Kefirology

This week, I made my own kefir using a powdered culture that I bought from Whole Foods.

The process is simple, elegant, and magical. I am not overstating matters when I say that, as I watched the milk's rapid alchemy into kefir, I felt the hairs on my arms tingle. Plus, the mixture smelled so clean and acidic that I had to force myself to cap the jar and leave it aside until the time was right.

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The recipe is simple. Add a packet of powder to a gallon of good milk and wait. Make sure the container is glass and that there's some way for the gas to escape. Otherwise, the pressure will cause the vessel to explode in your shitty 2005 Hyundai that hardly works any more.

Wait 24 hours for a thin kefir, 48 for a thick.

Lay 1/2 cup of the kefir aside and top it off with milk. Apparently, the culture will make an additional 5-7 batches this way. I wanted to be clever and started multiple batches from the initial one, including a buttermilk kefir, in honor of the dvd release of True Grit, a movie based on a novel by one of my favorite writers, Charles Portis. The main character enjoys her buttermilk, let me tell you.

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First batch was better than any kefir I've bought from the store - even better than the Amish produced kefir sold at the excellent Siberia Russian market in Nashua.

Some people run into problems because of milk temperature. To the amusement of the guys at Mass BJJ, I left it in my car. Since the week was fairly warm, this kept the milk warm and caused the fermented to occur quickly. It also caused a mild agitation to the mixture. The ideal temperature for fermentation is 86 degrees F.

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I was pleased enough with the results to cook up a batch of fermented yams for a Memorial Day bbq tomorrow. I added sorrel and dill to the cooling yams, then the starter culture, as well as non-iodized salt. I thought of using garlic, but then remembered it has antimicrobial properties which might kill off the culture. I looked this up online and, sure enough, I was right to avoid the garlic. Garlic doesn't discriminate between good and bad microbes.

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I took the photo in my front yard. If you decide to use it, please credit me.