Kefir Last Day On Earth Shop

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Recaredo Latreche

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Aug 5, 2024, 1:29:32 PM8/5/24

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Itcan take from 12-48 hours for kefir to be ready. It will depend on the temperature and humidity in your house. Mine is done for my liking in about 24 hours. It will become very thick. The longer you let it ferment, the tangier it will become. It will be the consistency of runny sour cream. Turn your jar from side to side to check on the consistency. When you smell it, it will smell soured like buttermilk.

To finish your kefir, you need a funnel, a jar, and a mesh strainer. I store my kefir in canning jars in the fridge. Put your funnel in the jar. Mine is large enough that I can put my strainer down in it.

Jennifer, I thought I saw grains there the last time. But maybe I was looking at the wrong thing. I might have some grains very soon if you want some of mine. Maybe in 2-3 weeks? Or you could order them from Cultures For Health. ?

I cant get enough of your site. Its really a great read. Did you start doing this on your own or with a group of people? Its quite an impressive feat to have gathered such great content. Keep up the fine writing!

Kefir is so soothing and so versatile. This week I made fish tacos and instead of searching for over-priced crema at the store, I added chipotle peppers to my kefir and drizzled that on. Worked great!

I have had my kefir grains for over twenty-two years and have made kefir every day since. Let me tell you - these kefir grains have a mind of their own. When I make kefir, my kefir grains will start to float to the top of the jar like they have a life jacket on. They make kefir extremely well and multiply like crazy, and they demand that I pay attention to them. If I get too many in a jar and don't add enough milk, when I open my jar they will spit and bubble at me as if to say, "Add more milk please!" My grains are intense, and I like them that way. They have over 50 strains of good bacteria, and I don't know of any other food that can give you so many good bacteria in such a small amount of food. Kefir grains will last forever if you take care of them.

I get more emails about kefir separating into whey and curds than any other question about cultured foods. It can happen because the grains are growing or the temperatures have gotten warmer or a few other things. It's not a bad thing and the kefir is still good, so don't throw it out and think it's no longer good. Kefir grains are extremely active and strong. They will multiply quickly and before you know it, the grains will need more milk. They'll start fermenting so fast you will think that your kefir is not done because it's thin, when actually the opposite is happening. If the grains have increased and you have not added enough milk, they will ferment the milk faster and you might not notice that the kefir is ready and thick. Then as it sits longer, the kefir will start to separate into whey and curds. It can create quite a panic for people and they fear they have done something wrong. Many will throw this over-fermented kefir out. Don't do that, it's still good! First, let me say it is never ruined, it is just really fermented and sour. One of two things has happened

If it is overly sour, add some fresh or frozen fruit and let it sit on your counter for a couple of hours. The bacteria will eat some of the sugar in your fruit, making the kefir taste milder and increasing the nutrients.

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A fermented beverage, traditionally understood to be made from cultured dairy (cow, sheep, goat), kefir originates from Eastern Europe. It is tangy, fizzy, and naturally carbonated via the culturing process, with the consistency of a thin yogurt. This probiotic beverage is well understood to have significant positive health impacts on the digestive system. While dairy kefir is now fairly broadly available, currently there is no commercially available plant-based kefir, with the exception of water kefir, which is found primarily in health-focused specialty shops and restaurants .

The exception is Cultures for Health, an online store and education source for fermenting and culturing aficionados, based in the United States, is now selling kefir and yogurt cultures trained on non-dairy medium.

My first experiment was in converting some dairy-fed kefir grains given to me by a friend. Kefir grains are somewhat gelatinous looking in appearance, almost clear. They are composed of bacteria and yeasts, just as kombucha mother and vinegar mothers are, though the strains of bacteria and yeasts may vary. In order to identify which kefir feed I would want to work with most I set up to test several kefir options: cashew, almond, coconut, coconut water, and water.

With the assistance of Katie, a stage in the Graze kitchen, we set out to see if we could (1) successfully train the dairy-fed kefir grains onto a plant-based medium, and (2) make a kefir/yogurt/pro biotic beverage that would work successfully as a starter for further cheese tests.

Dividing the grain into 5 different 1-liter jars, we added 2 cups of each test medium to each of the 5 jars (1 jar coconut milk, 1 jar cashew milk, etc .). We also added 1 tbsp of maple syrup, to help feed the kefir grains. We then kept the jars with lids in a container and set it on top of the convection oven where it was warm but not hot (maintaining 100 degrees F [38 degrees C]) , and left them to culture for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, the coconut milk had very quickly cultured, with the kefir grain having multiplied quickly. We were able to strain off the coconut milk and save the grain for making another jar of coconut milk kefir in which we used less maple syrup. We repeated the coconut milk process two more times until the kefir grain was trained onto just coconut milk, with no added sweetener.

With each subsequent batch we saved the grain and evaluated the results of the cultured coconut milk for texture, taste, and that bright, somewhat effervescent quality of kefir beverages. Also, because the goal was to produce kefir grain fed only plant-based mediums, we discarded the first two rounds of the kefir. After batches three and four we reserved grain by straining the coconut milk through very fine mesh sieves in order to retrieve some of the grain.

Now, for the other kefir efforts. The cashew and almond milks we made ourselves, in order to avoid the extra stabilizers and to be able to control the amount and kind of sweetener that we wanted to use. The cashew milk was a success, but did take a little longer (36 hours) to culture to the same degree of tanginess or sharpness as the coconut milk. It produced a thicker substance than the coconut milk, more like a very soft yogurt. The kefir grain, however, was much smaller, and we were not able to culture subsequent batches of cashew kefir as quickly as the coconut milk.

For the purposes of being able to maintain a supply of cashew kefir, we decided to culture cashew milk using coconut milk kefir as a starter. This worked well, and is still the method I use when making larger batches of cheeses.

The almond milk was more challenging. Of the milks, it took the longest, and had the least pleasant taste. This could be a result of the culture struggling with the sulfur compounds in almonds. We found that adding 2 tbsp maple syrup to 1 liter almond milk gave the kefir grain more to feed on, and resulted in a better tasting product.

Lastly, with respect to the coconut water and water kefir tests, these took longer than all of the milks. The weaning process started with higher amounts of maple syrup (our sweetener of choice, though some people use raw cane sugar), with less and less in subsequent batches until we found the minimum we could use and still get the results we were seeking. I will often use water kefir as a starter in cheeses if I am concerned about allergies to coconut.

When it comes to dietary staples, some things are very easy to find without plastic or single-use packaging, and others, not so much. Fresh fruit and vegetables? Easy. Fresh bread? Ditto. Milk, cheese and yoghurt? Not so much.

In Perth, there are four different brands which sell milk in glass: Sunnydale, Grumpy Farmer, Over the Moon Organics and Bannister Downs. They can be found at IGA stores and independent grocers like the Boatshed and Farmer Jacks. No one store sells all four brands, so you have to do your homework and check out all the stores.