Fermentation Fervor

I am on a Wild Fermentation kick once again! I can't state enough how much I love that book. It gets better every time I read it. Kefir is the obsession of the moment. I'm pretty sure the Kefir-gods planned this experiment because I requested that I start to receive a half gallon of milk in our delivery and my neighbor accidentally sent in an order for a whole gallon. So what's a girl to do with a whole extra half gallon of sweet local milk? Make Kefir, of course!

This first go-round I did the ignorant, generic, beginner's thing and bought a rather expensive package of Kefir culture in powder form from the grocery store. In my usual do-it-yourself-chef fashion, I failed to properly follow most of the directions on the package but I got kefir out of it anyway.

First I heated the milk to a boiling-over-into-the-stove level, but luckily I managed to remove the pot before any damage was done.

The next step was to cool the milk to 70 degrees. Sans thermometer, this generally means that it's about right when you can hold your finger in it and it feels hot but doesn't make you want to jerk your finger quickly to safety.

I became overly eager and filled the sink with cold water, placed my milk-pot in it, and stirred to release heat. Then I sat down and read Yes! magazine and got so wrapped up that I let the milk become too cool.

Placing the milk back on the stove seemed like a recipe for disaster so I decided to risk it and just mix in the culture. Failing to properly follow another box-instruction, I mixed way too much starter with way too little milk and then stirred the whole thing together. Somehow I managed to pour it all back into the narrow-necked milk jug without a flood on the counter. Cover and wait, that's all there is to it.

The next morning it smelled a little sour but was still relatively bland and liquidy. The next evening it turned the corner to good, thick kefir, and the sweetness of the local milk still came through the sourness of the culture.

Sandor Katz lists several resources for kefir-grain-exchange. He also mentions several ways to make vegan kefir. So, my next project is fully-local hand-crafted vegan kefir. One step at a time. Right now I'm enjoying this kefir on everything.