(Note: this post contains links to products I used. I DO NOT make any money off these links. Buy ’em – don’t buy ’em – I don’t care.)
UPDATED 08/13/19 with a few more tips.
The big first tip: It’s really easy to make once you get the hang of it! I make it sound awful but when you take the time to get it right the first time, it’s easy after that.
I have read Dr. William Davis’ Undoctored and decided to finally take the plunge and go the full monte. In a nutshell, he recommends a ketogenic-ish diet and specific supplementation so it’s not far from my usual attempt. It’s a ‘clean keto’ where grains are prohibited as well as artificial stuff. I think it is well thought out and I like how he presents it: as a cardiologist, he sticks to science and where he prescribes a certain course of action that might not be accepted science, he notes that his approach is experimental and as new information comes in he will refine his approach.
That’s the kind of scientific thinking I like to see. I don’t take is as he’s pushing snake oil as much as he’s saying: “Try this. It might work for you and it’s unlikely to harm you. Let me know your results and I’ll continue to refine my protocol.”
Alas, it is a fussy diet in that the doc states it must be followed in full to get the synergistic benefits – doing it only halfway gets you far less than half the benefits.
One of the trickier aspects – at least to me – is you have to make what I call his ‘magic yogurt’. Even Dr. Davis refers to this as ‘wacky’ in one of his videos. I’d even say it sounds ‘quacky’ given all the benefits he attributes to it (you can read them here). I have no idea if the stuff actually does anything or if Dr. Davis is full of shit, but I don’t think so – at least I believe *he* sincerely believes it helps – and I’m up for a new experiment.
This was the one part of the diet that I waited until now to try. I started the diet 15 days ago and have been dialing in all the different parts. The yogurt is the last piece, I think.
To me, the instructions to make the stuff I found on the Internet were vague and a lot of people were spending a lot of time to fail at the attempt and throw out batch after batch. I did a lot of Google searches, came across recipes that didn’t provide me the details I wanted, and even did a chat with Instant Pot which yielded little help.
The problems with the instructions are that they try to cover too many different scenarios. I found it confusing (maybe I’m stupid).
This week I took the plunge and made the yogurt. I’m detailing here the EXACT steps I took for my own records and thought I’d share.
Get your stuff together
To do this you need the following ingredients:
- Organic inulin powder. This is a carb you can’t digest. I don’t count it in my carbs at all. It’s made from chicory root and while we can’t digest it, it supposedly is a great food for the bacteria we want to multiply in our yogurt making. I used the ‘Now’ brand but I think any organic inulin powder would do.
- Organic half and half. This term means half milk and half cream. The trick here is to check the ingredients. There should be only two ingredients: milk and cream. Only buy the refrigerated stuff – not the stuff in the packaging that lets you store it on a shelf. Anything else might prevent the batch from turning into yogurt. Don’t question!
- Biogaia probiotic. Again: no questions! Don’t try another probiotic. Use this exact stuff. The point of the exercise is *not* to make yogurt but to multiply the number of the specific, patented, L. Reuteri bacteria in *this* specific probiotic by using the yogurt-making process. Doing this increases the dose of L. Reuteri you get way beyond the amount you’d receive from just taking the pill form. This is a ‘hack’ and hacks can be messy and complicated and have umpty-million steps. That’s why I like clear directions like this.
- Mortar and pestle. You need to crush the pills up and there is no better tool to do this than a mortar and pestle. Don’t have one? You’re on your own, bunkie.
Now to the Instant Pot. I have a model DUO80 with a yogurt setting. If you don’t have a yogurt setting on yours, I can’t help you. The next gotcha in this process is the cooking temperature should be between 100 and 115 degrees. At 120 degrees this bacteria starts to die off. Most bacteria used to make yogurt like a higher temperature, which means that a standard yogurt maker might overshoot the temperature and kill the bacteria. Dr. Davis mentions that the Instant Pot does not precisely control temperature. I would also imagine that there are temperature variations between models – and even individual units – that don’t matter for most yogurts – but do for this fussy species of bacteria. So how do you know if your Instant Pot can work? We’ll test it.
