How to make Curd at Home, Homemade Indian Yogurt (Dahi)

How to make curd at home, thick, creamy, perfect set homemade curd/ Dahi every single time. This detailed guide helps with tips, tricks, and FAQs. I have shared two ways, one stove top traditional way and the second method is Instant pot curd.

Make this when you want to skip store bought curd, save money or simply prefer the fresh, natural taste of homemade Dahi.

Check out my Curd rice recipe and Spiced buttermilk recipe in this website.

Jump to:

• Indian Yogurt (Dahi)
• Step by step Images
• How to make buttermilk from homemade curd?
• FAQs
• Tips
• Troubleshooting
• Notes
• Recipes
• Instant pot Curd
• Recipe card

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 Yogurt (Dahi)

Plain Yogurt in is Curd (Dahi) 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.

From the time I started to cook, for almost 20 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.

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. This buttermilk I mean is not the same as byproduct of making butter, but just whisking curd with water to dilute it.

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. Less fat you see, haha.

Step by step Images

Lets see how to make curd at home.

1. Boiling milk. Start heating 1 litre milk in a milk pan. It should be large enough to hold the overflowing milk when it boils.
2. Keep stirring occasionally in the beginning. As you see steam rising along the spoon you stir, be careful, your milk is about to boil. Be careful at this stage as it may overflow.

3. Cool down. Once it boils - becomes frothy, raises too. Switch off the stove. Cover with a lid. set aside for cooling.
4. Right temperature. You should be able to touch the milk with bare hands, if it is warm enough to touch, this is the correct temperature.

5. Transfer to curd setting vessel. Transfer to the vessel you are going to set curd in. Preferably which could retain the temperature for a while.
6. Mixing starter curd. Next, mix about 2 tablespoon of well beaten curd to the milk and stir well.

7. Stir well. With a spoon, give a good mix making sure it gets mixed well.
8. Keep covered for setting. Leave it in a warm place for setting.

9. Set curd. After about 6 hours, the curd will be completely set. Depending on the surrounding temperature, it starts getting set, thicken as time passes.
10. Refrigerate. Once set, keep the set curd in refrigerator. Gets more firmer as you refrigerate. Take only required amount when needed and never leave it outside to prevent turning too sour.

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