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Yoghurt Culture Calculator

Work out yoghurt culture instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Yoghurt Culture Calculator

Starter is dosed as a percentage of the milk weight, taking milk at about 1.03 kg per litre, and incubation time roughly halves for every 8 C rise around the 43 C reference. More starter is not better: overdosing crowds the culture and gives a grainy, sour set, while temperature does far more to control the finished tang.

Formulas

Starter quantity

starter grams = litres x 1030 x starter percentage

Incubation time

hours = 6 x 2 ^ ((43 - temperature) / 8)

Worked example

With the default values below, Yoghurt Culture Calculator returns Starter yoghurt needed of 41.2. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Milkminimum 0.1 L
2 L
Starter as a share of the milkaccepts 0.5–10 %
2 %
Incubation temperatureaccepts 30–50 C
43 C

Results

Starter yoghurt needed
41.2 g
Starter in tablespoons
2.75
Estimated incubation time
6.00 h
Incubation in hours and minutes
6h 00m

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Starter quantity
  3. 3Incubation time
  4. 4Starter yoghurt needed= 41.2 g
  5. 5Starter in tablespoons= 2.75
  6. 6Estimated incubation time= 6.00 h
  7. 7Incubation in hours and minutes= 6h 00m

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the Yoghurt Culture figure worked out?

starter grams = litres x 1030 x starter percentage. Starter is dosed as a percentage of the milk weight, taking milk at about 1.03 kg per litre, and incubation time roughly halves for every 8 C rise around the 43 C reference.

Why does this matter?

More starter is not better: overdosing crowds the culture and gives a grainy, sour set, while temperature does far more to control the finished tang.

What do I need to enter?

Enter milk, starter as a share of the milk, incubation temperature. The defaults shown are a realistic worked example — swap in your own figures to get a result you can use.

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