Testing your Instant Pot
I bought a $14 instant-read digital thermometer to be sure I would have an exact reading. I got this one. This pot testing also acts as a ‘dry run’ before you use the expensive ingredients and prevents fumbling with the real stuff. You only need to do this once. To do the test:
- Place a quart of water in the Instant pot.
- Put the cover on and open the steam valve on the cover – we’re not using the pressure cooker function while yogurt making (or testing).
- Assuming you’ve plugged it in and turned it on, it made a happy electronic gurgle-beep when the top was put on properly (like it’s surprised you *can* put on the top) and awaits your command.
- Press the ‘Yogurt’ button the the ‘Adjust’ button on the fairly intimidating front control panel of the Instant Pot. Clicking ‘Adjust’ should cause the LED panel to show the word ‘bOIL’. You need to do this fairly quickly because the pot assumes that if you don’t mess with it for 5-7 seconds that you’re done. If you dilly-dally, it will turn on at the wrong setting. Follow orders!
- It should turn on, and for a quart of water it should reach what is not actually ‘boiling point’ but more like 180 degrees. It’s really meant to pasteurize the milk again just to be sure it isn’t contaminated. If using raw milk I’d definitely NOT skip this step when making yogurt. We’re testing with water just to be sure.
- This should take maybe 15 minutes or so. When it beeps, check the temp with the thermometer. Mine was 190 degrees. That’s fine.
- Now, put the top back on and let it cool to about 105 degrees. The pot will not tell you when it’s ready. You want to know the time for *your* pot because you don’t want it going too low. Patience and timing is everything here. For my pot it took about 2 hours. After an hour I tested every 15 minutes or so until I measured at a temp of about 110 – close enough.
- Press the ‘Keep Warm/Cancel’ button, then hit the ‘Yogurt’ button again. The little LED bar below the panel should be at the ‘Normal’ setting – not ‘Low’ nor ‘High’.
- Leave it alone and it should beep and start a ‘count-up’ timer as opposed to a ‘count-down’ timer. We’re going to wait an hour then check the temp to be sure our Instant Pot is able to maintain the temperature our fussy bacteria needs.
- Give up yet? No? You’re hard core! Thanks for staying with me! So after an hour what we’re looking for is what temp your Instant Pot *really* runs at – not what the instructions say – but a real-world test on your pot to be extra-sure it’s going to work for our purpose. I measured and the temp was 106 degrees. I waited and checked again 15 minutes later: 106 degrees. That temp is within the 100-115 degree range and should be fine for making our magic yogurt.
At this point you might be questioning ‘why’ you are going through all this trouble. Read the book or check out this link to learn of all the supposed magical properties – I’m not going to try and explain.
Actually making the yogurt
You’ve tested your pot, you got the ingredients, and are ready to go! Now if you’re extra anal, you would sterilize your pot and utensils (by pouring boiling water over them maybe). I did NOT go that far. I washed everything and dried with a paper towel, but that’s it.
- Pour the half and half into the pot and put the top on.
- Put the top on and press the ‘Yogurt’ button then the ‘Adjust’ button so the screen shows ‘bOIL’.
- That’s it. In 5-7 seconds the pot should beep and it should start scalding the milk.
- It should beep off in about 15 minutes or so, depending on your pot.
- Now remember that cooling time you got while testing with water? Mine was about 2 hours. Use *your* time – not mine.
- Wait. You can stare at the pot and tap your toe, or set an alarm and come back. The pot will not beep – it’s off. It’s on you to get to the pot when the temp is still in the happy zone.
- While taking the top off might speed the cooling – don’t. You want to keep the top on to keep airborne microbes out. Don’t be in a damn rush!
Prepping the probiotic
You might want to use the cool-down time to prep your Biogaia probiotic. NOTE: you only need to do this for the first batch. If all goes correctly you should be able to use a tablespoon or two from your first batch of yogurt to make your next batch – then use a tablespoon or two from THAT batch to make the next one. You might never need to touch a pill again. If a particular generation of yogurt doesn’t come out properly, then use the pills again as below.
