Re: Kefir for yogurt?

February 14, 2012

Will you tell me how you make the almond milk? I have a simple recipe,

but I'd like to hear from someone who's actually made it.

Lori

On Tue, 2012-02-14 at 22:59 +0000, wrote:

> I've started making my own homemade yogurt (and my own homemade almond milk

and ketchup,

February 14, 2012

Hi ,

For traditional yogurt the milk has to remain at 110 - 115 (after being

scalded to 180 - 185 and cooled) for the bacteria to culture. I think the

kefir would die at those temperatures. There are many who make raw yogurt

by not scalding the milk and/or by only culturing at 90 or so degrees, but I

found that other bacteria competed and it didn't taste good. I was wasting

raw milk, so now I use store milk and do the scald, etc., I did read

recently that IF you want to make raw yogurt you should at least have a

mother culture that has been made with scalded milk. see below for mother

culture.

That being said, there are other " yogurts " that can be cultured at room

temperature.

http://www.culturesforhealth.com/starter-cultures/yogurt-starter.html has

piima and viili, etc., and they all have their own unique beneficial

bacteria. Cultures 4 health has special instructions for keeping a pure

starter for raw milk culturing. I've only made kefir from my grains and

thermophillic yogurts

I use a powdered culture (Y4 or Y5 from www.cheesemaking.com) for my yogurt

and freeze some of the first batch so I can defrost and use about 2 ice

cubes ((eggs) - I actually use the plastic egg tray that came with my

refrigerator - first put plastic wrap in the depressions so I can lift out

the " eggs " of yogurt. Freeze for a while, then remove, wrap and put in

baggie and keep frozen) to start new batches. This way I am only ever

making 2nd generation yogurt rather than using a starter from each batch. I

find that I get better consistency in flavor, etc.,

Have fun with your yogurt. I'd like to know what you end up doing and how

it comes out.

phine

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of

Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 6:00 PM

Subject: Kefir for yogurt?

I've started making my own homemade yogurt (and my own homemade almond milk

and ketchup, and kimchi and...ok, the list goes on, haha..I'm done with

processed foods).

To make yogurt, you have to add a few spoonfuls of yogurt to the milk right

before you let it sit to add the bacteria cultures to it. So, when you make

your own yogurt, you have to save a little bit to use for your next batch.

I was wondering...if I added kefir instead, would that make a more probiotic

yogurt since kefir has so many different strains of bacteria in it? Or do

the bacteria in kefir specifically only thrive in the conditions kefir

provides? Does anyone know? I know it wouldn't be the same as freshly

fermented kefir...that's not what I'm looking for...but, I'm wondering if

using kefir in the place of yogurt for a batch would possibly make for a

healthier, more beneficial yogurt.

February 14, 2012

I make raw milk yogurt and don't heat it over 100.5 degrees.

Ok, here are my recipes for yogurt. It's really a combination of a recipes from

a book, " The Home Creamery " by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley, and other people's

opinions on doing things and my trial and error. I'm looking forward to making

Kefir Cheese which is also in the book.

I don't follow most of the temperatures in the book because most of the recipes

pasturize the milk while making the products and I looked it up online, it's not

necessary to pasturize the milk to make most of these recipes.

Yogurt (recipe can be doubled easily)

4 cups (1 qt.) milk (skim or whole milk works best)

1/4 cup yogurt starter (I usually buy Organic Pastures whole milk (live

cultures), plain yogurt but if they don't have the whole milk, I will use the

fat-free kind, will also use vanilla if they don't have the plain)

3-4 quarts boiling water

3-4 empty mason jars for the boiling water

mason jars to hold your yogurt as it's culturing

Insulated cooler to hold in the heat

The most important factor to keep in mind is to have clean utensils, pan and

jars so you are not culturing unwanted bacteria. The book also says to use

fresh milk for your milk products, but I find that when I use new, fresh raw

milk, it comes out pretty thin and seem to have a lot of whey. I prefer to use

raw milk that is at least 6 days old. You can even use raw milk that is

starting to sour.

Heat slowly in stainless steel pan (never aluminum or non-stick...as chemicals

leach into the milk), stirring frequently with a stainless steel or plastic

ladel, until it is about 98 or 99 degrees, measuring with a candy thermometer

and remove from heat. Depending on the type of pan you are using, it could

continue to heat the pan after you remove it from the pan, that is why I stop at

around 98 or 99 degrees. Anything above 101.5 (which is the cows normal body

temp) is denaturing the milk.

In another pan, boil 3 to 4 quarts of water to pour in empty mason jars. This

will be used to heat the air in the cooler to keep the yogurt warm. I usually

space them a few inches away from the jars with the yogurt in it, to not heat

the yogurt to high but to just keep it warm. It depends on the size of your

cooler, but not touching the yogurt jars.

When you remove the yogurt from the stove, add the 1/4 cup yogurt starter to the

milk and mix well. Pour the milk into your mason jars and put a tight fitting

lid on it.

Place the yogurt jars in the cooler with space between the boiling water jars

and the yogurt jars and close the lid tight. I usually culture around 8 or 9

hours, but I think you can go up to 12 hours. About 4 hours into it, I usually

open the cooler and replace the boiling water with more boiled water to last

until the end of the culturing time. If you want to go 12 hours, you should

probably replace the boiling water after 8 hours also.

