Making Kefir in 3 Minutes a Day
Someone actually said to me, “even a couple of minutes a day adds up and I’m pretty busy.” If you can’t find 3 minutes a day to eat healthier I’m not sure what else to say.
Before I give up on you, let me just to break it down a little. A trip to the store probably takes at least 30 minutes, plus the use of your car and the cost of gas. If you just pick up some Kefir when you’re already at the store that’s great, but it’s probably ten times more expense, and it’s definitely not fresh. Oh, and of course you’re creating more waste or recyclable material rather than reusing something.
For all that awesome fresh Kefir and sustainable goodness you need to break free of your crazy schedule and find not 4 minutes, not 5, but just 3.
You will need:
- A glass jar
- Rubberband
- Coffee filter
- Organic milk
- Bowl and strainer (optional chopstick)
- Kefir grains
We got our Kefir grains mail-order about 3 years ago from this site, Happy Herbalist. The grains reproduce pretty prolifically and we give them away, eat them, and feed them to the pack.
And thanks for the emails explaining that it’s keh-FEER, and not KEE-fir, the way I’ve been completely mispronouncing it for many years.
Making Kefir in 3 Minutes a Day by Brad Rowland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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What organisms are in kefir grains?
Is the idea that the “good” bacteria outcompete the “bad” in hand-to-hand kitchen cupboard combat over two days?
Is there an optimal temperature?
What are the advantages of kefir over, say, yogurt?
Thanks!
Hi Roxanne – I’m linking a resource that has the full (very long) list of the critters that live in Kefir. Also this guys site is great and I read through the very helpful “how to” guides when we started. He also answered questions via email when I was just completely lost on something, and everything he’s shipped to us has been alive, healthy, high quality (cheap) – so I recommend him.
The bottom line for me on Kefir vs. Yogurt? I’m lazy and it was the first one I learned how to make. Also the grains (bacterial colonies) reproduce easily and you just change the milk like in the video so it’s super easy. The grains are edible, don’t have much taste, and have the consistency of a soft gummy bear. You normally just drink the kefir, but when you get too many grains the milk ferments too quickly, so you just throw some out, eat them, feed to dogs, etc. You generally only need a tablespoon for a cup of milk to ferment within 24-48 hours (depending on temp of your cupboard, your taste for the sourness, etc).
After we got our Kombucha system up and running (our first fermented food), we wanted to add our second fermented food (we’re now up to 4) and this one seems to cover us on a fermented milk option – so honestly I just haven’t gotten around to trying yogurt. There are also some yogurt makers with little covered cups and a hot plate that make it look pretty fast and simple to get daily yogurt, and the start up is the same – you order yogurt culture mail order (fresh or powder) and add it to the milk.
Normally the first batch or two you throw away, because the cultures are coming out of a slight dormancy from being shipped and as you said above, since the “good” out-compete the “bad” you don’t want to chance eating old milk until your cultures have come up to speed again. it’s pretty obvious when they do, the curds and whey separate, and it smells like strong, sour yogurt smell. It should stay a whitish color, although sometimes when we leave ours for 3 days it gets a pink or yellow tinge — I’ve always eaten it anyway, although it gets pretty potent and needs to be mixed with fruit, honey, or something.
One time we went out of town for four or five days and forgot about them. I think they had started to go dormant so we started the process again, and discarded the first batch or two until the grains were back up to manufacturers spec.
The temp that we always use is ‘cupboard temp’ which varies throughout the year in our house. With most fermenting it just slows down when it gets colder and speeds up when it gets warmer. For instance I’ve had beer go through it’s initial fermentation in a range of 2 to 8 days for the ~identical recipe~ depending on the temp of our house, winter to summer.
If you’re in a mobile kitchen you may have some more dramatic temp fluctuations than we do. There is a note on the link below that says some people put the jar on a heating pad (i’m assuming very low or lowest heat) to generate Kefir more quickly, so a hot cupboard probably wouldn’t hurt it.
http://www.happyherbalist.com/how_to_kefir.htm
Also here’s another recommendation if you’re fermenting foods on the road – an alternative to a ceramic crock type fermenter. This one has a locking lid and airlock, probably a good “no spill” system, and the gizmo inside the jar keeps everything from sloshing around. they come in a jillion sizes from small to giant. We just got ours last week and are just about to start using it.
http://www.pickl-it.com/
Great video Brad, you certainly show how incredibly easy it is to make your own kefir. I like the fact that it’s sustainable i.e. what you don’t use today gets put back and used for tomorrow.
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Hi, I have just watched your video and need to know… At about day 2, when my kefir is in a jar and sitting in the cupboard, I start to see a clear fluid at the bottom of my Kefir jar. If i let the kefir sit longer more, almost clear yellowish liquid increases. What is this liquid and why is it appearing?
Thank you so much!
Judy
Hi Judy – that’s normal. The clear fluid is the “whey.” Whey is the cloudy, yellowish liquid that is leftover after milk is curdled. It’s packed full of protein, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. You can mix it back into the kefir, or you can use it for other cooking projects, like this list below.
http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2011/06/16-ways-to-use-your-whey.html
Good luck!
Thank you so much Brad!! I am so greatful for the Kefer and am so so relieved I don’t have to start over from scratch!!
Thank you too for the link. I will look into it after exploring your site.
Be well,
Judy
nice website, check my again http://kefirbrasil.com/ cheers
Thank you, I’d love to read your site but I don’t speak portuguese!