- Take 10 of the Biogaia tablets and crush with a mortar and pestle. The stuff ground to a powder quite easily
- Set aside in a small covered dish (or wait until your half and half has cooled).
Add the ingredients and *finally* start making yogurt!
This stuff had better be ‘magic yogurt’ for all the trouble you’ve put in so far!
- The scalded milk has a ‘skin’ on top. I use a fork and carefully pull it from one side of the pot to another, lift the congealed skin and plop it into a 1-cup pyrex container and discard. Most times, this comes out as a single skin. Easy-peasy.
- I used the same pyrex container (now emptied of skin) to scoop out maybe a quarter cup of the warm half and half from the Instant Pot.
- Into the container I put about 2 tablespoons of the inulin. (Maybe 3. Maybe more. I don’t measure this, but it’s at the least 2 tablespoons.) We’re making a slurry and not trying to get the stuff dissolved, but inulin will want to clump just to piss you off. Using the tines of a fork I mixed the half and half and inulin with a frantic sense of urgency until there were no clumps. I’ve come too far to screw this up now!
- Then I added the crushed pills and did the same frantic mixing. (When using yogurt from a previous batch, I used like 3-4 tablespoons at least. I’m on batch 8 or 9 now and I’ve never had one fail so I’m gonna keep on keepin’ on. I have not used the pills since the first batch.)
- Once mixed I put it in the pot and then mixed the contents of the Instant Pot with the fork.
- Press the ‘Yogurt’ button.
- The LED display should show ’24:00′. You want ’36:00′.
- Press the ‘+’ button under the LED panel until the screen displays ’36:00′. Don’t think even more is better – after 36:00 the yogurt might start to die off. Follow instructions!
- Wait 5-7 seconds. The unit should beep and the time resets to ’00:00′
- Wait 36 hours. Do NOT try to rush things! The extra time allows the number of live bacteria to multiply exponentially. Follow orders!
Things to remember while waiting
- After all this you might have forgotten why you are doing this. Read the section in the Undoctored book to remind yourself or visit the Undoctored blog (links above).
- I know – you’re tempted to peek. Keep in mind that yogurt cultures can become contaminated by contact with air. The best advice to to not peek, but if you have to, it’s not going to even begin to look like yogurt until about 12 hours. I did peek multiple times, but each peek increases the risk of contamination. Call me a daredevil. And now, after a bunch of times, I peek once after 12 hours or so (can’t help myself) then leave it be.
- Don’t stir or otherwise molest the incubating yogurt (do not taunt Happy Fun Ball). You wouldn’t poke at freshly-hatched baby chicks, would you? Don’t futz with it. At this point it’s either going to work or not – and there’s nothing I know of that can fix it.
- At hour 36 the unit will beep off and cool. Mine did this some time between 3 and 4am. I didn’t get up until 7:30am.
My final result had that pungent, yogurt smell and was a milk color with some slight yellowed splotches on the top. This seemed OK. If you have black mold or other colored molds, game over. It got contaminated and you should throw it out.
My first batch came out the consistency of Jello. A lot of people say that their first batch was watery. Mine wasn’t. I actually used a small cake serving utensil to get it out. There might be some liquid left. That is whey – and you don’t want to mix it in the yogurt as it can raise insulin. (Newsflash! Whey *might* not be good for you especially if you are insulin-resistant – even though it is used in countless high-protein powders.) If you have a lot of extra whey, you can put it in an ice tray or into a small container you keep in the fridge and use 2 tablespoons for your next batch of yogurt.
UPDATE: That last sentence – I take back. The whey actually yielded my crappiest batch of yogurt. Instead, I put the yogurt in the fridge and the whey rises to the top naturally. I drain it off into the sink as best I can before eating.
The Taste Test
I placed mine in the fridge before 8am and had my first ‘dose’ – 1/2 cup – at about noon. I had heard that the result can be, ahem, an ‘acquired taste’. I opened my container and whey had come to the top which I drained off. I scooped out a half a cup and took my first spoonful.
