Kefir at home from milk: features, recipes and recommendations

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

If you still don't know how to make kefir at home, then this article is for you. After all, it is very simple to do this if you know the sequence of its preparation and a few secrets that will allow you to easily and simply make kefir from milk, delighting households with its taste and aroma.

What is kefir and its beneficial properties

Before you start dealing with the question: "How to make kefir at home?", You need to find out what kind of product it is and why it is needed. So, kefir is called a sour-milk drink, which is created from milk by alcoholic and sour-milk fermentation. It contains in its composition a unique set of healing bacteria and fungi that have a positive effect on the intestinal microflora and do not allow a number of pathogenic bacteria that cause certain diseases to develop in it. In addition, it improves metabolism, so for those who want to lose weight, this product should become one of the main dishes in the diet. And also it providesthe body has a diuretic effect and enhances immunity.

Ingredients for making kefir

Among the ingredients, in recipes for making kefir at home, there is always milk or sourdough, and sometimes purchased kefir. Therefore, before starting the process of making kefir, you should learn how to choose the components for its manufacture.

1. Milk can be both goat's and cow's, both pasteurized and whole, and everyone chooses the percentage of fat for themselves, that is, it can be either skimmed or with a fat content of 3.2%.
2. Sourdough for real kefir can only be made from kefir mushrooms, which can be purchased in specialized stores. In all other cases, when kefir is made on the basis of lactic acid bacteria or bacterial concentrates, we will get a kefir product at the output.
3. In addition, kefir can be created on the basis of existing store kefir. The main thing is that the composition of this product should include milk and those same kefir mushrooms.

How to make kefir at home?

Now let's look at the general principle of making kefir at home. The first step is to boil the milk in an aluminum pan, and this must be done in any case, regardless of whether the milk was whole or pasteurized. To do this, put a pot of milk on a small fire and vigilantly monitor its condition - as soon as foam appears on the milk, it will need to be immediately removed from the heat and cooled to a temperature of 37-40 ° C. Then, to create kefir at home, you need to carefully pour the milk into glass or porcelain dishes and add the leaven to it. And in the end, it remains only to wrap the dishes and place them for a day in a warm place with an air temperature of 20-26 ° C. After 24 hours, kefir will be completely ready for use.

Starter on capsules "Lacidophil"

It will also be possible to make kefir at home from milk based on the starter culture from the Lacidophil capsule, which can be purchased at any pharmacy. For such a starter we need:

• one whole capsule "Lacidophil";
• 1, 3 liters of milk.

First of all, you need to boil the milk, cool it to a temperature of 40 ° C and pour the contents of the capsule into the pan. After that, the milk will need to be thoroughly stirred so that the contents of the capsule are completely dissolved, poured into a glass or porcelain container, insulated well with a blanket and left alone for 12 hours. After this time, the contents of the container will turn into a starter for kefir, which can be stored in the refrigerator in a closed jar for three weeks.

Recipe for sourdough kefir from "Lacidophil" capsule

The main thing when creating kefir at home from milk using a starter made from a preparation to protect the intestinal microflora is to accurately calculate the proportion of the ingredients we need. It is 800 ml of milk per 200 ml of sourdough. So, having combined the sourdough and milk in a glass jar, stir them well,wrap and leave alone for 6 hours. Then, without stirring, put the container in the refrigerator and cool for about three hours, after which it can be taken out, mixed again and drunk for 10 days.

Sourdough from dietary supplement "Narine"

You can also create kefir at home using the starter from the "Narine" bioadditive, which is sold in a box of ten sachets weighing 200 mg each. And we need to create a sourdough:

• one sachet of supplement powder;
• 200 ml milk with fat content 2, 5-3, 2%.

First, as you might have guessed, boil the milk, cool it to the desired temperature. After pour it into a bottle, pour the powder into it, and shake everything well. After that, the bottle should be wrapped and left alone for 18-20 hours. After this time, we look to see if the contents of the container have thickened. If a clot appears, then the sourdough is ready, but if the milk has not become thick, then it must still be left to ferment for a couple of hours.

Recipe for sourdough kefir from bioadditives

Don't think for a long time how to make kefir at home based on starter from a bioadditive, because the way to create this fermented milk product is very similar to the way to make kefir using the Lacidophil capsule. The amount of milk that is taken to create kefir should be equal to the expected amount of fermented milk drink. And the amount of starter, taking into account the proportion, is 1 tablespoon of starter per liter of milk.

