Here is something I want to try, but have NOT done yet...but here is the info. The Dom has a 'edited down' new FAQ page, and I'm giving the link here and it might help answer some questions:
http://ftp.newave.net.au/~dna/kefir-...ml#ingestingkg
He mentions a 'yogurt/Kefir' hybrid that sounds interesting. It would give you the benefits of the Kefir AND probably have more of a 'yogurt' mouth feel and taste. Worth looking into. I've altered the recipe a bit with my notes...go to the above site for his instructions.
Kefir grain cultured homemade yogurt [Kefiran-Yogurt]
Ingredients
1-2 Tbs of fresh kefir grains finely chopped or blended with 1/3 cup of fresh water
1 Lt [4 cups] fresh milk
3 Tbs of dry milk powder [opt but included will render the final yogurt thicker with a spoonable curd]
Yogurt incubator or thermos-flask [fill flask with boiling hot water, place lid and let sit to sterilize] or an electric blanket
2 Tbs of fresh unpasteurized commercial yogurt or a commercial yogurt starter-culture
Method
Chop Kefir fine with a knife. Boil in a pan of water for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. This gives you a gel. Set aside.
Add milk into another pan and dissolve dry milk powder. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Immediatly take off the heat when it boils. Then put the entire pan in a bit of cold sink water (no deep enough to get in the pan). Keep stirring with spoon until it's about 98 to tp 112 deg F.
Add the kefir gel and fresh yogurt or starter-culture packet to the milk; mix well.
Place this Kefir gel/yogurt inoculated milk in a sterile glass jar[s] or thermos flask.
Incubate at 98º to 113º F for 8-12 hours. If using a thermos-flask as an incubator, have it sitting full of hot water while you make the yogurt up, then pour the hot water from flask and add the inoculated milk. Let sit to incubate for 8-12 hours.
The Kefiran [gel-polysaccharide of kefir gains] should render the final yogurt with a smooth silky mouth-feel and it will contain the additional bacteria found in Kefir.
Another experiment would be to add in some yogurt starter culture to your Kefir jar and see if this 'pushes' it closer to a drinkable yogurt, flavor wise. Make sure to keep an 'uncontaminated' back up set of grains...unless you like the flavor and then you could 'convert' all your grains to this.
I once heated some milk to body temp and added in some grains AND a packet of Kefir culture starter. The resultant 'Kefir' was much closer to store bought in flavor. And I figure it helped 'replenish' any missing components (Hey, who knows...I am not looking at my Kefir under a microscope to see what is there and isn't there) and since it was taken from 'commercial Kefir' it was ok to mix in, as the Live Kefir will take what it needs or /might/ be missing. Everything seemed fine and the grains were fine.
Ok, enough rambling...I'm having a bad day with the kids and can't get a break...toddler driving me nuts (his job at this age) and baby is being VERY needy and I need to nurse him and cuddle....
TTYL
http://ftp.newave.net.au/~dna/kefir-...ml#ingestingkg
He mentions a 'yogurt/Kefir' hybrid that sounds interesting. It would give you the benefits of the Kefir AND probably have more of a 'yogurt' mouth feel and taste. Worth looking into. I've altered the recipe a bit with my notes...go to the above site for his instructions.
Kefir grain cultured homemade yogurt [Kefiran-Yogurt]
Ingredients
1-2 Tbs of fresh kefir grains finely chopped or blended with 1/3 cup of fresh water
1 Lt [4 cups] fresh milk
3 Tbs of dry milk powder [opt but included will render the final yogurt thicker with a spoonable curd]
Yogurt incubator or thermos-flask [fill flask with boiling hot water, place lid and let sit to sterilize] or an electric blanket
2 Tbs of fresh unpasteurized commercial yogurt or a commercial yogurt starter-culture
Method
Chop Kefir fine with a knife. Boil in a pan of water for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. This gives you a gel. Set aside.
Add milk into another pan and dissolve dry milk powder. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Immediatly take off the heat when it boils. Then put the entire pan in a bit of cold sink water (no deep enough to get in the pan). Keep stirring with spoon until it's about 98 to tp 112 deg F.
Add the kefir gel and fresh yogurt or starter-culture packet to the milk; mix well.
Place this Kefir gel/yogurt inoculated milk in a sterile glass jar[s] or thermos flask.
Incubate at 98º to 113º F for 8-12 hours. If using a thermos-flask as an incubator, have it sitting full of hot water while you make the yogurt up, then pour the hot water from flask and add the inoculated milk. Let sit to incubate for 8-12 hours.
The Kefiran [gel-polysaccharide of kefir gains] should render the final yogurt with a smooth silky mouth-feel and it will contain the additional bacteria found in Kefir.
Another experiment would be to add in some yogurt starter culture to your Kefir jar and see if this 'pushes' it closer to a drinkable yogurt, flavor wise. Make sure to keep an 'uncontaminated' back up set of grains...unless you like the flavor and then you could 'convert' all your grains to this.
I once heated some milk to body temp and added in some grains AND a packet of Kefir culture starter. The resultant 'Kefir' was much closer to store bought in flavor. And I figure it helped 'replenish' any missing components (Hey, who knows...I am not looking at my Kefir under a microscope to see what is there and isn't there) and since it was taken from 'commercial Kefir' it was ok to mix in, as the Live Kefir will take what it needs or /might/ be missing. Everything seemed fine and the grains were fine.
Ok, enough rambling...I'm having a bad day with the kids and can't get a break...toddler driving me nuts (his job at this age) and baby is being VERY needy and I need to nurse him and cuddle....
TTYL
Would I just be better off buying the already made stuff?