OMG – it was delicious!
I am used to eating plain yogurt, so unsweetened yogurts are the way I roll. As unsweetened yogurts go, this was top-notch. It was not as strong a flavor as Fage Greek yogurt, though the smell was more powerful. It actually had a mild flavor and a very creamy mouth-feel. The yogurt had a superior flavor to Fage, and I like Fage.
The finished yogurt had formed a skin and I can imagine fussbudgets gagging at that. I suppose you could mix it to reduce the effect but it didn’t bother me. I haven’t seen this skin in subsequent batches – maybe something about using the pills?
For those of you who can’t abide the taste of plain yogurt, Dr. Davis recommends a number of natural sweeteners – check out his book or his blogs for more info.
I also pour inulin over the yogurt before I eat it. I kinda like the taste. It’s slightly sweet, but the carbs in it supposedly can only be digested by our gut bacteria so it supposedly doesn’t count as carbs – or something like that. I don’t overthink it.
Good luck – and if anyone actually reads this far AND makes the yogurt, let me know if my instructions were helpful and your results.
UPDATE 06/17/19: It seems my wife and daughters like the yogurt as well. I’ve also started a second batch using the leftover whey with the inulin and this appears to be coming along just fine. (No, it didn’t. It turned out more watery than any other batch and I never used whey again.)
Low Carb Confidential 
Where nutrition is concerned, the uncertainties are legion. In my experience, eating the same food day after day can either be beneficial or detrimental depending upon how ones body and gut microbiota respond to the nutrient content. That said, this video is well worth the 19 minutes it takes to view it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z03xkwFbw4 It may furnish the tools to gauge the benefit of your yogurt food experiment.
Thanks for the instructions. I have used your method to make 24 hour GAP yogurt many times. Glad to know it worked for you for the L reuteri yogurt. I was wondering about the 100 degree requirement in the instructions as for GAP yogurt it needs to be 105 to 115. I tested my Instant Pot and it read 111 with my thermometer for a water trial. Thanks to your making it like I’ve made GAP yogurt, I will proceed to make the L. reuteri yogurt. One thing I’ve done when making the GAP yogurt is to cool the yogurt down in the sink to 110 or so by filling the sink with cold tap water and putting the pot in it with a cookie cooling grate at the bottom of the sink for better circulation of the water. It takes about 5 minutes or so. You have to keep measuring to pull it out when it hits 110 or so. Much quicker than waiting 2 hours. Read about this technique when researching making GAP yogurt. I’ve also cooled it down from 190 with ice water baths as well but it cools almost as quick with the tap water and makes for a denser yogurt than with the ice water bath method.
I had read that as you begin to near 120 degrees you can kill the culture. I’m on my 5th batch from the original yogurt and it is still thick and delicious.
As to speeding up the cooling: to me, 34 or 36 hours is more or less the same. While it takes more than a day and a half to make the stuff, my time investment is:
1 minute to pour half and half into the pot, set to boil, and set alarm on my phone for 2:45.
Once the alarm goes off, 5 minutes to fish out the ‘skin’ on the top of the half and half, mix starter yogurt with inulin and some of the scalded milk, pour into pot, stir, cover, and set for 36 hours.
If I could remove more steps I would.
I know that I could not have made this yogurt without your blog’s detailed instructions. Thank you for taking your time to do so. Somehow I missed the part about using the “keep warm” button when making the actual yogurt. I had been using a DUO6 quart instant pot. I bought a smaller one, failed again to turn on the keep warm button and the yogurt was 88 degrees after 36 hours. I have learned my lesson but is this yogurt toxic? Should I throw this batch out? Thank you for your time!
When in doubt, throw it out. To maybe go a little deeper though, we all should know the look of stuff that has gone seriously bad. Black mold, green mold, white splotchy mold on bread, etc. My yougurt batches would sometimes have a yellowish look at the top. I smelled it and it smelled ok, and ate it and haven’t died (yet). You need to use your own good judgement and if you don’t trust your own judgment – toss it.
