OT: Kefir Revisited

Satori said:
Again, thanks for the advice. Second batch came out smelling like the first...I'm guessing that this is the way it's supposed to be. That puts my mind at ease. It seemed too easy. (I almost never get something to work correctly the first time.)

As for blocking up the works, it's going to be a while before I have enough grains to make a half gallon in one day. I'll certainly keep it in mind though.

The tea is on its second day. No more visible bubbles and the starter scoby is parked at the bottom, but there are some "swirlies" that weren't there before and it's definitely picking up a tart smell. I guess it's doing its thing.

Another lesson in patience. I needed it.
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When you have a batch ready to drink,if you put some of the kefir from that batch,say a cup or two--into the new milk along with the grains it will work off in record time, like 24 hours.

Try making a batch with skim milk and a batch with 1/2 and 1/2 --both will make a fine drink but will have different character.
 
"Please tell me that Kefir isn't hardened camel or other rumiant animal spit!"

IT IS HARDENED RUMINANT SPIT FROM A CALF.

well, it is camel if it comes from the middle east, might be from another ruminant if you're in a non-camel area.

Here's the deal: Ruminants when they are calves have a special set of bacteria and enzymes in their saliva that enable them to break down and digest their mother's milk (separates out the curd). Once they've moved on to solid foods (grazz whatever grains, etc they eat, the specialized digestive saliva goes away. Just about any ancient agrarian tribal people learned to make use of this 'kefir', like the Mongols, Scythians, who used it to brew up a batch of alcoholic sour milk (which kept the milk in a keep-able state longer).

Do an internet search on Rennets for more information. And if you thought you were not eating ruminant spit already, rennets is the curdling/coagulating agent that makes cheese into cheese.
http://www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/1993/1093DE.html

Anyhow, if you folks want some goat or sheep 'kefir', I'll see if my farming buddy can hook y'all up with it. Also, If anyone needs some wool or sheep's knuckles (make great dice and game pieces, or did at least a 1000+ years ago, I can pich that up too.

He also has a dairy hook-up, so now I get real, non hormoned, non-homogenized, non colorant added, REAL milk. Turns out it lasts longer than industrial milk, has real cream on the top, and if it spoils, you'll have the best cottage cheese ever.


YEp, it's spit.

Keith
 
Thanks Keith. I checked out the rennet as well. It comes from the inside of ruminators stomachs so I guess spit isn't so bad.;)
 
After you guys graduate from cow spit and kefir you'll be ready for the hard stuff, Candoshi beer. Instead of malting the grain, the village women chew it and the enzymes in the human saliva break the starches down into sugars.

For graphic video on its production and consumption see Ron Hood's jungle video.

For a good bladeforums discussion see the thread at http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117820 .
 
Howard Wallace said:
After you guys graduate from cow spit and kefir you'll be ready for the hard stuff, Candoshi beer. Instead of malting the grain, the village women chew it and the enzymes in the human saliva break the starches down into sugars.
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When in Rome do as the Romans do.;) Whatever you do, you do not insult your host by not accepting what is offered.:D
 
Spectre said:
I'm never hanging out with the Innuits, then.

;)

John
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Don't think you could handle it John? :p ;) :D At least you wouldn't get drunk on it.:)
 
Some folks will ingest anything. A few years ago, I used to visit a friend with MS. When I dropped in, she would serve some pond scum frementation liquid that she was SURE was going to make her better. I think it came from Oregon and had to be grown in a sealed contained until it reached the "right" level of ugly taste.

I thought it was snake oil medicine, but if she thought it might help, well...who was I to try and dissuade her, as long as it didn't kill her (or me?)

Now, when I perfect my time-travel machine, I want to meet the first person who started saving camel spit. I thought I never threw anything out!


eeeccchhh!
 
Kismet said:
Some folks will ingest anything. A few years ago, I used to visit a friend with MS. When I dropped in, she would serve some pond scum frementation liquid that she was SURE was going to make her better.
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Wasn't that Kombucha stuff was it?
 
dunno. tasted like apple cider gone bad (very bad), and had a film on top of the "culture" which had some thickness to it.
 
Dunno, but one of my friends used to work at a store in Little 5 Points, near Atlanta. I traded him some weapon-or-other for various semi-exotics he could get for discount.

One of the things he thought I should try was primarily made of spirulina, which is blue-green algae. I thought it was pretty darn nasty at first, but after trying it a few times, I started to really like the taste, especially with sweet natural drinks like smoothies and stuff. I still crave it, sometimes... :eek:

John
 
"Candoshi beer. Instead of malting the grain, the village women chew it and the enzymes in the human saliva break the starches down into sugars."


I had some traditional poi in Hawaii, which is a starchy root that is chewed by women into a grayish paste to break the starches down into sugars....it was dreadful stuff... :barf:
 
Interesting stuff. I'll pass on the pre-chewed beverages, thank you.

One thing that I've always found fascinating about food and beverages in general is that, once I can get past the actual ingrediants, they usually taste fairly good, regardless of the culture. The ones that do not can be called aquired tastes.

Satori's definition of aquired taste: "Hell, even we don't like this stuff."

I just had a glass from my third batch of kefir and I have to say, something changed...maybe the grains needed time to adapt or grow (and those suckers are getting big), maybe the milk needed to age just a day more, or maybe it was the fact that I put a spoonful of fresh honey in it. ;) Regardless, it came out smooth, creamy, and delicious...much better than milk, in fact. If the rest is going to taste like this, I could see how someone could go through half a gallon a day. I quite enjoyed it.

Camel spit or no camel spit. :)
 
Satori said:
maybe it was the fact that I put a spoonful of fresh honey in it. ;) Regardless, it came out smooth, creamy, and delicious...much better than milk, in fact. If the rest is going to taste like this, I could see how someone could go through half a gallon a day. I quite enjoyed it.

