help! I think I've botched my first milk kefir!
My first dairy kefir was "ready" yesterday. I just strained it (it tasted horrible after 24 hours and 36 and 48) and I either have 1 cup of grains or the whey and grains are both stuck in my nylon net.
It's been seperated almost the whole time of fermentation. I shook it a few times, but it is very watery and clumpy.
I started with 2 cups of raw milk and about 3 Tbs of grains. I set it in the cabinet above the oven...maybe that was too warm??
I like the kefir I've bought at the store...thick and tangy. This is very watery and very alcohol-ly tasting! It doesn't appeal at all...is this what raw, homemade tastes like?
And what I do with this huge clump in my net?? Should I try to put it through something with larger holes? refrigerate it?
Thanks for any advice!
^_^:
First thing, that's too little milk for your amount of grains :) Try more like four cups of milk to that amount of grains.
I find I can't get the grains to drain well, either. Especially with cow's milk - goat's milk kefir is much thinner, and drains more easily. Anyway, try picking through it with (clean) fingers and pulling the grains out that way. They're very firm and easy to differentiate from curd. I've been doing this every time I drain mine, and have had no problems with them :)
^_^:
thanks!
I had to rinse them in water (it was cold...did I kill them?:dizzy:) to get all of the sour curds off, but I did find the grains...definitely a different texture! I plopped them in some new milk and I'll add more to the jar right now...how much "head room" do I need to leave in the Qt jar? I'd say I have about 3 grains that are at least 1/2-3/4 Tbs in size and then a few tsp sized grains...still about 2-3 Tbs, I guess. I guess I'll have to find something else to use to remove the grains...can I use just my fingers if they're really clean? And then do I try to get all the remaining stuff to mix?
So the curds are not part of the drink?? Just the watery/whey-like part?? I'm really not a fan of the strong alcohol flavor (of course, it's now been fermenting for 60 hours!)
It's not fizzy at all, but whenever I shook it, it sounded like it would explode so I let out some pressure.
Thanks for talking me through this!
^_^:
Yes, the curds are part of the drink :) After picking out the grains, I dump the curds back into the drink and stir it all together.
Ideally, it wouldn't separate into curds and whey. It would just thicken. I find that cow's milk gets curdy like yogurt - instead of being like a thick drink, it breaks apart, like semi-solid. But, at best, it's no more curdy than that.
If I use too many grains, or let it go too long, the curds start to separate from the whey. That results in a somewhat grainy texture in the finished product. Not great if you're drinking it straight, but if you're putting it in a smoothie, it's just fine. Once did I let it go way too long, and the curds were so separated that they were firm and, well, gross... big solid lump of curd that would not stir back in.
You probably didn't hurt them by rinsing them. It's advised not to use chlorinated water. If the water you used was, as you only did it once, you may have set yourself back a little, but they should recover :) Cold water for a rinse doesn't hurt.
You don't need to rinse them regularly. I rinse once in a while when it seems like the quality of my kefir is changing, just in case some invader hitched a ride. I use water straight from my reverse-osmosis tap, which is quite cold.
There is no exact science to kefir. No exact measurement for grains to milk, temperature, fermenting time. All these things relate to one another and vary from day to day. In the summer, it takes less time to ferment. In the winter it takes longer. Long slow fermentation seems to result in a better product, imo, so I'll reduce the amount of grains I use in the summer so it doesn't go too quickly. But, as a rule of thumb, for a quart sized jar of milk, I use 2-3 tablespoons of grains. In fact, my grains have grown a little beyond that, and my most recent batch of kefir went super-curdy really fast. :irked: I used the last of my expensive goat's milk on that, too...
I don't leave a lot of head room in the jar. I know many people recommend it, but it doesn't start to turn fizzy during the primary fermentation. I've been doing this for, jeez, a year and a half? And I've never left more than like 3/4" head room. And at that, it's never seemed to increase in volume, so I could probably leave even less. I always wondered why my kefir, while it tasted similar to the storebought stuff, was never fizzy. I just started doing the second fermentation, which Metasequoia posted about a few days ago. Lo and behold, that's the step that makes it fizzy! And it finishes the flavor, so it tastes even more like the store-bought kefir! Since this step does make it fizzy, I leave lots of headroom for this step, like an inch and a half.
^_^:
thanks!
well, I guess I will check it sooner, try to combine everything after removing curds, and try a second fermentation.
DH says to buy it and save the headache :lol, but I *like* experimenting in the kitchen (!) AND it will be easy and A LOT cheaper (once I get it all figured out) AND I would think that the raw milk would lead to a better final product than bought kefir.