Of course, the first thing we do, of course, is boil milk, and now you can take milk with any fat content, cool it to the desired temperature. Then we add the starter there, mix everything well so that the contents of the glass jar become homogeneous, leave it in a warm place for 5-7 hours, after which the drink will be ready. It can be stored in the refrigerator at 2-6°C for a couple of days.

Kefir from bacterial starter culture

One of the most popular starters for creating delicious kefir at home is a special purchased starter "Kefir VIVO", which can be purchased in the dairy departments of supermarkets or in regular pharmacies. Actually, the process of preparing such a starter is as simple as possible. It is only necessary to boil the milk and cool it to an approximate temperature of 40 ° C. After that, the contents of the bottle are poured into the milk with the calculation of a third of the leaven per liter of liquid, the container is covered with a lid, insulated and left for a day in a dry, dark place. After 24 hours, the contents are mixed well, the jar is placed in the refrigerator for cooling, and after a couple of hours the kefir will be ready, although its full taste will be revealed only in a day.

Cooking kefir in a yogurt maker

Regardless of which milk kefir recipe at home you choose. The fastest and easiest way to get this drink is if you make it not in jars, but in a yogurt maker. First, as in all other recipes, boil a liter of milk, then cool it totemperature is needed and mixed with one or another sourdough, with the expectation that the yield of kefir should be 1 liter. After that, we pour boiling water over the glasses of the yogurt maker, pour milk with sourdough into them and put them in an electrical appliance. After that, close the lid of the yogurt maker, turn on the device, select a temperature of 30 ° C on it and set the time for 12 hours of operation. After the allotted time, a beep will sound, and the kefir will be completely ready for use.

A simple recipe for kefir at home without the use of sourdough

The easiest way to make kefir is to use ordinary store-bought kefir as a starter. In this case, we need:

• liter of goat or cow milk;
• 100 ml kefir;
• tablespoon of sugar.

All we need to create kefir from milk at home is to heat the milk to the desired temperature and add sugar with kefir to it. Then it remains only to mix everything well with a wooden spatula and pour the drink into glass jars. Then these banks are wrapped up, put in a warm place. After 24 hours, they will contain excellent one-day kefir.

Kefir re-brewing

If you have already prepared one of the kefir recipes at home once, then you can no longer think about the next sourdough. Now you just need not to finish drinking your kefir, leaving a small amount of it to create a new portion of a fermented milk drink, with the calculation of 1 tablespoon of kefir per 1 glass of milk. That is, in order toto get a liter of kefir from a liter of milk, you just need to pour 4 tablespoons of homemade kefir with boiled milk. And then, everything goes according to the already known scheme - the container with milk and kefir is insulated and wrapped, left for a day and after 24 hours you can drink the drink with pleasure.

Make kefir with sour cream

However, kefir at home can be made not only on the basis of milk, but also on sour cream. Moreover, this method of creating this fermented milk drink is characterized by maximum simplicity. To prepare kefir in this case, we need:

• 1 liter of milk;
• 5 tablespoons of sour cream.

All you need now is to boil the milk and cool it according to the classic recipe, and then add sour cream to it. This mixture is well stirred, the container with it is closed, wrapped and set aside in a warm place for 10 hours. Everything, on this all the work will be completed, and after the allotted time we will get a useful product that can be given even to babies from 8-9 months.

What can be prepared from homemade kefir?

Once we have learned how to make homemade kefir, we can start creating numerous food products for which it is the main ingredient.

1. You can make kefir cottage cheese at home, which is created by heating kefir in a water bath in an enamel cup. All that will be needed is to put a pot of water on the fire, inside of which is placed a bowl withkefir, wait until kefir turns into whey. Then remove the bowl, pass its contents through the gauze, and when the whey is drained, the cheese will remain in the gauze.
2. From a liter of kefir, three liters of milk and two tablespoons of s alt, you can get real Adyghe cheese. First of all, we get cottage cheese and whey from a liter of kefir, which should be put in the refrigerator, because now we need it. After two days, we put a pot of milk on the fire, and as soon as it boils, pour our whey into the pan and add s alt. So we continue to cook the mixture over the smallest fire until the cheese floats up in a solid cake. After that, the fire is turned off, the cheese is transferred to gauze, and as the remaining liquid drains, we send it to the refrigerator for a day under the press, after which the Adyghe cheese can already be eaten.
3. You can also make a delicious salad dressing from homemade kefir, which will include 5 tablespoons of our fermented milk drink, half a teaspoon of mustard, three egg yolks, three tablespoons of homemade kefir cottage cheese and lemon juice. To make the dressing, you just need to place all the ingredients in a blender bowl and beat them until smooth. If desired, you can add s alt and pepper to the finished sauce.