Yogurt Face-Off: Instant Pot vs. Sous Vide | Consumer Reports 

I make yogurt with the instant pot on a regular basis and it works perfectly. My suspicion is that she didn't cool the milk enough before adding the culture and thereby killed the bacteria. The point of cooling it down to that specific temperature isn't that if you cool it down more the bacteria might die, it's that that's the optimal temperature for them to grow. But the nice thing about the instant pot is you don't have to worry about that because it will just heat the milk back up to the ideal temperature. What I do is just boil the milk in the instant pot and then leave it in the fridge for a couple hours to get nice and cool, then add a few spoonfuls of yogurt and put it back in the instant pot for the 8-hour cycle. Works every time. If cooling the milk too much killed the bacteria then the bacteria would die in the fridge and probiotic yogurt wouldn't be a thing.

Adding to the instant pot comment. My yogurt in the instant pot has always turned out. That said, I now use the sous vide method on my instant pot and the results are incredible.

TOTALLY DISAGREE on your IP yogurt experience. Mine comes out wonderful every single time. After 8 hrs, I transfer it into a cheese cloth lined colander and place it in the fridge. I can vary the time and get it to the consistency I want from creamy to almost near mozzarella cheese density.

I've never had a problem making yogurt in my Instant Pot - I do it weekly. I use lactose free milk so I can skip the boiling step and just incubate it for 8 hours. Your tester may not have mixed the yogurt into the milk thoroughly enough and that's why she got such a poor result.

Clearly CR did something wrong with the Instant Pot. It works beautifully for me. And by the way it is nonsense to say you boil the milk to 185F. For the recipe you HEAT the milk to 185F (also called scalding the milk), it does not boil at that temperature. The boiling point of milk is close to the boiling point of water (212F or 100C).

My Instant Pot makes perfect yogurt every time. Powdered nonfat milk, water, starter, 8-12 hours depending on how firm you like it. I've been making at least two batches that way every week for well over a year without ever seeing a result like yours. My wife likes Greek yogurt, so her's goes into a Hatrigo 2 quart strainer.

I make yogurt in my instapot quite regularly, letting it incubate for 10 hours. That gives me consistent results. You've got something wrong with your method.

That's bc the instant pot onle heats the milk to about 160 degrees farenheight. You have to put it on saute and finish the heating and cooling process. Then incubating is much more eeficient

I have both the ANOVA and the Instant Pot. I prefer the ANOVA. It's a more even result. But I don't use a pot for the beginning part. I use the sous vide.

I've been using IP for my yogurt for years. The recipes vary depending on the milk, the culture (which base yogurt was used), and other factors. Each batch can be a little different. Not sure one test should be your basis of conclusion. Not a good test CR.

Looks like the IP yogurt setting was on the low setting not regular. That's why it didn't work. Not a fair test as it wasn't done correctly. My ip yogurt always comes out thick. If you press the yogurt button once you get boil, twice low which is great for proofing bread, third time regular which is what you want for making yogurt after boiling, cooling and culturing the milk. This face off is more about the lack of understanding of CR to the workings of the Instant Pot yogurt button than a real face off.

Sorry CR. You've lost credibility on this one. People have been making successful yogurt in IP's for years. I've had this result once in 2 years when I forgot a step. I wonder what your test protocols are and how many pots or batches were made to give this report. Makes me wonder about all of your other "tests".

I make five pounds of yogurt every week with my Instapot and mine has never come out like it did for Consumer Reports. I have no idea what she did but she might not have used enough starter or the starter may have been too old. Incidentally, I never boil the milk. I use the sauté setting until the temperature of the milk reaches 180 F. I then remove the pot and place it in a larger bowl where I have a constant stream of water running to cool the yogurt more quickly. When it reaches 115 F, I place the pot back in the Instapot on “yogurt” setting for eight hours. If this is an example of Consumer Reports testing, I may have to reconsider using their testing results when making a purchase.

