re: kefir - to heat or not to heat

May 16, 2008

Sandy, I 've made a lot of kefir myself and know lots of people who do and I've

never heard of heating the milk first! Guess I just went by what people told me

and didn't consult NT but I definitely know it is not necessary to heat the

milk. And you're right -- it would destroy the enzymes. You basically would

not have a raw milk product anymore. The only thing I can think of is that

maybe it's different if you use starter instead of grains, which I've never

done.

The reason I've heard for heating milk to 180 for yogurt is to rid the milk of

any bacteria that would compete with the yogurt bacteria. So this is probably

the same reasoning behind heating the milk for kefir. But most people I know

who make yogurt don't want to heat their milk to 180 either and their yogurt

turns out fine as long as they keep the yogurt at the temp that yogurt bacteria

thrive.

I'd get grains as soon as I could and make it that way. (They won't grow from

starter and grains just keep growing and you won't have a reoccuring expense.)

They're just wonderful to work with --- so easy and natural -- and it's fun

seeing how much they grow. You'll soon have enough to give to others! They keep

for forever too, even if you can't make kefir very often. Just make sure the

rinsed grains are kept in enough fresh milk to cover and kept in the frig. This

gives them something to feed on. So maybe rinse the grains every week or two

and add new raw milk. Or you can even freeze them if you think it will be ages

till you get back to making kefir again and don't want to be concerned about

adding milk. I've done this and they're still good to go when you thaw them

out.

Laree

In NT it states to heat your milk just to the temp needed to makekefir. I am

using powdered starter as I haven't gotten any grains yet and on the directions

on the box it states to heat to 180 and then cool to 70's.

Is it necessary to heat the milk? Doesn't that kill a lot of theenzymes in the

milk?

Also, how do kefir grains get started? Do they ever start from thepowdered

starter.As you may guess I am a real newby with most of this stuff.Thanks for

any help.Sandy

What is the advantage to using kefir grains over the freeze-dried starter.Sandy

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