How to make No Boil Yogurt in Your Instant Pot!

This No Boil Yogurt made in the Instant Pot could not have been easier! Plus it is one more item our extended family will not have to purchase at the grocery store. And while milk is not cheap, this homemade yogurt costs about half what of what store bought yogurt sells for. 

It was time to use that "yogurt button" on the Instant Pot...

Yogurt goes into the cart pretty much each week. Probably because it can be made into a quick and delicious breakfast with a bit of honey, some fruit and a sprinkling of granola or nuts. And that is often the exact breakfast, one or more of us will have, to begin our day. So when did we start making yogurt? When we looked into the mostly empty container of yogurt, and realized there was no grocery store trip planned for a few days. And just like that, the time was now to make yogurt! We did a google search or two and found a few recipes to research before we gave it a go. This one is a proven, often used process. This process, in fact dominated the research results! 

And, this could not have been easier!

Yes, it was complete success from start to finish. We are a full fat whole milk family, so I give caution for those wanting to use milk with less that 3.5% fat. For most recipes swapping out one type of milk for another often does not make a difference, but I believe yogurt is a bit different. Especially for this No Boil Yogurt that we will make again and again, since it calls for and is perfect for whole milk. And once you put the ingredients into the Instant Pot, you are free to get other chores done, because there is not checking, no stirring. No worry. 

 

A small amount of yogurt as a starter is needed! 

You will need a small amount of starter to begin making your own batch of yogurt, so I urge you to get a batch going when the yogurt container in your refrigerator still has at least 1/3 cup left in the bottom. And when the cooking and cooling process is complete. For those that love thick Greek style yogurt, we offer straining notes too. Why this process? Because when you make most of your food from scratch, it only makes sense to use a successful process and or recipe that is also quite easy. How easy? Come and take a look...

Ingredients needed for this recipe:

• plain yogurt
• full fat milk

You will also need:

• small whisk
• Instant Pot pressure cooker
• colander
• cheese cloth or unbleached basket style coffee filters
• storage bowl

Now we are ready to begin!

No Boil Yogurt

inspired by countless yogurt makers!

UPDATED: 04.18.2025

1/3 (more or less) plain yogurt 

1/2 gallon full fat milk

 Place the 1/3 cup of yogurt into the bottom of the Instant Pot cooking pan. 

Add a splash of the milk, and using a whisk, mix until smooth. 

Add the remaining milk. Mix well. 

Remove the sealing gasket from the Instant Pot lid. Set the seal aside, you will not need it for yogurt. This is not cooked under pressure. 

Place the inner cooking pot into the Instant Pot base, attach the lid in the usual way. However...

You will leave the lid on "venting", for the yogurt setting, pressure does not need to build.

The yogurt setting counts up to 8 hours total time. We decided to put the yogurt to set at 10pm and the 8 hours would be reached right about the time coffee is being poured! But feel free to get your yogurt started as your schedule needs.

When I got up the next morning, there was 8 minutes left of the 8 hour cycle!

When I opened up the Instant Pot I could tell the yogurt was smooth and creamy, a total success for our first time making yogurt. And each batch since then have had same excellent results. 

After the 8 hours cooking/fermentation cycle, the finished yogurt needs to be refrigerated for at least 6 hours. Fortunately longer is fine. This flexible cooling time allows you to get back to the yogurt when it is convenient for you. 

For Greek style yogurt, here are some straining tips. 

For Greek style yogurt, simply strain the yogurt. You can use unbleached basket style coffee filters or cheesecloth, it is totally up to you. Cheesecloth is great, but in my opinion the coffee filters simply peel off when you turn the strained yogurt into a storage bowl. With the cheesecloth you need to spoon the strained yogurt into the storage bowl. Cheesecloth works, just not as convenient for clean-up as the coffee filters. 

Put two layers of cheesecloth over the colander. Or line the colander with basket style coffee filters being sure to over lap the filters. 

Carefully spoon/pour the finished yogurt into the lined colander. We let the yogurt drain for 1 1/2 hours. This strained out approximately 1 1/2 cups whey. Then the finished yogurt was spooned into a storage bowl, covered and refrigerated. 

The amount of time for straining the yogurt can be increased or reduced depending upon how thick you prefer your yogurt. 

Yogurt and whey for the upcoming week. Whey can be used in many ways, but currently my favorite is mixing it into the food for our chickens. 

One of our favorite way to enjoy yogurt, is with a drizzle of honey, then topped with your favorite seeds and nuts. And of course fruit and yogurt are a natural pair for a breakfast bowl!

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