That's not my experience with making yogurt using the Instant Pot. Mine always comes out thick and even. Perhaps the recipe I used is different.

I've made yogurt in mt instant pot and it came out just fine. Same as the oven in fact. I'm going to try my sous vide though since it makes great creme brulee

I've made some of the best yogurt I've ever had in an Instant Pot... granted I strained it with cheese cloth to make greek yogurt

I've had great results with roommate's InstantPot & as long as you're paying attention to the timing, it's perfect. -came looking for sous vide instructions & found this vid. I use an aquarium heater in a water-bath insulated cooler (for kombucha); I'll take the F2 kombucha out to room temperature for a day & run the yogurt at lower temp (about 92-96F) and it turned out good a couple of times so far. Just looking for other options if the InstPot isn't available, but had to encourage the InstPot usage as really, I found it to deliver the best product, consistently so far.

Perhaps Consumer Reports does not understand the sous vide functionality of an INSTAPOT? The temperature And pressure is controlled by a microprocessor. You sound silly comparing either to manual methods, and unwise putting the lack of pressure control in the sous vide against the Instapot. More research please. Sincerely, A chemical engineer & cook.

This is seriously misleading. Making yoghurt is not supposed to be done at room temperature. If you use a sous-vide to maintain a constant temp of nearly 110° then of course it’s going to thicken quickly. Likewise you’re not supposed to boil milk in your instant pot - you heat it to 180° then cool it. The key is maintaining a temp somewhere around 90° while the yoghurt cultures. Do that and anything will work, instant pot, sous vide or the special thermos I have that will let milk maintain it’s temp for over 24 hours and uses no power at all.

I made my first ip yogurt and it ended up great. And I’m and idiot who made some mistakes… I was rubbing water around the sides of the bowls after boiling to cook it down… then absentmindedly watered down my soy milk whoops… anyway, straining made it nice thick and consistent.

This CR report is bad. I use Instant Pot, and give up on Sous Vide because the effort needed to make yogurt. I think Sous Vide may be better but I will take my Instant Pot yogurt in a heart beat. Please take this video down, you are not doing it right.

I have been making yoghurt in the Instant Pot for 4 years and it always turns out great. I don't know how she managed her dismal result.

I use sous vide and always comes out perfect.

Holy cow CR is full of baloney on this one. I make yogurt in my instant pot all the time and it turns out perfect in 8-10 hours (overnight). I do 4 liters at a time, and I prefer to use the "sautee" function for an additional 10 minutes right after the end of the "boil" step. The I rapidly cool my milk in a sink full of water.

what is the point if you have to use yogurt?

Why do people use a pot to bring milk to 180, couldn’t you set Sous-vide machine to 180 and set timer for 10-30 min and place milk in clean jars and put in water, and when its done lower temp to 110 or whatever and when it gets down to temp add culture and cook for 5 hours+?

I have a Yogormet yogurt maker and an instant pot. The instant pot is as good as the yogurt maker BUT I use 4 pint jars to hold the milk/yogurt mixture and add water to surround the jars for perfect even temps. I skip the boil/cool procedure because ultra pasturized milk doesn’t need it. I’ve been making yogurt with ultra pasturized milk this way for over 10 years. It’s been flawless so far and I do it for 24 hrs to lower the carb content and increase the probiotics. I’ve NEVER had a failure like this lady…she is apparently the problem here.

Oven or pot on for five to eight hours I DON'T think so !! The cost and time far out weigh any benefits !!

Total b.s. I make yogurt every week with the instant pot and my yogurt comes out fine. And the first model they showed is even better at doing it then the one they used in the test. Weird. The woman clearly didnt know how to use it or is intentionally using it wrong due to bias towards the other product. Consumer reports used to be reputable but that was many years back. Im reporting this video for misleading info,

Vegan yoghurt please

Looks like she burnt the milk in the ip

I refuse to make yogurt at home…I will buy yogurt at the store for the rest of my life