Have you ever wondered how to make homemade kefir? Or maybe you hadn't even considered it, thinking that it is something complicated to do? Today we resolve the doubts, Kefir is very easy to make at home, as well as fun since it can be a very interesting process.
There are many variants of homemade kefir that we can make, from animal milk to vegetable drinks or even water, although it may seem strange. Let's talk about different kefirs and how to make them at home.
Make homemade milk kefir or vegetable drink
Before talking about how to make homemade kefir and what we will need for it, let's talk about the benefit of kefir.
Kefir is attributed benefits as interesting and important as strengthen the immune system, promote digestion, improve cases of allergies and skin problems such as acne or eczema and, in addition, it has properties anticancer. It's not bad at all, right?
Drinking kefir is not the same as drinking yogurt although both may seem similar. Kefir has mesophilic strains (that ferment at room temperature). The bacteria and yeasts used to make the ferment that gives rise to kefir are capable of colonizing the intestine and strengthening the intestinal flora. as new tenants. They are strains that can even attack bad bacteria that we have in our intestine.
On the other hand, yogurt has strains that need a certain temperature to ferment and that will not be new tenants but will be passing through our intestines. They have great benefits such as repairing intestinal problems or serve as food for the intestinal flora. Yogurt is also beneficial but in another sense.
What do we need to make kefir?
The first thing we are going to need is the kefir itself, the kefir nodules or granules which will be the bacteria that will help us ferment our kefir. We must learn to take care of them good because otherwise they will die. Taking care of them is not problematic, we will learn how soon.
Milk kefir granules They feed on the lactose present in milk, so the result is a “lactose-free” kefir. It is a product that those intolerant people could take without problem, although as with everything it is better to try little by little just in case.
Another advantage that these granules have is that They pre-digest milk proteins thus improving your digestion to a great extent. This makes kefir also tolerated by people who do not tolerate milk due to problems with protein of milk. Furthermore, this effect on milk protein generates new peptides that help the immune system, are antioxidants and antimicrobials.
In any case, if you have any type of problem or intolerance with milk, the ideal is to make kefir from milk that is not cow's milk, better to choose: goat, sheep, buffalo…they are more similar to human milk and generate fewer intolerance problems. But if we still have a problem with kefir that results from milk, we also We can make it with coconut, almond or cashew milk/drink. Of course, at least once a week we should put our kefir in animal milk so that it is nourished and in good condition.
Process to make homemade milk kefir or vegetable drink
To make animal milk kefir we must put 2 tablespoons milk kefir granules (it is important that they are made from milk and not water) and half a book of the milk we like. That is the base measure, if we want to make more kefir we only have to increase the quantities 4 tablespoons per 1L, 6 tablespoons for 1,5L, etc...
PWe can make water kefir or coconut water, but it is already a different type of granules although the process would be similar to the one we are going to explain with milk kefir.
During all the process we should not use metal utensils Because they would affect the ferment, the ideal is to use glass, wood, plastic or silicone. Let's see the step by step:
- We put the kefir nodules at the bottom of a large, clean glass jar (if it can be sterilized, better).
- We add the milk according to the number of nodules we have added. There must be space from the end of the milk measure to the end of the jar so that nothing comes out during fermentation.
- We close the jar, leaving it ajar so that the fermentation gases can escape.
- We put everything in a dark cupboard so it can ferment at room temperature.
- The speed at which it ferments will vary in the amount of lactose or sugar that the chosen milk has, normally it varies between 12 and 24 hours.
- We will test the kefir to see how acidic it is and when it is at a point to our liking, it is time to pass the contents of a jar through a strainer (not metal) and separate the kefir nodules from the kefir resulting from the fermentation.
- We will carefully remove the granules so that all the resulting kefir finishes draining.
- We put the kefir in a jar and keep it in the refrigerator.
- We will put the granules back into a clean jar to ferment again. If we don't want to make more kefir, we can freeze the nodules.
How should our homemade kefir turn out?
The first thing we must keep in mind is that kefir has a Much more liquid consistency than yogurt, so we don't have to wait for it to become creamy or curdled. The milk or beverage we use to make kefir will directly influence how liquid it becomes. The more fat the drink is and the more protein it has, the thicker it will be. kefir at the end of the fermentation process.
How to care for our kefir?
We must feed kefir appropriately, which means that even if we make kefir with drinks other than milk we must put it in animal milk at least once a week. This way we will have it healthy to continue making kefir and even multiply.
If we take good care of it, the nodules will multiply and the more we have, the faster and more acidic the product they make will be. What do we do when we have a lot of kefir? Well, we can give it away, make more kefir or freeze them in case something happens to the ones we are using.
How to freeze kefir?
When freezing them, it is important to wait until these kefir nodules are healthy and that means who have been making kefir for about three weeks regularly.
We should not wash the granules, but rather separate them from the fermented milk as they are. We will place them in a freezer-resistant bag or a tupperware, we will add a tablespoon of milk and we will freeze.
To defrost what we will have to do is pass the tupperware from the freezer to the refrigerator and wait for it to be completely defrosted. Then we can use them normally again. The only thing is that the first two or three fermentations after thawing the granules are better to throw away.
We will know that the nodules are in good condition when the kefir has the right flavor and texture. It will take a while for them to be fully prepared to continue working.
