Kefir – My thoughts
I’ve been using kefir for about 10 years. I discovered it at the time I was
This site has the best information on kefir IMHO
The basics are: Kefir are these are little ‘grains’ that feel kind of like jello, look kind of like a crystalline brain. When put in various different liquids, they eat the sugar or lactose in the liquid and ferment whatever it is you put them in. When they ferment, they make a LOT of probiotics. Something like 39 more beneficial probiotics than what you find in yogurt. Cooking kills off a lot of them, but the taste is really good in a lot of various foods.
Milk is most commonly used in kefir, water 2nd. If you make milk kefir, it’s something like a cross between yogurt and buttermilk, the longer it ferments, the more sour it gets. Milk kefir will also continue to make more kefir at a slow rate. They do not reproduce in anything but mammal milk. You don’t really need much more than a tablespoon to ferment a quart of liquid in one day. So any extras you have you can convert to water/juice grains. And any extra’s beyond that you can pass on to others.
My usual mode with kefir is to put the TB of kefir grains in a quart of whole milk,
wait about 12 to 24 hours depending on the heat in the house. (I’m in the South) Wait just until it was thick, like a smoothie, and then pour off the kefir milk and make actual smoothies or just drink it straight, depending on my mood.
I’ve tried water kefir and didn’t much like it. But I modified that and
simmered coconut flakes in water and then used that to ferment with the
kefir grains and simply love that. I saw a post (I think it was on this
list) about making ‘soda’ with kefir, and tried that with the coconut
water kefir and it’s even more delicious. I tried it with regular coconut water (no sugar added) and it wasn’t so great. My theory is the kefir needs the sugar to ferment. The taste is off without sugar for the kefir to ‘eat’. I’ve also made blueberry soda after slightly crushing some blueberries, adding water and kefir grains. Very very good!
You can also use kefir to make soft cheese, cottage cheese, sauerkraut,
kim-chee, and lots of other stuff. It’s very very handy stuff. You can see the link above for recipes, or google it! (ha!)
I’m a fan, can you tell? LOL. My kids don’t like milk kefir, but if
I catch it early enough so that it’s not very sour, I add clear gelatin to about a
TB of warm water, and chunked up fruit, they think it’s mom’s homemade
yogurt and everyone’s happy!!
To get kefir grains
you can ask people for grains on here
Or you can buy kefir grains here