So, two months later are you still making it? Any health benefits observed?
Good question!
First off, I’ve made about 8 to 9 batches so far and it’s worked every time. My family also loves it and eats it just for the taste.
As to magical health benefits? Meh. I did have a half-cup yesterday with maybe 2 tablespoons of inulin on top and I was full for hours afterward, though hungry for the first half-hour.
I had faltered on my diet and wasn’t taking it, nor my vitamins, nor my probiotic before that and – honestly – my mood was suffering (as well as my weight). Can I directly attribute that to the yogurt or the rest of the Undoctored Protocol? I dunno.
I can say 2 months later I plan on continuing to make the stuff because I like it, my family likes it, it’s easy to make once you get into a routine – and maybe it helps.
Thank you for sharing this information. I’m still not confident about the temp of my instapot. Is there a way to tell if the mixture overheated and thus killed the good bacteria? Mine came out sort of separated, but I put it in the fridge to cool.
Well, if you have a digital thermometer and run the test I did then you’d know what temp your Instant Pot will be running at for the 36 hours. I did read a lot of people get a runny batch the first time but it’s firmer after that. I didn’t have that problem.
I’m not sure if this where I leave my comments. If it is, I just want to say I enjoyed your blog. Great sense of humor 😆. I have done the l.reuteri and followed the wheatbelly diet for a while. I had good luck making the yogart at first in the oven and in a yogart maker I got second hand, but then it failed a few times. I thought it was great when it worked. So I bought an instapot. But so far have not used it for yogart. Getting prepared to do it. So thank you for sharing your trials. That bio Gaia sh.t is expensive, don’t want fail. Will get back to you after I give this a try. Again thank you for the info. And the entertainment.😁
Bless you for taking the time to spell this all out!! It’s as if this info is top secret out there 😉 I appreciate it!!
IKR? It was driving me crazy!
Thank you for the post 🙂 But I do wonder about the pasteurization step… It makes me think about what Dr. Davis says, that people have become obsessed with cleanliness, which then makes me think of ancient peoples who drank milk and weren’t concerned with pasteurizing it. I wonder if this process can be further reduced and made super simple by skipping the pasteurization step and using the yogurt function alone. I tested the temperature of the Instant Pot in Yogurt mode with some water and my infrared thermometer gun. I started with water at 85 degrees from my RO tap, and after about 5 minutes, the temperature was about 105. I left it on for a total of 15 minutes checking regularly with my thermometer gun at various locations of the pot and the temps never went below 100 and never exceeded 110, which is perfect. I plan to add my prepared milk/culture/inulin to the pot, select the yogurt button, select the ‘+’ button and hold until I reach 24 hours (the max that my Instant Pot goes to), cover with cheesecloth, and then after 24 hours, I plan on clicking the ‘off’ button and then selecting the yogurt button again, this time adding 10 more hours for a total of about 34 hours. We’ll see how it goes 🙂
The only reason I pasteurize is I think it increases my odds of not getting a bad batch. I’ve made 9 or 10 batches from the original and they’ve all been consistently good. It does lengthen the overall process by a few hours but only adds maybe 3 minutes to the overall prep work.
Not sayin’ your way won’t work – I personally don’t want to mess with success.
My first batch was very wet/watery. I used goats milk at first. I ended up starting up a brand new batch (didn’t use culture from the first batch) with half and half instead of goat milk and I decided to pasteurize, just to ensure that only the L Reuteri survives 🙂 What I do to cool down the milk is, once the pot beeps that the boil step is done, I take the pot into my sink, where I’ve created a water bath with a little bit of ice. I use my infrared thermometer gun to monitor the temperature of the “milk” as I stir it and I ensure I’m well below 110 degrees before I put the pot back into the Instant Pot frame (this does not take very long at all, maybe less than 10 minutes to cool down). I take some warm milk from the pot and mix it with the inulin in a small bowl, then I add my culture from my last batch and stir it well, and then I add that into the pot and stir and then I set it for 36 hours and it’s been working for me that way!
