How to make curd at home, Homemade curd recipe

How to make curd at home, perfect set homemade curd/ thayir every time. Detailed post with tips, tricks, and FAQs.

I have replied in detail to many of my reader friends on making curd. Especially people from US, Singapore often ask me the homemade Indian style curd making process.

And once they succeed and mail me back sharing their excitement, I really feel happy and content that I could help. I have always thought to make a post on this, but somehow it doesn't happen.

So finally time has come to share, to help beginners and particularly this can be useful at this period of time. It can save you bucks, save your trips outside. Also no need to worry on the stock.

If you want to learn and perfect the process, please read in detail and patiently.

Indian curd

Curd in India is different from rest of the world. In other words, curd is similar to plain yogurt. So if a recipe calls for yogurt you can use curd and vice versa.

In India, curd is set rather than curdled. Meaning it is a slow process (around 6 hours) of fermentation through which thick curd is set. Usually a starter curd is needed for setting curd.

Why homemade?

From the time I started to cook, for almost 16 years, I make my own curd at home. Being South Indian Tamil, we have mor sadam to end our meal.

So preparing curd at home is economical. Store bought curd is expensive, especially when you use extensively.

It is very common to make curd everyday in our households. Both mom, MIL make fresh curd everyday.

Many of us in our family, have the habit of eating curd with breakfast or dinner with idli, dosa or upma too.

My grandma, mom, FIL loves buttermilk with the idli dosa/ upma. We add little salt to it and use it along eating idli dosa.

Curd or Buttermilk

Though everyday curd is set in our homes, consumption of curd is kind of luxury. We always use buttermilk (mor), than the curd as such, in earlier days.

Now a days though consumption of curd has increased, still, for lunch we include only mor. Also elders at home say it's healthier to use mor than thayir. Mor/ butter milk is said to be body coolant than thayir.

Homemade curd stepwise photos

How to make buttermilk from homemade curd?

Take ½ cup curd a tall vessel. Using a balloon whisk, beat smoothly and add 1 & ½ cups water and whisk again to make it smooth.

FAQs

Tips

• UHT milk/ curd from tetra pack milk sets thicker comparatively to fresh milk.
• Experiment with different brands of both milk and curd (starter) to find which works best for your region, climate conditions (USA, Singapore...) and stick to it.
• If you have local quality brands that supply around fresh curd, use it as it has more live cultures.
• I set my curd in day time than night as the hot environment helps to set the curd.
• In cold days/ rainy days, I keep the container around hot areas like next to stove while cooking, by the side of appliances where the surrounding is warmer - example by the side of refrigerator or over it.
• If you have oven and need warm environment, put inside the oven and leave the oven light on, which will provide necessary temperature.
• Don't have oven and have difficulties for similar environment? I keep inside cooker (the warm cooker - not under fire) as soon as I take out cooked rice from cooker and keep it closed. This fastens the process.
• Boil milk well, bring to the temperature to warm, instead of just heating the milk up to warm. It makes a whole lot of difference in thick texture.

Use chilli with stalk to ensure it is set.

How to make curd at home

Troubleshooting

What to do with slimy curd?
Use it in mor kuzhambu or make neer mor with lots of water.

How to avoid slimy curd?

• Do not use a starter which is slimy. The starter curd is what the home set curd gets it's taste, texture from. So clean well the vessels, never use the same slimy curd as starter again.
• It happens in certain environment, it can happen without our control because of something to do with the weather or surroundings- this is my understanding.
  So, if no matter what, you can get slimy curd even though you were able to get proper set curd earlier, just skip making curd for some period of time and use store bought and start with fresh starter curd to set homemade curd.

Notes

If you check the curd, if it is not starting to set, mix once again and keep over hotter place to set. Use chilli with stalk to ensure it is set.

I love natural flavour of curd and not the overpowering milky smelling curd of some brands. Milky mist works best for starter and I buy Nestle if buying, as it is close to homemade curd.

Why I set 1 liter curd and not just small portions?

I keep forgetting setting curd in everyday basis, so I prefer setting as 1 litre and use it for a week. You can even divide and store in different containers if you want.

I hope I shared everything I know, if I remember anything important for this post, I will sure update. Leave comments if you have any suggestions, tips that work for you, which brand milk works best for you etc. This can help others too.

Recipes

Instant pot Curd

Now a days I love setting my curd in Instant pot. No more babysitting milk to prevent overflowing. And most importantly, consistent results as it creates the necessary environment/ temperature to set.

Let's see how to make Dahi (Indian style curd/ yogurt) in Instant pot Duo.

1. Firstly, take milk in the inner pot. Then press Yogurt button in the panel until you see boil.

2. Close the lid and wait until it is done. The display will change from boil to Yogt. Now I take out the inner pot and cool down to optimum temperature.

3. Just test it by keeping your hands around the pot to see if you can bear the heat few seconds comfortably. Do not let it cool down too much. It should be warm.

Add 2 tablespoons of starter curd and mix thoroughly.

4. Now press the Yogurt button again to choose Normal for 10 hours. Close the lid and wait until the timer is up.

Once done, keep the curd in refrigerator for setting it thick. Transfer to another vessel to store easily.

Recipe card

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5 from 1 vote

Instant pot curd

Instant pot curd is easy way to set curd at home with consistent results. Learn how to make homemade curd in instant pot.

Course Condiments

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 10 hours hours

Servings 4 cups

1x2x3x

Equipments (Amazon Affiliate links)

• Instant pot Duo 7 in 1, 6 Quart

Cup measurements

Ingredients

• 1 liter Milk I used Meiji fresh milk
• 2 tablespoon Curd Milky mist or Nestle works

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

• Firstly, take milk in the inner pot.
• Press Yogurt button in the panel until you see boil.
• Close the lid and wait until it is done.
• Now I take out the inner pot and cool down to optimum temperature.
• Just test it by keeping your hands around the pot to see if you can bear the heat few seconds comfortably.
• Do not let it cool down too much. It should be warm.
• Add 2 tablespoons of starter curd and mix thoroughly.
• Now press the Yogurt button again to choose Normal for 10 hours.
• Close the lid and wait until the timer is up.
• Once done, keep the curd in refrigerator for setting it thick.
• Transfer to another vessel to store easily.

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