Re: Re: keifer going bad (was freezing whey)

[Guest guest]

[] does this apply to storebought kefier as well? I have thrown away kefir

on several occasions because it was 2 weeks past its date.

[ B] Nah, I'm talking about homemade kefir made with raw milk. The worse

that happens with that is you can salvage the whey.

The store stuff is pasteurized and I don't know what sort of culture

they use...not sure what would ensue after a time.

[Mike P] I don't think it matters that it's pasteurized and the

culture used in commercial kefir is the same as traditional homemade

kefir in terms of the essential mix of bacteria and yeasts, so

commercial kefir could last for many months or years, eventually

turning into vinegar, just like homemade kefir. Whether it actually

does remains to be seen empirically. In any case, it should be easy to

tell if it's bad because that would mean some kind of weird mold.

Expiration dates and food reality have very little to do with each

other. It's a purely formal legal gesture.

It's very foolish to buy commercial kefir though because it's the same

thing as buying cheap milk in any form. It would almost certainly not

be grassfed milk and you're stuck with synthetic retinol

fortification. Even if you can't get better quality milk to make

homemade kefir with, you can at least save a ton of money and get a

better flavor by making your own.

Mike

SE Pennsylvania