You do not HAVE to make the yogurt as part of the Wheat Belly or Undoctored programs. We do so for extra probiotic benefits and, now, for group experimentation
You do NOT need to pasteurize except raw or unpasteurized commercial products. Mine’s worked over 2 years now on whey starter ice cubes. I always sterilize my whisk, bowls, measuring spoons, etc.
The pasteurization isn’t an obsession with cleanliness exactly. It’s simply to eliminate competing bacteria, already in the milk or from elsewhere. L. reuteri is slow growing and so, until established in large enough numbers, doesn’t compete well with some more fast-growing bacteria. Those other microbes will then outgrow the L. reuteri and use up the food medium that is needed. You won’t get the full benefit because the numbers of the desired probiotics will be lower. Not to mention the potential for harmful contaminants, like yeast and fungi, since it’s fermenting at a much lower temperature, preferably around 97-100 degrees.
I have using our insta-pot to make the undoctored yogurt for about 2 months. I too did a test run. My wife has a $200 instant read professional chefs thermometer guaranteed accurate to with in a tenth of a degree. My I-pot runs at 106 degrees very consistently. I have always made my yogurt in a mixing bowl and put that into the I-pot on the rack. I have always put a little water in the pot. However, it always condenses on the lid. I am trying a batch tonight without adding any water. We’ll see what happens. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
✌🏼🙏🏼 Thank you SO much for going through the trouble to not only figure out this process, but then to meticulously write it out for us❤️. I’ve been making this yogurt for about 2 months now and I refer back to this often. I only used the pills the first time and my yogurt tastes better than any store bought yogurt I’ve ever tried!
Thanks for these step-by-step instructions. I finished mine this morning and… well it came out more like cottage cheese so I am not sure if I did it right. Lots of whey ended up mixing with the yogurt when I took it out. Wasn’t well separated. And the mandarin/mint flavor of the reuteri tablets came through in the final product — which makes for a pretty weird taste for a dairy product. Not my favorite. Is that flavor supposed to be there or is it a sign I did something wrong?
Wow. Totally NOT what I experienced. I had no mandarin/mint flavor at all, and it came out as thick as the picture shows. Did you use organic half and half without additives? Did you feed it plenty of inulin to snack on? Did you try to keep it covered as much as possible during the 36 hours? I’m making a batch as I write using a half-gallon of half and half and I waited 2.5 hours for it to naturally reach proper temp rather than uncovering it or trying ice baths which I’ve seen other people do – I figure it’s best to not mess with the stuff and learn patience – respect the process. I really did try to detail *every* single step that led me to a successful first batch – and updated the post to fill in details. I’ve been making this stuff from my original batch around mid-June. I will say that a number of people say their first batch was soupy – perhaps the next batch will work? All I can say at this point is my daughter asked me to make more yesterday because she thinks it tastes so darn good.
pazl –
Did you figure out what you did? I just did my first batch today and it came out the same as yours did – the consistency of cottage cheese too. i never looked inside for any of the 36 hours – i guess it’s whey that was mixed with the yogurt as well. I just put it in the fridge and thought I’d let it set for a bit before trying it. It *really* doesn’t look or smell appetizing. Slight reddish spots in the skin on the top but no obvious black mold as described above….unless reddish spots are mold too. :- /
Have your subsequent batches come out any better? Did you use starter from the previous batch for the new batches or did you use pills again? I followed the steps listed above to the best of my knowledge and was looking forward to the yogurt. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement.
From what I understand, successful L. reuteri yogurt shouldn’t change color. Any off-color (red, green, black, dark) spots or streaks supposedly indicate a contaminating bacteria, yeast, or mold. Try again in being more careful about sterilization of everything used.
This has been a wonderful experiment, but I’ve run the test on my instant pot twice, and both times the temp drops to about 95F. Any idea what I did wrong?
One quart of half and half correct?
