How To Make Homemade Yogurt / Curd, Steps to Make Dahi at Home

Homemade Curd/Dhai/Yogurt: Intention behind writing this post about home made yogurt  is my own personal experience as I struggled to make good curd. So I thought to share this experience that might help other ladies who are struggling in making good home made curd or dahi at home. I will try to make this a step by step method of making yogurt with pictures. Making home made yogurt is a daily chore for Indian ladies. Many of you might already have become masters in art of making homemade yogurt. But this recipe is for those who are trying for very first time or have tried but failed in getting good quality yogurt at home.

Dahi or yogurt is such a versatile ingredient. In Indian cuisine it is used in so many different varieties of dishes. Dahi raita such as boondi raita, cucumber raita, onion tomato raita etc are primarily the main dish that you will get in any part of India. Also yogurt is used in making lassi and butter milk (chaas). Both great natural cooler drink which control body temperature in summers. Dahi is also used in many Indian curry recipes such as dahi wale aloo, dahi bhindi, gatte ki sabji etc.

To make good quality homemade yogurt / dahi we need to know few basics about curd formation process and few tricks that would help us in getting perfect result every time. In this post I have written all the possibilities of making a good curd/dahi.

First let us check the common mistakes that one can do while making yogurt at home.

How to find mistake in your curd when it is not formed properly

1. If you have added less curd to the milk then:
   • The taste of the curd will not taste good or
   • Will not ferment soon or
   • Will not ferment at all and become sticky
2. If you add more curd then required then
   • The curd will become sour or
   • Sometime it would form bubble on top and smells sour or
   • It would not be edible at all.

In case your curd get sour than also no worries. You can make so many different dishes using sour yogurt.

Where can you use sour curd

• You can make khatta dhokla
• You can make handvo too.
• You can make kadhi.
• Gatta sabzi
• Sev sabzi

Here are few handy tips to make perfect curd everytime.

Tips to make good curd

1. Always warm the milk and then add starter / curd to it .
2. If you live in cold place then add more starter / curd.
3. If you live in hot place then add less starter or else your yogurt will become sour (e.g. In 2 cup milk add 1 tsp of curd).
4. Always use full fat milk to get nice thick curd.
5. Keep the milk to ferment in warn place.
6. Use starter from the previous batch of yogurt to ferment the next day. In case you don’t have starter then buy yogurt in small quantity from grocery store or get it from your neighbor 😀
7. The longer you keep the curd to ferment the sour it gets.
8. You can use microwave to heat milk to lukewarm temperature and use the same vessel to ferment yogurt.
9. After the curd is fermented keep it in the refrigerator or else start turning sour.

How to avoid forming water in curd after breaking

A lot of time when you cut the yogurt and use a slice of it. If you keep rest yogurt as it is then water will start oozing out and form in the yogurt. To avoid that follow these simple steps.

As shown in the below picture I am breaking the curd.

As you can see that in both the mug curd is broken.

In one of the mug I have leveled the curd and in other just kept as it is. Now lets see the change after 5 hrs.

As you can see in the leveled curd it is just the same but in the broken curd the water is formed. (Note: Always level the curd after breaking the curd do not leave as it is or else it will form water)

Steps to make good homemade yogurt / curd / dahi

Warm  the milk before adding adding the curd. Note: do not make milk too hot. Just let it become lukewarm. That temperature is enough to start the fermentation process.

Once the milk is hot add curd or starter to it.

Now mix well curd and milk as shown in the picture below.

Pour it in the container  you want to make curd.

Both the container is filled.

Now cover the container with a lid and keep it in a warm place for about 7-8 hrs. If you live in hot place than you might want to check on it in between.

That’s it. It’s that simple to make a good quality home made yogurt.