Anyone make kefir or yogurt at home?

anony999

Good morning, all!
Has anyone here tried making their own yogurt or kefir?

I recently bought the Yogourmet freeze-dried cultures (one box for yogurt and one for kefir). After researching, I found that the freeze-dried stuff is kinda crappy (requires extra steps and doesn't grow like the live stuff), and yogurt is a bit of a pain to make (maintaining a constant temperature and babysitting a bit)... so I just purchased actual live kefir cultures and am anxious to try them out.

The live cultures sound REALLY easy to work with, basically you just dump a quart of milk over top of the cultures in a jar, then let it sit out for a day, then strain the cultures out and refrigerate. Blend in a fruit when you are ready to drink.

I am thinking of coconut milk (instead of dairy) kefir with dates, for one possibility. May be a bit high-cal though... but should be DELICIOUS and healthy.

Has anyone else experimented or found an easy kefir/yogurt recipe that they really like? Please share, thanks!

anony999

Good morning, all!
Has anyone here tried making their own yogurt or kefir?

I recently bought the Yogourmet freeze-dried cultures (one box for yogurt and one for kefir). After researching, I found that the freeze-dried stuff is kinda crappy (requires extra steps and doesn't grow like the live stuff), and yogurt is a bit of a pain to make (maintaining a constant temperature and babysitting a bit)... so I just purchased actual live kefir cultures and am anxious to try them out.

The live cultures sound REALLY easy to work with, basically you just dump a quart of milk over top of the cultures in a jar, then let it sit out for a day, then strain the cultures out and refrigerate. Blend in a fruit when you are ready to drink.

I am thinking of coconut milk (instead of dairy) kefir with dates, for one possibility. May be a bit high-cal though... but should be DELICIOUS and healthy.

Has anyone else experimented or found an easy kefir/yogurt recipe that they really like? Please share, thanks!

songbyrdsweet

You can make it with coconut milk?? YUMMMMM.

anony999

Yes, you can make it with any type of milk - cow, goat, sheep, almond, soy, coconut, etc.

Kefir usually causes no problems in people who are lactose-intolerant so cow's milk is usually safe to use for those folks.

jessmomof3

I got a yogurt maker for Christmas and I have been making it. The one that I got your boil milk, then let it cool, add a container of plain yogurt (or yogurt culture) and then put it in the jars and turn on the yogurt maker. It takes about 10 hrs, but I just did it before bed and in the morning had yogurt!! :bigsmile:

anony999

Update: I made my coconut milk kefir. Most of the kefir sites say your first batch will kinda suck, and boy were they right! It came out pretty sour and nasty. A bit of sourness was expected from the kefir but bleh. I couldn't force it down until I added some dates into the food processor. I overfilled it with liquid, and created a HUGE mess...

The added dates made it palatable but not good by any stretch of the imagination.

I had made that batch with the freeze-dried Yogourmet kefir cultures, so I think I'll try again with the live cultures, but not for a while. The sour taste turned me off of coconut milk for a while! I'll work with cow milk for now.

About the yogurt maker... I didn't research before I bought the cultures, now I don't want to spend the cash on the maker (especially if it turns out it's not something I'm going to use a lot). I read alternative solutions, like using a crockpot or "pulsing" the oven while using a candy thermometer. I might just cut my losses on the cultures unless I can borrow a friend's maker! I may just stick with kefir for simplicity.