Sustainable Cultured Milk

Even though we produce our own milk, we rarely actually drink it. I've shown you the dairy products I make ("Ziggy Milk, Ziggy Butter, Ziggy Mozz"), but mostly we consume milk as yogurt. Nearly every day in fact. I know I've mentioned it frequently and have shown you my non-electric method of yogurt making, "Easy Peasy Homemade Yogurt", as well as how I make yogurt cheese. The only thing that bothers me about yogurt, is that I have to keep buying new starter. The good guy bacteria in the culture have a life span, and eventually the product changes as the culture ages. Every so often I have to buy some fresh yogurt to start again.

Another cultured milk product is kefir. I'd seen it as a fruit flavored drink in the dairy section at the grocery store. I never considered buying it, because most commercial products like this are too sweet and with too many nonessential synthetic ingredients. On top of that, commercial kefir is pasteurized, to kill anything alive in it, including the beneficial bacteria I'd be buying it for in the first place. Then I read that not only does kefir culture (called grains) not wear out, it actually perpetuates itself. If one takes proper care of it, that means never-ending cultured milk!

Because kefir grains multiply, it is easy to find them for sale, or for free from folks who just need to find a home for their ever increasing supply. Such was the case for me, and for the price of postage, I obtained my very own milk kefir from a gal on one of the goat lists I subscribe to.

Kefir grains

Making kefir is even easier than making yogurt. Just add one or two tablespoons of kefir grains to about 2 cups of milk. Cover to keep fruit flies out, and let sit on the counter for 24 - 48 hours. Sourness and thickness are controlled by the length of time it's allowed to sit. Then strain, put the newly made kefir into the fridge, get a clean jar, and start a new batch.

I was very curious as to it's taste. We eat our yogurt mostly on cereal in the morning, so this seemed a good substitute. But. It doesn't taste quite the same. Tangy from the beneficial bacteria, yes. But because it contains nutritional yeasts, it's a bit bubbly and has a different flavor.

Kefir after I've poured it into the strainer.

The only word I can think to describe it is effervescent.

I'm just starting my experiments but eventually should have lots to share about what I'm learning. Two books with directions for making it are Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, and Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. And of course there are tons of informational and how-to articles around the internet. The best I found are Dom's kefir webpages:

• About kefir grains and kefir
• how to make kefir (with lots of recipe links) 
• and kefir FAQs. 

Its uses intrigue me, in particular cheese, not only soft yogurt type cheese, but harder cheeses as well. Also bread making and lacto-fermenting; all things I already do. According to Wikipedia, it can be used in making sourdough bread and is an ingredient in some recipes for borscht.

Right now I'm working with milk kefir grains, but there are other types. Water kefir is commonly used with juices and I can already see that I need some of these grains too.

I am looking forward to experimenting with this. There seem to be a lot of possibilities for it's use, not to mention the nutritional benefits. Plus, I'm happy to be able to culture my goat milk without needing to continually replace the culture. After I've experimented a bit, I'll let you all know what I figure out.

Sustainable Cultured Milk © October 2012 by 

Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Ziggy Milk, Ziggy Butter, Ziggy Mozz

Ziggy

Ziggy milk. Icy cold with peanut butter chip chocolate bar cookies

Ziggy butter on freshly baked pumpkin muffin.
For more information on goat butter including a how-to, click here.

Ziggy yogurt with home canned figs

Ziggy yogurt cheese & homestead blueberry jam on toast

Ziggy Mozzarella

Ziggy YUM!

In all fairness, Ziggy shouldn't get all the credit. She gives most of the milk, but Edy & Nessie contribute too.

Edy & Nessie

Now all I need is an ice cream maker ;)

Related Post:
Homestead Whipped Cream (From Goats!)

Ziggy Milk, Ziggy Butter, Ziggy Mozz © Sept. 2012 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Yogurt Cheese and Whey

Last time, I mentioned that I was making a gallon of yogurt: some to eat as is, and some to make yogurt cheese and whey. What I'm really after is the whey for more lacto-fermentation recipes, but the yogurt cheese is a real treat too.

If making yogurt was easy, this is even easier.

I poured a half gallon of yogurt into a colander lined with a triple layer of cheesecloth. A clean cotton dishtowel works well too. I covered it with a plate and let it sit for several hours. This allowed some of the whey to drain and the yogurt to thicken a bit.

