Homemade Kefir

My first attempt at fermenting foods at home was to make my own kefir. For starters, store-bought kefir is about 5 or 6 bucks a quart. Second, I wanted to control what went into the kefir.

Normally, kefir is made from "grains." These grains are not like the grains that we make bread out of. They are sort of rubbery or spongy cultures of bacteria.

By A. Kniesel - Fotografiert von A. Kniesel, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

I was wondering if I could make kefir by using a little bit of the store-bought kefir that I had in the fridge. After all, that is how I use my sourdough starter. I found this video online.



I didn't heat my milk when I tried it, and I didn't make a whole gallon of it. I used 1 tablespoon of kefir and one cup of milk. I mixed them in a mason jar, and put it in the warmest room of the house.

Now, setting a cup of milk out on a shelf for a day or two, and drinking the result seemed a bit counter intuitive. I wondered how I would know if I made kefir or just sour milk. These days, you can ask just about any question on Google, and you will find someone who has asked the same question. Well, anyway, after a couple of days, I had something that had thickened up and sort of smelled like the store-bought kefir. I put it in the fridge and took it out the next day for a taste. I decided to toss some pomegranate seeds into it and made a nice photogenic snack.

It tasted good, too. Chalk up one success.

Now, some of the comments in the video suggested that I made yogurt, and not kefir. Well, presumably it had the same active cultures in it, and it tasted good. I was happy with the product, but I figured that I ought to try making kefir from grains.

More on that, later.