I made my 2nd batch and just took it out of my instapot. I used organic half and half for 36 hours. I have about 1 cup creamy yogurt on top and three cups cleanish colored liquid underneath. What am I doing wrong? My first batch I used organic 2% milk and it was runny so I completely started over with the half and half and new tablets but still same results
Hi – the first few times I made this yogurt, it turned out perfectly! Now, however, I keep getting green mold on top. I have sterilized everything under boiling hot water or dishwasher. I follow the same steps exactly. What could be causing the mold? Thanks
Some have an inulin with bacterial contamination. Try adding the inulin to the milk during the pasteurization process as many long time Undoctored folks do. That may help. If not, you may have to try another inulin product. Now or Piping Rock appear to be good brands. Do ensure, as well, that your Half & Half or milk products have no carrageenan or gum additives. Best of luck.
Hi – the first few times I tried this, the yogurt turned out perfectly. Now, however, the batches turn out with green mold on top.I sterilize everything with boiling water or dishwasher. I am following the exact same steps. what could be causjng the mold? Thanks
I have the same problem. First 4 batches were perfect, now last 2 batches have a greenish mold spots on top. I thought it was my starter that was bad so I started over with 10 tablets, still mold on top. Any ideas?
The same happened to me. First four batches were perfect. Now I’m on batch #3 of green mold on top. I have started over with tablets, not using starter. Any advice?
Do you use 1/2 gallon of half & half?
The blog post was for a quart. I’ve been making 1/2 gallon batches as of late. The big difference is the time to cool the scalded half-half, but that was about it.
You must use inulin, as well, in proportion to your milk product. 1 quart Half & Half, 2 tbsp inulin, 2 tbsp starter saved. If you up milk to 1/2 gallon, up the inulin proportionally.
If you double the ingredients is 36hrs still sufficient? I would rather make more less often as it goes fast around here!
Double ingredients is the same time. Works spiffy.
I made my first batch that finished this morning. It’s kind of on the soupy side, but I’m hoping the next batch will be thicker.
I had the same! It is more like a drinkable yogurt! I used a friends starter rather than the tablets. Im wondering if I should dump this batch and start over with tablets or should I use this batch as a starter?
My first batch was like that. It firmed up in subsewuent batches.
I just made my first batch of yoghurt following your instructions and it turned out PERFECTLY! thanks so much for sharing.
Truly appreciate all the insights and info! Does the “yogurt” actually help with any of the issues it claims to help with?
Nothing that I noticed. I also can’t claim to have followed the complete protocol completely.
Those of us long-timers in Undoctored or Wheat Belly report some interesting benefits of L.reuteri Not-Yogurt. Many, many have experienced better sleep (Dr. Davis himself was an insomniac and now gets very long restful sleep.), firmer, younger looking skin, reduced hunger, quicker muscle creation during exercise and sometimes longer exercise duration. As an aside, I never re-pasteurize my organic no-additive Half & Half, always sterilize ALL my bowls and tools in the IP for 3 min pressure w/natural release, and gently whisk the starter/inulin mixture, then gently whisk the final mixture both for at least 2 minutes. Great results! Best of luck with your L.reuteri.
Jan do you make your yogurt in the steel instant pot liner or a glass bowl.
In the steel pot.
Wheat Belly/Undoctored is definitely not a ketogenic diet as the requirements for 20g varied prebiotic fiber daily would rarely allow us to be in full-time ketosis unless temporarily fasting. Thanks, however, for the great blow-by-blow. You did a good job, as you are correct that the instructions on the Undoctored or Wheat Belly sites are less than clear. (They’re working on that with our help!!) Of course, the experiments go on with about 5 other bacterial strains being tested by members. Interesting outcomes. You should check out the L.casei Shirota (made the same way except with 2Tbsp Yakult yogurt as starter) which is showing benefits for respiratory health, oh, so important during this Covid-19 pandemic!
Many have wondered if the prebiotic fiber is as necessary as suggested. All foods are probiotics, including fatty acids and amino acids, particularly from connective tissue, skin, etc. Not to mention the prebiotics in dairy. Additional benefit may or may not be obtained from adding in plant-based prebiotics.