I appreciate all of the advice!
More Topical:
It's been seperated almost the whole time of fermentation. I shook it a few times, but it is very watery and clumpy.
I started with 2 cups of raw milk and about 3 Tbs of grains. I set it in the cabinet above the oven...maybe that was too warm??
I like the kefir I've bought at the store...thick and tangy. This is very watery and very alcohol-ly tasting! It doesn't appeal at all...is this what raw, homemade tastes like?
And what I do with this huge clump in my net?? Should I try to put it through something with larger holes? refrigerate it?
Thanks for any advice!
^_^:
First thing, that's too little milk for your amount of grains :) Try more like four cups of milk to that amount of grains.
I find I can't get the grains to drain well, either. Especially with cow's milk - goat's milk kefir is much thinner, and drains more easily. Anyway, try picking through it with (clean) fingers and pulling the grains out that way. They're very firm and easy to differentiate from curd. I've been doing this every time I drain mine, and have had no problems with them :)
^_^:
thanks!
I had to rinse them in water (it was cold...did I kill them?:dizzy:) to get all of the sour curds off, but I did find the grains...definitely a different texture! I plopped them in some new milk and I'll add more to the jar right now...how much "head room" do I need to leave in the Qt jar? I'd say I have about 3 grains that are at least 1/2-3/4 Tbs in size and then a few tsp sized grains...still about 2-3 Tbs, I guess. I guess I'll have to find something else to use to remove the grains...can I use just my fingers if they're really clean? And then do I try to get all the remaining stuff to mix?
So the curds are not part of the drink?? Just the watery/whey-like part?? I'm really not a fan of the strong alcohol flavor (of course, it's now been fermenting for 60 hours!)
It's not fizzy at all, but whenever I shook it, it sounded like it would explode so I let out some pressure.
Thanks for talking me through this!
^_^:
Yes, the curds are part of the drink :) After picking out the grains, I dump the curds back into the drink and stir it all together.
Ideally, it wouldn't separate into curds and whey. It would just thicken. I find that cow's milk gets curdy like yogurt - instead of being like a thick drink, it breaks apart, like semi-solid. But, at best, it's no more curdy than that.
If I use too many grains, or let it go too long, the curds start to separate from the whey. That results in a somewhat grainy texture in the finished product. Not great if you're drinking it straight, but if you're putting it in a smoothie, it's just fine. Once did I let it go way too long, and the curds were so separated that they were firm and, well, gross... big solid lump of curd that would not stir back in.
You probably didn't hurt them by rinsing them. It's advised not to use chlorinated water. If the water you used was, as you only did it once, you may have set yourself back a little, but they should recover :) Cold water for a rinse doesn't hurt.
You don't need to rinse them regularly. I rinse once in a while when it seems like the quality of my kefir is changing, just in case some invader hitched a ride. I use water straight from my reverse-osmosis tap, which is quite cold.
There is no exact science to kefir. No exact measurement for grains to milk, temperature, fermenting time. All these things relate to one another and vary from day to day. In the summer, it takes less time to ferment. In the winter it takes longer. Long slow fermentation seems to result in a better product, imo, so I'll reduce the amount of grains I use in the summer so it doesn't go too quickly. But, as a rule of thumb, for a quart sized jar of milk, I use 2-3 tablespoons of grains. In fact, my grains have grown a little beyond that, and my most recent batch of kefir went super-curdy really fast. :irked: I used the last of my expensive goat's milk on that, too...
I don't leave a lot of head room in the jar. I know many people recommend it, but it doesn't start to turn fizzy during the primary fermentation. I've been doing this for, jeez, a year and a half? And I've never left more than like 3/4" head room. And at that, it's never seemed to increase in volume, so I could probably leave even less. I always wondered why my kefir, while it tasted similar to the storebought stuff, was never fizzy. I just started doing the second fermentation, which Metasequoia posted about a few days ago. Lo and behold, that's the step that makes it fizzy! And it finishes the flavor, so it tastes even more like the store-bought kefir! Since this step does make it fizzy, I leave lots of headroom for this step, like an inch and a half.
^_^:
thanks!
well, I guess I will check it sooner, try to combine everything after removing curds, and try a second fermentation.
DH says to buy it and save the headache :lol, but I *like* experimenting in the kitchen (!) AND it will be easy and A LOT cheaper (once I get it all figured out) AND I would think that the raw milk would lead to a better final product than bought kefir.
I appreciate all of the advice!
More Topical: