Kefir Royale
If you live in the UK (or in many other countries) and tasted the tasteless $&!t they sell in supermarkets by the name of kefir, you don't know what you've been missing. Real kefir is delicious and full of cheesy taste. It's a great drink for the hottest summer days, when you're feeling dehydrated. Cold and full of nutrients to bring you back to shape (you can add a bit of salt, in that case).
I always loved kefir, but, since moving to England, I'd given up on drinking it after tasting store bought one. Then, while visiting a friend abroad, I learned that you can make it at home, it tastes much, much better that way, and it is really, really easy to make. Even easier than yoghurt.
Nutritionally, they are both made of milk and thus quite similar.
In terms of taste, kefir has a stronger taste which is a bit more cheese-like.
In terms of preparation, kefir is much simpler and less time consuming than yoghurt, because, unlike yoghurt, the whole process is done at room temperature.
But, for the best taste, you need to prepare it daily, which demands more of a commitment.
Unlike yoghurt, you cannot make new kefir using store bought kefir. You need to buy a kefir starter from a specialized store, unless you know someone who already has some. I bought mine from here (kefir grains grow pretty quickly, so you should buy the smallest amount).
There is tones of information you can find googling it, here I'll just tell what I have learned from my own experience.
Kefir is alive and like everything that is alive it can be strong and healthy or weak and sickly. In the latter case, you will need a greater amount of grains to produce the same amount of kefir and the taste of the drink may be quite off.
Because kefir reproduces pretty quickly, you can bring a "bad" culture back to health if you treat it right. That means simply to: keep it in a nice warm place, but not too warm, and feed it nice whole milk daily. That is all and it is that easy.
When I went away on holidays, I left my kefir with nice fresh milk in the refrigerator for the whole time. When I returned, my culture was still alive and kicking, but I noticed some of the grains must have died because I needed a much greater amount of grains to make the same amount as before. The taste, however, was still very good. The same cannot be said of the first time I prepared it with the grains I had been sent by mail. The poor things clearly had not enjoyed their journey and my first batch was so bitter I simply threw it away. The second was drinkable but not great, and the taste continued to improve for a while until it stabilized.
Besides the care you give it, the one factor that will affect your culture is temperature. I keep mine in a cupboard in the kitchen and I've noticed it was much happier in the warm days of summer than it is now. However, when it was really hot I moved it to a fresher place, because I noticed that the heat generated by cooking was too much and my culture was showing it. With time and experience and the use of your taste buds, you'll quickly learn to take care of your kefir grains. They're pretty hard to kill, so if you make a mistake, you can easily correct it.
The proportion of kefir grains to milk can vary wildly with factors like temperature and the health of the culture. As a rule of thumb, you want to keep it such that you make the amount of drink you wish to drink every day. More grains will make the same amount of milk turn faster. Less grains will slow the process down. Because the grains keep on growing, you'll need to throw away the extra amount regularly (or give it to friends or eat it). This is not complicated. All you have to do is make small adjustments to the amount and use your senses (your eyes for consistency, your taste buds for, well, taste) and learn the amount you prefer.
If you buy from a shop like I did, use the amounts they recommend to begin with, then adapt it to your taste as you learn. If you obtain the grains from a friend, s/he can give you some hints, but here is a rough idea of possible proportions to begin with: 2 tablespoons of grains for each cup of milk.
Preparation: mix the grains with milk and leave in a warm place (I use a cupboard in the kitchen). You can stir occasionally. This will increase the speed of the process and improve the creamy consistency, but is not really necessary. After 24h check for consistency and taste: it should be creamy, but not as thick as yoghurt, and taste good. If you like it, strain it. If it's still as fluid as milk, leave it for longer. Notice that it can be quite liquid before stirring it, and then, only after a bit of time, turn quite creamy. So, the best way to check is use taste as reference. If you like it, it's ready.
Once it is ready, strain it with a normal sieve. Because the liquid can be quite thick, you should use a spoon to stir and scrap the sieve in order to help the liquid go through. For this reason, a coarser sieve is better than a finer one.
You can drink it immediately or store it in the refrigerator for later.
Put the grains back in the original container and restart the process by adding milk.