After the time is up, I take the yogurt jars out of the cooler and let them cool

(if they are still pretty warm) to room temperature before putting it in the

fridge.

This method of making yogurt seems to have great yogurt every time...especially

when I started using older raw milk it got much thicker and less whey. You can

take some of the yogurt from this batch to save to make some more yogurt from a

new batch of milk...but this doesn't seem to work more than one time and get the

same results as the original batch.

Al

February 15, 2012

there are undoubtedly many ways to make almond milk.

i make mine by first, soaking almonds overnight. rinsing

the next day and blending them in my vitamix with

enough water to hit the 4cup mark. a pinch of salt, a

bit of honey and vanilla... but surely others have more

recipes. you can make milk of almost any nut or seed if

you just soak and rinse them first.

Love,

http://www.Robinett.com

http://www.Auntie.com

On Feb 14, 2012, at 4:30 PM, Lori wrote:

> Will you tell me how you make the almond milk? I have a simple recipe,

> but I'd like to hear from someone who's actually made it.

>

> Lori

>

> On Tue, 2012-02-14 at 22:59 +0000, wrote:

> > I've started making my own homemade yogurt (and my own homemade almond milk

and ketchup,

>

February 17, 2012

I was very tired last night and think I forgot to put my name at the bottom of

my post so it didn't make it onto the board. So, this will be more concise

because I don't feel like typing it all out again.

Thanks for the yogurt advice everyone. I didn't think about the temperature and

the kefir...good point.

For almond milk, I have found it is not necessary to soak the almonds first if

you have a really good blender. 4 cups of water, 1 cup of almonds and 3-4 dates

in the blender is how I do it. Then, strain it all out and collect the liquid.

Next week, when I make almond milk, I'm going to post about it on my blog with

step-by-step pictures because there are some added steps to this that I like to

do (such as removing the skins first, and it is quite easy to do if you know how

to do it) that makes for a sweeter, less bitter tasting almond milk. So, if you

want, you can keep your eye for it (probably Sunday or Monday is when I will be

putting it up). The address is chicagohealthygirl.wordpress.com

That way, I wouldn't be typing it all out here and then, typing it all out again

there. Plus, you can see it with pictures if that helps...and I'll explain what

you can do with the almond pulp that will be left in your strainer so it doesn't

get wasted and you can get all of the goodness out of your almonds.

Warning, though...once you've made homemade almond milk, you will never want

store bought almond milk again, haha. It tastes sooooo much better.

> > > I've started making my own homemade yogurt (and my own homemade almond

milk and ketchup,

> >

>

February 18, 2012

For almond milk, I have found it is not necessary to soak the almonds first if

you have a really good blender. 4 cups of water, 1 cup of almonds and 3-4 dates

in the blender is how I do it. Then, strain it all out and collect the liquid.

I would still suggest soaking the almonds even if a good blender will pulverize

non-soaked. Soaking deactivates enzyme inhibitors; toxins such a lectins are

present in all seeds to prevent them sprouting until they're planted. Someone

with a very healthy digestive tract can tolerate un-soaked seeds and nuts, but

that's still not the best way to prepare and eat them. And anyone with any kind

of compromised immune/digestive system should most definitely soak seeds and

nuts before consuming them. Since digestive issues are what prompted many of us

to discover fermented foods like kefir, soaking our seeds, nuts, grains, and

beans is an easy step that most of us probably shouldn't skip.

Traditional cultures almost universally soaked seeds, including grains, beans,

and nuts before consuming them. There's a lot of wisdom in this practice, much

like fermenting foods is an ancient, wise tradition whose benefits modern

civilization is finally re-discovering. Cheers,

February 18, 2012

Wow, thanks for the information to both of you. I did not know this...glad I

know now! I even looked up some peer-reviewed research articles on it and found

this to be true.

One thing I did read, though, is that the skins of the almonds have anywhere

from 70-100% of the enzyme inhibitors in them, and you can get rid of most or

all of these inhibitors by simply removing the skins if you don't want to have

to wait to soak them...you can do either or both. (You can remove the skins by

boiling a small amount of water and placing the almonds in the boiling water for

3 minutes. Remove them immediately so you don't cook them. The almonds will

literally pop right out of the skins when you squeeze them).

I was soaking my almonds before (before I discovered my blender worked just as

well with them without soaking them) and I was keeping the water I soaked them

in to make the almond milk, thinking nutrients came out of the almonds I just

soaked, so I'd want to use the water! Oops! Here, I was just putting the

inhibitors right back into my almond milk after leeching them out of the

almonds, haha. They did a study where they tested the blanch water for these

inhibitors and the levels in the water went up a huge amount as nuts were soaked

in them.

Anyway...good to know...and since I am putting this on my blog for the week,

good thing I can now offer some better information! Thanks!

>

> Hi ,

>

> There is actually a reason to soak the almonds prior to making almond milk and

it is not just because of the hardness if the almonds. Its actually because

almonds have enzyme inhibitors in them and make it difficult to actually digest

and is hard on your pancreas. Soaking removes the enzyme inhibitor and releases