KEFIR grains-Mind if we give them their own thread?

[freemotion]

Thank's to both of you. I think I will just keep going. Like I said it seems to be doing it's thing.

Doing some reading on making kefir leban blue cheese. Going to try and find myself a bamboo steamer.

Keep you fingers crossed for me.

gina

If it works, please make a new recipe thread for us!

 

[ORChick]

I know of only one sure-fire way to kill kefir grains (there are certainly others, but I don't know them ) - rinse them in chlorinated water, and they are goners. But keep them in milk and they are fine; I use pasteurised milk, because that is what I can get, and they do well; I have used 1% and 2% (before I knew better) and they did well; I have used ultra-pasteurised (by mistake) and they did well. It sounds to me as though, quite possibly, some of yours escaped during the straining stage. The very best way that I have found to strain the kefir is with my fingers. That way none of them can masquerade as curds, because I can feel the difference. Even the tiny ones are hard to miss.

 

[miss_thenorth]

The ones I got from Free were really small too, and i thought I had lost them too. I put what i thought might be the kefir grains into another jar of milk, and continued to do so, and they are starting to swell up a bit already. Just give it some time, as long as its doing what it is suppposed to be doing.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Hey all! I'm a kefir noob. A friend brought me some grains and I made my first qt of kefir on Monday. I didn't care for it plain, but I've made kefir smoothies (with a banana and some berries) and it's really good!

I'll be making more this weekend. I'll probably be the only one drinking it, hubby thinks it's weird.

 

[freemotion]

Welcome to the dark side!!! (snicker...)

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Welcome to the dark side!!! (snicker...)

Thanks!!

 

[TanksHill]

kefir question,

Up until now the kefir has been very mild and not lumpy or anything. But today and yesterday I have had something more like cottage cheese with water in the bottom. I know this has to be kinda normal I found a pic on line that looks just the same.

Ok heres a picture,

This is not normal. Did it get left to long? Is th warm weather affecting it? It looks kinda like curds and whey? Is my grain DOA?

so I strained it. Found my tiny little grain an put it in fresh milk. I guess I will check it early tomorrow.

 

[big brown horse]

Sometimes mine will do that if I leave it too long and the house is warmer than normal.

Tell us how it looks in 24 hours.

 

[TanksHill]

That's kinda what I thought. We will see how the fresh milk looks tomorrow morning. That would be less that 24hr.

thanks, gina

 

[freemotion]

It's fine, as long as it passes the sniff test..but it looks ok. It just kefir'd faster than normal.