Next I tied and hung the cheesecloth over the bowl, allowing more whey to drip out. I left it like this all day, but for overnight, I put the yogurt bag back in the colander over the bowl, and put the whole thing in the fridge.

After about 24 hours, I had a beautiful lump of yogurt cheese and about five cups of whey. The yogurt cheese has the consistency of spreadable cream cheese, but with more of a tang to it; Absolutely yummy in a cream cheese and jelly sandwich. It can be used in any recipe that calls for cream cheese. In fact, I'm thinking that I'll use it to make a cheesecake for this week's Pizza & Dessert night.

And the whey? More on that next time.......

Looks easy enough, don't you think?

Yogurt Cheese and Whey photos & text copyright November 2009 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

Related Posts:
Easy Peasy Homemade Yogurt

Easy Peasy Homemade Yogurt

We love yogurt at our house. We use it on fruit or cereal almost daily, and I frequently use it in cooking. I used to think that it was something of a fuss to make, until I ran across an idea that I've used ever since. It's simple, non-electric, and I've had good results almost every time.

Unlike sauerkraut, yogurt is one lacto-fermented food that I really know something about. Making it requires only three things: milk, starter, and proper temperature.

Milk

I've learned from experience that plain ol' store-bought ultra-pasteurized, homogenized milk doesn't thicken up very well. Commercial yogurt producers use carrageenan, pectin, or gelatin to thicken it and actually, they make it too solid for my preferences. Home recipes often call for adding a quarter cup or so of powdered milk. That works, but I discovered that once I switched to organic milk, I didn't need to add a thickener, it thickens just fine on it's own.

Starter

For good results, a good yogurt culture is necessary. Once upon a time, I could buy plain yogurt at the local grocery store and use that. Nowadays plain is hard to find at the grocery store, and what is to be found often contains only small amounts of live culture in addition to preservatives and thickeners. If the yogurt itself has been pasteurized, then the culture is dead and it's useless.

I buy plain yogurt for starter from a health food store, but if you can't find any locally, Yogourmet Freeze-Dried Starter works very well and keeps for quite awhile (a good addition to food storage). It's been awhile since I've used it so I don't have a source to recommend. I'm sure you can find it via the search engine of your choice.

A small amount of your homemade yogurt can be saved with each batch. This can be used for awhile, though it will eventually die out. When my yogurt stops thickening as well as I like, then I know it's time for a new culture.

Temperature

Yogurt needs a fairly constant temperature of about 105 - 115° F/ 40 - 46° C (different directions may vary slightly on this point)

Some recipes call for scalding the milk first, and then allowing it to cool to the proper temperature. Scalding is necessary with raw milk because it contains it's own friendly bacteria which will compete with the bacteria that make yogurt. With pasteurized milk however, those bacteria are destroyed, so scalding isn't necessary.

I heat my milk to steaming, and then let it cool to the the correct temperature. I've done it enough so that can tell by the feel of the milk, but a fast-read meat thermometer can be helpful here.

I use a whisk to blend in my starter, and then pour it into containers. Wide mouth quart canning jars work great. If you want to add a sweetener, this would be the time to do so. I never sweeten the new starter though.

Usually I make a 1/2-gallon at a time, saving a little (about half a 1/2-pint canning jar) for my next starter. In the photos below, you will see that I'm making a whole gallon of yogurt. This is because I want to make some yogurt cheese.

To incubate, I fill the bottom of a cooler with the hottest tap water I can get, add the containers, and close the lid. That's it.

How long does it take? Actually, I've never timed it. I can tell you that I allow about half a day to make it. After several hours, I check on it's progress by tilting the container.

I'm not sure how well you can tell from the above photo, but this batch is done. When I tilt the container, it's getting too thick to pour. I can put it in the fridge now. It will thicken a little more as it cools.

On occasion I've had to add more hot water to the cooler, but that's rare. I did with this batch because it is double what I usually make and I only had a small amount of starter. It took longer, but the yogurt is just as good. Why did I double it? Because I want to make some yogurt cheese and whey. More on that next time.

Recently, I was delighted to find a little store where I can buy non-homogenized, low temp pasteurized whole milk from free-ranging grass-fed cows given no antibiotics or rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). And it makes great yogurt!

Eventually I hope to be having my own goats for milk. And cheese. (If you hadn't already guessed, this is one of the reasons DH is working so hard on the goat fence.) Hopefully by this time next year.

Easy Peasy Homemade Yogurt photos & text copyright 

November 2009 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/