Some of the doctors advocating the carnivore diet have tested patients on that diet and found their microbiomes were large and diverse. Different probiotics will feed different bacteria, but there is no reason a carnivore diet, specifically including dairy, wouldn’t support a wide variety, including L. reuteri strains.
https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2019/08/23/fiber-or-not-short-chain-fatty-acids-and-the-microbiome/
First, thank you for the great instructions for testing my instant pot.. All good until step 8. After pressing “keep warm” and then press “yogurt” the led says “boil” so I must be doing something wrong but can’t figure it out. Any ideas?
I think you have to press it a few times until “yogurt” appears and then you’re set. And yes I know this is like 2yrs late.
I have produced 15 batches with no issues. Don’t use an I – Pot but will try. I have a 8 separate cup yogurt maker that I set to 100 degrees, and I do it for 18 hours. Reading … I’m going to try 24 and see what happens. I use whole milk, and the info I saw on line address why you heat it. Luvele had a great research article on it. See below. I have saved about 4 samples and frozen … as back up. I use a portion of my last cup to seed the next batch. I use potato starch instead of inulin.
https://www.luvele.eu/blogs/recipe-blog/new-improved-l-reuteri-yoghurt-method
My Canadian Instant Pot does not have an Adjust button, but I found that if I double click the Yogurt button, I get the “boil” message.
Also, I am guessing that whatever amount of quart of water is used to test is how much half and half we should use. In the case of the current write-up, the proportion of inulin would be two to three tablespoons per one quart of half and half.
Alas, here in Canada, they do not sell the Biogaia tablets. They sell the drops, which Biogaia says is equivalent. Daily dosage is one tablet per day for the tablets, five drops per day for the drops. So my initial batch will use 50 drops.
As a former microbiology lab tech, when fermenting anything, it’s good to use good sterile technique. If you are getting mold on your finished yogurt, you have a contamination somewhere in your system, probably in your Instant Pot. Did you know you can wash the lid in the dishwasher? I would put everything that touches the yogurt into the dishwasher on a Sanitize setting. Running the pressure cooker setting with some water in it for 10 minutes should also be a good way to sterilize things. We used an autoclave to achieve the same sterile result. Make sure your other utensils are sterilized.
The drops are not the same as the Gastrus, so you have to mail order the Gastrus.
Knowing the l reuteri sensitivity to higher incubation heat I tried using the Instant Pot Duo Mini Less setting which is 88.16F to 93.2F instead of Normal which is 104.2F to 109.8F. This was started from a previous batch done at the normal under 100 degree yogurt range and the result was thicker yogurt and no problems. So it seems the lower temp is workable if anyone wants to try.
Thank you so much for these detailed instructions. I am really loving this delicious yogurt.
Thanks for the tips. I tried this Instant Pot method twice and got the watery, lumpy yogurt issue and it didn’t taste or smell good. I checked the Instant Pot temperature at the end of the Yogurt setting phase and found that it had not maintained the temperature during that phase. So I bought a Luvele yogurt maker and it produced the thick yogurt like you show above and it was easier to use. I also discovered through experimentation that the BioGaia Prodentis and Osfortis L. Reuteri bacteria produce a thicker, tastier yogurt with no lumps. Even with the Luvele, the Gastrus version sometimes produces a watery, lumpy yogurt, though less so than with my Instant Pot.
Great directions! Thank you. All my attempts with contacting Instant Pot on temperatures have been useless. I don’t mind paying a bit more for a specific model if it means I can manually set the yogurt temperature.
Isn’t Dr Davis currently suggesting 100F as optimum and that over 105F L. Reuteri is killed off?
Any chance you have a vegan version of this recipe using coconut milk?
I know you can make the yogurt by adding a couple of tablespoons from the last batch but do you need to add 2 tablespoons of inulin every time?
I dunno, Janet. I stopped experimenting when I hit on a recipe that worked every time. The inulin feeds the bacteria. By the look of my yogurt, they like the food.