Ideally, for practical reasons, you will want your kefir to be ready every 24h. If you find the kefir is getting too thick and the taste too strong after 24h, remove a small proportion of grains before mixing in the milk.
You do not need to wash your containers daily because kefir keeps harmful bacteria at bay. Use common sense to decide when a container needs to be washed before re-use.
You should use only whole milk. Skimmed milk is not nutritious enough to keep your kefir wealthy. Soy milk and other things that are only called milk by analogy will not feed your kefir either. I think you should be able to use goat or sheep milk, but I'm not sure.
If you can't prepare it on a certain day, put it in the refrigerator with enough milk. If you run out of milk, don't strain it, put it in the fridge until you get more milk (it will last a day or two). If you are going on holidays, add plenty of new milk. It can then last for a couple of weeks or even more in the fridge. Do not freeze kefir. Freezing will kill it.
What happens if you use too many grains or forget to renew the milk? Kefir feeds on lactose and other sugars in milk. Once it runs out of food, it'll start dying. Once the number of kefir bugs is too small, read on to find out.
What happens if you use too little grains? Kefir (like other similar cultures, for example yoghurt and sourdough) does not allow harmful bacteria to propagate. If you have too little of it in the milk, it cannot win the war against other microorganisms and the milk will go bad. If this happens, you may still recover your kefir (if it's not completely dead). Strain the grains and wash them a little. Then add a bit of milk to them. Keep an eye on them and see if the milk is turning to kefir or going bad. Use smell and colour as reference. If it looks good and smells fine, you can taste it. If it still tastes bad (it will probably be bitter), strain and mix more milk. After a few more brews the flavour should go back to normal. You may prefer to keep it on the safe side and buy new grains (or get them from a friend).
Do you need to use organic milk? It depends, if you live in a civilised country, laws will forbid giving antibiotics to animals which are not sick. This means there will be only trace amounts of antibiotics in normal milk just like in organic milk. This will not harm your kefir. If not, normal milk can have enough antibiotics to kill kefir and you need to use organic milk.
I'm done. Considering how easy it is to make kefir, this posts is already too long for sure.
I always loved kefir, but, since moving to England, I'd given up on drinking it after tasting store bought one. Then, while visiting a friend abroad, I learned that you can make it at home, it tastes much, much better that way, and it is really, really easy to make. Even easier than yoghurt.
How does kefir compare to yoghurt?
Like yoghurt, kefir results from the fermentation of milk by live culture. The difference is that they're different live cultures.Nutritionally, they are both made of milk and thus quite similar.
In terms of taste, kefir has a stronger taste which is a bit more cheese-like.
In terms of preparation, kefir is much simpler and less time consuming than yoghurt, because, unlike yoghurt, the whole process is done at room temperature.
But, for the best taste, you need to prepare it daily, which demands more of a commitment.
Unlike yoghurt, you cannot make new kefir using store bought kefir. You need to buy a kefir starter from a specialized store, unless you know someone who already has some. I bought mine from here (kefir grains grow pretty quickly, so you should buy the smallest amount).
How does it work?
Kefir is quite different from other live cultures because the bugs live in jelly like structures that are usually called grains. These grains are strained out of the beverage before drinking it.There is tones of information you can find googling it, here I'll just tell what I have learned from my own experience.
Kefir is alive and like everything that is alive it can be strong and healthy or weak and sickly. In the latter case, you will need a greater amount of grains to produce the same amount of kefir and the taste of the drink may be quite off.
Because kefir reproduces pretty quickly, you can bring a "bad" culture back to health if you treat it right. That means simply to: keep it in a nice warm place, but not too warm, and feed it nice whole milk daily. That is all and it is that easy.
When I went away on holidays, I left my kefir with nice fresh milk in the refrigerator for the whole time. When I returned, my culture was still alive and kicking, but I noticed some of the grains must have died because I needed a much greater amount of grains to make the same amount as before. The taste, however, was still very good. The same cannot be said of the first time I prepared it with the grains I had been sent by mail. The poor things clearly had not enjoyed their journey and my first batch was so bitter I simply threw it away. The second was drinkable but not great, and the taste continued to improve for a while until it stabilized.
