla. It’s great on cereal instead of milk, with jello instead of whipped topping
That does sound yummy!
Thank you so much for the ideas, my very first batch of homemade yogurt with raw milk failed and I was so upset. Good to know I can use it for other things. First request is pudding, family favorite.
I failed so many batches at first… I feel your pain! But on the bright side, runny yogurt makes a lot of great treats 🙂
This is how I make it. Heat milk to 180 and then cool to 115. I stir 1/4 c. plain yogurt into my milk and pour into crock pot. I put the lid on and then wrap it up in towels, about 3 med. sized beach towels work good. Let sit over night or 12 – 24 hrs. To make Greek yogurt I place a few layers of cheese cloth in a colander or strainer over a bowl and fill with yogurt. Place in the refrigerator over night. I learned this from my brother in law’s mother who came to America from Lebanon. She didn’t use a thermometer, but when she could hold her pinky finger in the milk for no more or no less than 10 seconds it was ready to add the yogurt to.
I love yogurt, but hated spending $1.00 for a small cup. Then I discovered the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. Mine has a yogurt setting and I make 1 gallon at a time which gives me 14 cups for $2.35. What a saving and it’s all automatic. Comes out perfect every time.
I do strain out the whey for silky thick Greek yogurt.
When I looked up whey, I found that it was very acidic, so I throw mine away because I’m trying to stay alkaline.
OH MY~ did you at least taste the whey? It’s a liquid form of what so many folks pay so much $$ for in powdered form! OK, so I’ve a Scottish heritage, and waste just gets me in my gut.
Just made my first batch of yogurt using the crockpot method. Half was thick, half was thin liquid. Scooped out enough to fill my strainer and that part set up dense as cheesecake. The liquid half got bottled up to use in smoothies. Both taste marvelous.
Curious, because it smelled so very good, I tasted the whey from the draining: it has the same flavor as the yogurt, only very light and very sweet. Not acidic or sour like the whey from making ricotta at all. Last night I made a batch of whole wheat yeast rolls using the whey as part of the water in the recipe. The dough was extra silky. It went nuts, tripled in volume in 2/3 the time! The rolls were a bit too sweet for me, next time will add more salt to counter the sweetness of yogurt whey.
What an awesome idea to use it in cooking instead of water. I used it a couple of times instead of milk and the result wasn’t that great.