This is your basic kefir recipe detailing how to get started and maintain your kefir. Kefir is an incredibly healing ancient path food that we can enjoy in our modern world. For a more detailed kefir-making course, the Kefir Made Easy FAQ Course is in our upcoming Trim Healthy Wisdom Cookbook and also in our member site. It covers all your questions and concerns. But just know that kefir is easy to make, easy to maintain, and offers incredible health benefits.
Since the following recipe is for getting started with kefir, it lists just one tablespoon of grains and one cup of milk. Your grains will grow and multiply with time. You’ll likely end up using more than just one tablespoon in the future, and you will probably want to make more than 1 cup of kefir, as once you start with kefir, the possibilities for quick yummy meals and snacks are endless. Once you have too many grains… more than about ¼ cup, you may want to blend them up in your smoothies (they’re incredibly healthy, research shows them to have anti-tumor properties) or give to friends who want to start kefir making or give to pets… pets thrive on kefir!
Home Fermented Kefir
Description
This is your basic kefir recipe detailing how to get started and maintain your kefir. For my brief, Home Fermented Kefir 101 Course click here. That Drive Thru Sue-friendly course will guide you through the ins and outs, answer any questions, and help you troubleshoot. This recipe is part of the Wisdom Recipe Collection.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Put kefir grains into a sterilized* pint or quart-sized jar. Add milk… close the jar with a plastic lid and then leave for 24 hours on the counter or in a cupboard.
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Strain the grains through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. (Use a spoon or spatula to push the grains against the mesh in the sieve to help get all the kefir through.) The kefir grains will be left in your sieve.
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Discard this harvested milk as your new grains are not yet robust enough to properly ferment. (if you have fresh grains from a friend that have not been frozen or refrigerated, you can likely use your kefir now).
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Place the kefir grains back into the same jar that you just used to ferment them in (no need to wash the jar).
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Add another cup of milk to the jar, replace the plastic lid, and leave for another 24 hours. Discard this kefir again if your grains are new. Repeat the process once again. By the third ferment, if you purchased robust grains, you should have properly fermented kefir. It should taste sour and some of the whey (transparent liquid) may be separating from the curds (white, thicker matter). Separation is a good sign of robust fermentation. If your kefir is not yet sour, is no thicker than regular milk, and tastes more like off-milk than extremely tart yogurt… you’ll need a couple more ferments.
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If you do not want to use your harvested kefir right away, transfer it from the bowl into another jar, close it with a lid, and store it in the refrigerator for later use.
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Now, keep the cycle going every 24 hours or so. You can ferment for up to 36 hours however longer than that will starve your grains. If you’d prefer to double ferment, info on that is in the Home Fermented Kefir 101 course found here.
Note
One cup of kefir, while containing some protein, does not provide your full nerdy amounts. It has only around 8–10 grams of protein and only 1 gram of leucine (remember, leucine is your muscle-building amino acid, and you want at least 2 grams for most meals and snacks). For this reason, we typically suggest adding protein powders to your kefir creations or having 1 cup of it to aid a lower protein meal. The Kefir-Made-Easy FAQ Course instructs you on how to make your kefir thicker and more protein-rich.
How to Sterilize Your Fermentation Jar: You won’t have to do this sterilization thing much, so don’t let it stress you out. You only really need to do it when you first start kefir making or when you change jars. Your kefir grains much prefer their regular messy home to a freshly sterilized jar, but sometimes (every couple or few months) you might need to do it… if the jar gets overly disastrous-looking. To sterilize, put a metal butter knife or a fork into a clean pint or quart-sized glass jar (depending upon how much kefir you plan on making – pint is fine at first). You’re using a knife or fork to help prevent the glass from cracking when you add boiling water. Pour boiled water into the jar, allow that to sit for a minute, then pour it out. Allow the jar to dry and cool down before placing grains in it.
Keeping Your Kefir Going: Once you have your grains activated, you’ll notice that over time, they start growing in size and number. This allows you to ferment more than 1 cup of kefir at a time if you want. In fact, if you grow enough grains, you can ferment up to a gallon of milk or more at a time. (Serene Chats: I make a full gallon of kefir at a time for my Super Quark recipe (found free on our website), which is a creamy kind of high-protein yogurt/cheese, so check that recipe out.) Fermenting large amounts of milk at one time works great if you have multiple family members using kefir. You can also do multiple ferments at a time if needed. (P – I always have two kefir jars going. One for myself using lean milk and one for my husband using full-fat for his morning kefir smoothies and afternoon kefir puddings that have helped his gut so much. (S – Not to let Pearl outdo me… hehe… I have two jars always going as well. I have one for my goat’s milk and one for my cow’s milk kefir… oh, and I also make L Reuteri Yogurt, so there are usually three milk ferments going on in my home at any given time. But I’m a weirdo, and you sure don’t have to be like me.)
