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KEFIR – Grow Your Own Delicious Drink and Dairy Staple

andiesenji

By andiesenji
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lemniscate

lemniscate

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

This may be a dumb question but how do you dehydrate the grains?  

It's dry warm weather here, so I just put them on a piece of parchment in my outdoor countertop oven (not turned on) and left them air dry for about 5-6 days.  To be honest they were probably done in 3 days, but I kept forgetting to check them.

 

Here's a link for an example.

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Joe Blowe

Joe Blowe

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 5/12/2024 at 8:01 PM, Smithy said:

I've been making my own kefir from a packet of dry granules...

My my, I've never seen such a product!

 

I'd advise you to ditch that stuff ASAP and find some real kefir grains. I bought mine from the Kefir Lady in 2013, and my culture is still going strong! According to my math, I've made over 250 gallons with my original purchase of grains -- I've also given away excess grains, dumped them in smoothies, etc. A one time purchase will offer years of production.

 

And when I'm away for a few weeks, I'll just cover the grains with some fresh milk and throw 'em in the freezer. When I return I add more fresh milk to the container, place it back in the fridge, and within a few days I'm back in business.

 

P.S. I just checked Nextdoor, Facebook Marketplace, and Etsy; they're all over the place, sometimes for FREE.

 

P.P.S. From Wikipedia: "Kefir can be made using  freeze-dried  cultures commonly available in powder form from  health food stores . A portion of the resulting kefir can be saved to be used a number of times to propagate further fermentations but ultimately does not form grains."

Edited by Joe Blowe (log)
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So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness."

So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

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rotuts

rotuts

Posted
Posted

I tried making kafir some time ago 

 

I was not very successful 

 

saving granules etc

 

can kafir be maid w lactic milk ?

 

that's what I have these day , 

 

re MC the Cat.

 

might try again , if there is robability of reasonable success

 

or 

 

I can stick w yougout

 

liv coulture from theStore

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Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Duvel said:

 

Me too. Then I pour it in the sink and drink a beer ...

Shame on you. Why not try mixing the two together and inventing a new, wonderful beverage.

@Smithy I would suspect that part of your problem with the graininess is the length of fermentation. I can only speak about my experience with yogurt, but the times that I have gotten grainy yogurt is when I have decided to leave it a little longer to try and get a thicker product. All I got was separation and granules.

Edited by Tropicalsenior (log)
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Smithy

Smithy

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Shame on you. Why not try mixing the two together and inventing a new, wonderful beverage.

@Smithy I would suspect that part of your problem with the graininess is the length of fermentation. I can only speak about my experience with yogurt, but the times that I have gotten grainy yogurt is when I have decided to leave it a little longer to try and get a thicker product. All I got was separation and granules.

 

I think you're probably right. My best friend, and @lemniscate above, both let the stuff ferment for much less time than I've given it. I guess my idea of when it "thickens" (thereby indicating that it's done) has been a bit too thick. I took the wand blender to the remainder of this batch today, and although it didn't really get the consistency I prefer it was better. It was also too tart for me, though. I blended a banana with some and had a good breakfast drink that way.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Duvel said:

It's been done ...

Have you tried it?

 

@Smithy damn me if you like, but I always keep a big supply of these

 

20240515_125635.thumb.jpg.35683f60f142ec7744ef80379e5cb4a8.jpg

I'm sure you can find something comparable up there if you can't find Tang. I use them to flavor my yogurt and make a yogurt drink. My favorites are Fresa (strawberry) and Maracuya (passion fruit).

They're great to have for a quick drink with dinner or for flavorings in desserts. A couple teaspoons of the maracuya make a super cornstarch pudding.

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chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted
On 5/15/2024 at 5:50 PM, Tropicalsenior said:

Have you tried it?

 

@Smithy damn me if you like, but I always keep a big supply of these

 

20240515_125635.thumb.jpg.35683f60f142ec7744ef80379e5cb4a8.jpg

I'm sure you can find something comparable up there if you can't find Tang. I use them to flavor my yogurt and make a yogurt drink. My favorites are Fresa (strawberry) and Maracuya (passion fruit).

They're great to have for a quick drink with dinner or for flavorings in desserts. A couple teaspoons of the maracuya make a super cornstarch pudding.

I honestly didn't know Tang was still sold. I haven't seen it in... I dunno, 40 years or so?

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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Smithy

Smithy

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, chromedome said:

I honestly didn't know Tang was still sold. I haven't seen it in... I dunno, 40 years or so?

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen it in stores here, but it hasn't been on my radar here so I'm not sure. Some of the flavor suggestions @Tropicalsenior made might work for me. Fruit juices, or fruit pulp I can blend into the kefir, work for me but I've discovered that certain flavors are more to my taste than others. That's no surprise, of course, but I'm learning about my own preferences. For instance, pomegranate is pretty but too tart to take the edge off the kefir's tartness.

 

I'll look for Tang and see what's available around here, if anything. 

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Smithy

Smithy

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, weinoo said:

Here, it's about the same price as good milk.

 

That must be a market / demand issue. Here in Duluth, kefir costs at least twice, maybe 3 or 4 times, the same volume of good milk.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

That must be a market / demand issue. Here in Duluth, kefir costs at least twice, maybe 3 or 4 times, the same volume of good milk.

That's about the same as it is here in Costa Rica. I don't remember what the price was the last time I checked I just remember I thought gasp, shutter, I don't think so. Going shopping tomorrow so I will check for sure.

As for Tang, it is Alive and Well down here in Central America. I can get it in about 10 flavors and it costs about 40 cents a package.

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lemniscate

lemniscate

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Smithy said:

pomegranate is pretty but too tart to take the edge off the kefir's tartness.

Dates, figs or sultanas blended in can really tame a wild overfunky kefir.  A little goes a long way.   I am using up a bag of forgotten sweetened dried cranberries and I like the flavor of that also.

 

 

 

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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted

I was at a grocery today and checked the price of kefir.  In was $6.99 a litre.  By way of comparison, a bag of milk which contains 3 litres is $6.09.

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Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted (edited)

Well, here's my report on my shopping today.

20240518_103504.thumb.jpg.9376e2c7ca47f196d5d863ad2b3a6fa3.jpg

A little over 500 Colones equals $1 so this is about $10. It has .950 liters.

 

20240518_103421.thumb.jpg.9a47ef08ace98c32af79d0480854b666.jpg

This is the 'half gallon' of milk that I buy. It used to be 2 L but now it is only 1.8 and the price has gone up. I can get about 2 liters of yogurt from this and my favorite yogurt that I used to buy, is now 2600 colones a liter or about $5.

Edited by Tropicalsenior (log)
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Smithy

Smithy

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I don't have answers yet for the relative costs of kefir vs. milk here, or what powdered products might be available to supplement it. I do want to give an update on my latest batch. I started from scratch and added a sachet of the powder (sorry, @Joe Blowe, but I have a lot of it to use up). I shook it up and let it sit out overnight. Next morning, it was still the consistency of milk. At noon, it was the consistency of milk. By 4 pm, it had totally seized. Somewhere between the 20 hour and 24 hour mark.

 

Into the refrigerator it went, after I gave it a good shaking. ("Bad kefir! Bad kefir!") This morning it blended nicely with a banana. The flavor isn't as wild and funky as my 3- and 4-day kefir, and it doesn't have the clumps I showed uptopic, so that's progress. But I'm very surprised at the abrupt change in texture. 

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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