Camel spit or no camel spit. :)
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Is the kefir still suppressing your appetite Satori?

Also do the grains ever breed any new ones, or do they just keep growing?
When they get to the size of granny's biscuits you could just eat one for lunch.:D
 
Yvsa said:
Is the kefir still suppressing your appetite Satori?

Also do the grains ever breed any new ones, or do they just keep growing?
When they get to the size of granny's biscuits you could just eat one for lunch.:D
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Yes, it's still suppressing my appetite. Over the course of the day, I (as a somewhat active, 6'2", 220 lb. man) have consumed the following:

- One 24 oz. iced soy mocha (gotta say hi to the Coffee Chick)
- 2 egg rolls
- 1 banana
- 1 small (!) bowl of raw spinach, very light dressing
- 1 slice of whole grain bread
- 1 pickled egg
- 3 glasses kefir
- (currently) 1 0.75 liter bottle of Chimay Ale

I will probably have a few more beers after this one, as I'm planning on getting drunk tonight. I have not, and do not plan on being, hungry.

Bear in mind, though, that hunger (to me) is a largely mental thing. I spent some time starving myself before I realized this. Even when I do feel actual hunger, I know through experience that if I ignore it for a bit, it will go away. Real hunger for me isn't experienced for a few days, at which point my body tells me in no uncertain terms that it's time to eat now so quite screwing around.

Kefir does relieve the physical aspects of it for me, though...better than milk does, at the very least. It may just be the taste. If you start making this stuff Yvsa, try it with a bit of raw honey. Like plain yogurt, kefir gains a whole lot in taste and loses very little in nutrition with a touch of honey thrown in. Good stuff. :)
 
Thanks my friend.:D

Satori said:
Yes, it's still suppressing my appetite.

Kefir does relieve the physical aspects of it for me, though...better than milk does, at the very least. It may just be the taste.

If you start making this stuff Yvsa, try it with a bit of raw honey. Like plain yogurt, kefir gains a whole lot in taste and loses very little in nutrition with a touch of honey thrown in. Good stuff. :)
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Satori I just a couple of days ago decided to start eating more honey again instead of the fruit preserves that I'm fond of at breakfast.;)
I've been doing a bit of reading on the kefir and on Dom's site there is a plethora of information to wade through!!!!
I'm really interested in the Kefirkraut!!!! :cool:
And whether I could make KefirKimchi....
If you can do one I would think a man could do the other.

But you missed my question on the grains...;)
Yvsa said:
Also do the grains ever breed any new ones, or do they just keep growing?
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(I should've said, "in size?")
I'm interested in how they propogate themselves and if they make any new ones that are the small size of the original culture.
From what I gather you're not supposed to break the larger grains into smaller ones but I was just skimming and not reading deeply.:rolleyes:
 
Mine are definitely increasing in size and seem to be increasing in number - the new ones look like curds and are hard to spot, but I'm starting to notice an increase. Dom mentions a mechanism for "baby" grains sprouting and detaching from "mother" grains. I'll take his word for it. He's been at it a lot longer than I have.

I remember reading (but could be wrong) Dom saying that if one grain gets too large, one could break it up...the grain will take it. Assuming one keeps them in milk and prevents too much contamination, it looks like the grains are pretty resilient.

When I strained my first batch, I thought I just had a small amount of curds. After straining the third, I was saying, "Whoa, look at those grains!" They're very easy to pick out now. Amazing.

As for honey...I'm blessed in living two blocks from a beekeeper. (He leaves his stock out on the porch with a can to put the money in.) A friend turned me on to it after telling me about how her brother overcame his seasonal allergies by taking the local honey. I started using it medicinally and became hooked on the taste. Fresh, raw honey lacks that throat burn the store stuff has and...well, I'm preaching to the choir, aren't I? ;)

Call me old-fashioned but I'm of the impression that if it exists in nature and it tastes good, it's probably healthy or at least not harmful...otherwise, it wouldn't taste good. Additives are another matter of course.
 
Satori said:
Mine are definitely increasing in size and seem to be increasing in number - the new ones look like curds and are hard to spot, but I'm starting to notice an increase.I started using it medicinally and became hooked on the taste.

Fresh, raw honey lacks that throat burn the store stuff has and...well, I'm preaching to the choir, aren't I? ;)

Call me old-fashioned but I'm of the impression that if it exists in nature and it tastes good, it's probably healthy or at least not harmful...otherwise, it wouldn't taste good. Additives are another matter of course.
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And thanks again my friend!!!!:D I'm very much likely too try the kefir myself as soon as I can order some from Dom or one of the other vendors.
And I need to talk to our daughter Claudia about it. She has a slew of goats and makes cheese and such. Actually they have a small farm/ranch sort of a deal and raise all sorts of goodies.
I'm glad the hens started laying again out of their winter slump. Nothing like good fresh eggs!!!!!

I started eating honey for the allergies as well and was telling Barb's sister about it so she went and bought me a quart of local Pennsylvania honey not realizeing it is the local honeys that has the true medicinal value, still good though and it isn't going too be allowed to go to waste.:D
There's a local beekeeper not too far from us and Claudia has talked about getting into raiseing bees as well, something else I need to talk too her about.:rolleyes: :D
 
"Is the kefir still suppressing your appetite"-->heehee, just talking about spit fermetation is suppressing mine! ;) :)

I do like the old golden bee-vomit, tho. And the comb(wax), and the pollen...good stuff!

Keithir
 
I'm trading some raw milk to a lady Friday for some Kefir grains. Now that my goats are milking again I'm gonna get some going.
 
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