Besides the care you give it, the one factor that will affect your culture is temperature. I keep mine in a cupboard in the kitchen and I've noticed it was much happier in the warm days of summer than it is now. However, when it was really hot I moved it to a fresher place, because I noticed that the heat generated by cooking was too much and my culture was showing it. With time and experience and the use of your taste buds, you'll quickly learn to take care of your kefir grains. They're pretty hard to kill, so if you make a mistake, you can easily correct it.
The proportion of kefir grains to milk can vary wildly with factors like temperature and the health of the culture. As a rule of thumb, you want to keep it such that you make the amount of drink you wish to drink every day. More grains will make the same amount of milk turn faster. Less grains will slow the process down. Because the grains keep on growing, you'll need to throw away the extra amount regularly (or give it to friends or eat it). This is not complicated. All you have to do is make small adjustments to the amount and use your senses (your eyes for consistency, your taste buds for, well, taste) and learn the amount you prefer.
How to prepare kefir?
You will need: two glass containers, one sieve and one spoon.If you buy from a shop like I did, use the amounts they recommend to begin with, then adapt it to your taste as you learn. If you obtain the grains from a friend, s/he can give you some hints, but here is a rough idea of possible proportions to begin with: 2 tablespoons of grains for each cup of milk.
Preparation: mix the grains with milk and leave in a warm place (I use a cupboard in the kitchen). You can stir occasionally. This will increase the speed of the process and improve the creamy consistency, but is not really necessary. After 24h check for consistency and taste: it should be creamy, but not as thick as yoghurt, and taste good. If you like it, strain it. If it's still as fluid as milk, leave it for longer. Notice that it can be quite liquid before stirring it, and then, only after a bit of time, turn quite creamy. So, the best way to check is use taste as reference. If you like it, it's ready.
Once it is ready, strain it with a normal sieve. Because the liquid can be quite thick, you should use a spoon to stir and scrap the sieve in order to help the liquid go through. For this reason, a coarser sieve is better than a finer one.
You can drink it immediately or store it in the refrigerator for later.
Put the grains back in the original container and restart the process by adding milk.
Ideally, for practical reasons, you will want your kefir to be ready every 24h. If you find the kefir is getting too thick and the taste too strong after 24h, remove a small proportion of grains before mixing in the milk.
You do not need to wash your containers daily because kefir keeps harmful bacteria at bay. Use common sense to decide when a container needs to be washed before re-use.
Other things you should know
Kefir's acidity can react with plastic and metal. You can use metal or plastic spoons and sieves for preparation, but the containers where you'll keep it for longer should be glass.You should use only whole milk. Skimmed milk is not nutritious enough to keep your kefir wealthy. Soy milk and other things that are only called milk by analogy will not feed your kefir either. I think you should be able to use goat or sheep milk, but I'm not sure.
If you can't prepare it on a certain day, put it in the refrigerator with enough milk. If you run out of milk, don't strain it, put it in the fridge until you get more milk (it will last a day or two). If you are going on holidays, add plenty of new milk. It can then last for a couple of weeks or even more in the fridge. Do not freeze kefir. Freezing will kill it.
What happens if you use too many grains or forget to renew the milk? Kefir feeds on lactose and other sugars in milk. Once it runs out of food, it'll start dying. Once the number of kefir bugs is too small, read on to find out.
What happens if you use too little grains? Kefir (like other similar cultures, for example yoghurt and sourdough) does not allow harmful bacteria to propagate. If you have too little of it in the milk, it cannot win the war against other microorganisms and the milk will go bad. If this happens, you may still recover your kefir (if it's not completely dead). Strain the grains and wash them a little. Then add a bit of milk to them. Keep an eye on them and see if the milk is turning to kefir or going bad. Use smell and colour as reference. If it looks good and smells fine, you can taste it. If it still tastes bad (it will probably be bitter), strain and mix more milk. After a few more brews the flavour should go back to normal. You may prefer to keep it on the safe side and buy new grains (or get them from a friend).
Do you need to use organic milk? It depends, if you live in a civilised country, laws will forbid giving antibiotics to animals which are not sick. This means there will be only trace amounts of antibiotics in normal milk just like in organic milk. This will not harm your kefir. If not, normal milk can have enough antibiotics to kill kefir and you need to use organic milk.
I'm done. Considering how easy it is to make kefir, this posts is already too long for sure.
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