Summary: You may be able to rescue your failed yogurt! Sometimes a yogurt failure can be redeemed by “rebatching.”
Failed Yogurt
Well, I did get more milk, to continue the yogurt experimentation, and made yogurt again over the weekend. A gallon of it.
And it didn’t work.
I was totally at a loss as to why it didn’t set up, as I’d done everything the same as the last two times. Or so I thought. Well, when I moved on to the next stage of my experiment, I discovered the reason for the failure. Someone, who shall remain nameless, turned the dehydrator up to 155 degrees while it was incubating the yogurt. Sheesh.
Attempting to Salvage the Failure
Nobody likes to throw away food — and certainly not raw milk, which is not alway easy to obtain in the first place — so I decided to try a page out of soapmakers’ book, and see if I could “rebatch” it. I whisked each jar of (failed) “yogurt” with new starter, and attempted to incubate it again. The hope was that this would rescue it. I hoped so, ’cause that’s a lot of milk!
The Verdict
It works! The texture is still slightly funky, but I’m not sure if that’s due to remaking it, or because the unnamed kidlet turned the heat up to 155 degrees again. (Arrggh!) Apparently I caught it quickly enough this time, because we still essentially have yogurt, and this is definitely better than the weird, sweetened milk I had last night.
So we don’t have perfect yogurt, but we don’t have trash-worthy stuff, either. It was a successful rescue, I think.
The Takeaway
If your yogurt doesn’t set up properly the first time, try treating the failed “yogurt” like milk, and starting over. (Reheat it, add new starter, and incubate again.) The texture may suffer some, but it can save you having to throw the whole thing away.
(I would not do this if your failed yogurt tastes “off,” as though the milk has had a chance to go bad. But chances are, if you’re checking on your expected-to-be-ready yogurt, you’ve caught it quickly enough to try again.)
Updated Oct. 23, 2020. Originally published Nov. 16 & 30, 2009.
Oh – congrats on the yogurt. I grew up with my mom making it every week but I haven’t done that yet. You sparked a memory. 🙂
I tried making a yogurt it’s my second try, I hope this technique works thanks for the tip
For some reason my Insta Pot does not say Yogurt when it is done boiling. It says end and is not reaching the right temp. I have to keep pushing the yogurt button to boil, 3 times brought it up to the high 170’s. Now it looks like curdled milk. It worked yesterday when I made the first batch, which turned out runny and I was trying to “start over”. I will keep going and see if this is part of that “funky texture” you referenced and hope that it works. I am still concerned as to why the insta pot is not reading correctly now.
Hey! I use an IP to make yogurt, too – The yogurt button has 2 modes – boil and yogurt, but it does not change automatically. I boil the milk, remove the insert to a water bath to cool it down, and place it back in the IP and reset the Yogurt button to the length of time I want the milk to ferment (I make Greek-style, so it will culture over 9 hours).
Hope this helps, if not, go to the IP site to verify your model’s features.
Thank you for chiming in to answer that! I don’t use the IP for my yogurt, so I was totally clueless.
I think something is wrong with your indicator lights. When I press the yogurt button on my InstaPot, it toggles from 8 HRS to 24 HRS to BOIL. When it is finished with one of those cycles, it says YOGT. So after I boil the milk, I put the inner pot in a cold water bath until it is cooled down. Then I add my culture, cancel the cycle and press the yogurt button again until I see 24 HRS.
I have several IP and make yogurt frequently: 24hr is Low temp (90° F) for proofing bread. The original 8hr setting is the incubation temp (~110-115°F I think?) but this time can be adjusted to anything you’d like – some people like to go longer for more sour yogurt and that new time will stay set until you change it again. And BOIL is to denature the proteins to get it up to 180° F (but the protein stick to the pan and it will often stop early because of the bottom having stuck on proteins).
Many friends I have who’ve had failures with IP yogurt was from using the 24hr cycle and temp was too low to culture the starter. Because it was at 90°F, that’s essentially the same as warm milk sitting in a hot car for 8 hours so I tell them to throw that out.
Should have 3 modes and no automatic changing between – after boiling the milk needs to be cooled before incubation on the 8hr setting (some IPs have indicators just before the time display – the 24hr cycle is “less”, the default 8hr is “normal” and boil is “more”- in case you aren’t sure which setting you are using)
Thank you, Jennie!
Thanks Jenni. This info is good to know. My yogurt failed because I forgot to add the culture. My IP would not boil either so I’m experimenting with a different way to get it to boiling. I’ll let you all know if it works.
Just some thoughts. I think that happened to me once. Check that the lid is secured & use a fresh sealer or better yet chg all the lid pieces or re wash them. Also, have you tried unplugging the instapot and then plugging it back in! Sometimes that will reset the device. Hope this is helpful.
Thanks for the tip, we’ll see if this can fix it! Someone I’m married to, who shall remain nameless, kindly mixed the starter yogurt in… But didn’t turn the crockpot down. 🤦🏻♀️
I’m wondering if I should I reheat all the way to 180*, or just to the 115* to add the new starter? Hm. We’ll see.
Oops.
You probably don’t need to heat it back up to 180. That doesn’t have any benefit for the starter; it just kills any competing microbes in the milk you started with.
It’s my first time trying homemade yogurt and with all the excitement, I couldn’t wait to see it done. Sad enough, it’s runny. Please do I have to heat the milk back to 180 before adding another starter??🥺
Just to 110-115 should be enough.
I tried making yogurt 4 batch months ago and it worked, now that I make it again, I failed. it is runny and taste like ordinary heated milk. I wonder what could be wrong, I always sterilized my equipments before using it and pay attention on its temperature, is it because I put the powder starter on freezer?
Possibly. It could be that your starter is not “live” enough. The most common other reasons for yogurt to fail would be if the temperature is too HOT when you add the starter (that can kill the starter), or not maintaining it in the right range while it’s supposed to be incubating.
I accidentally left the yogurt setting on “less” instead of “normal.” Can I restart? If so, do I need to add more starter?
It may depend on how long you left it. Because that’s LESS hot than it calls for, you’ll want to make sure your milk didn’t spoil in the meantime. As long as the milk is good, I would guess you can probably restart it on the normal cycle, and probably don’t need to add new starter (since, unlike with a too-hot setting, you won’t have killed the starter bacteria). If it’s already been a while, though, I would be concerned about the safety of the milk for consumption.
How long can you wait to try again? My milk has been fermenting for over 24 hours and hasn’t worked and I want to see if it is too late to try again
I’m not sure. I’m inclined to think over 24 hours might be pushing it, though. Basically, it’s a matter of whether or not you think the milk is safe to drink. If it’s still safe to drink, it should be fine to try again. But 24 hours is a long time for unfermented, not-raw milk to sit out.
When I use store bought yogurt as a starter, my yogurt batch works every time. When I’ve tried to save some of my own yogurt for the next batch it won’t set up. Twice this has happened (first time I threw it out but today I’m going to attempt your fix). What could be going wrong with saving a starter portion from my last batch?