Unlike curdled milk, matsoni or narine, kefir is rarely prepared at home. Although the question rests only on getting kefir fungus – whether in a dairy kitchen or a factory. Outwardly, kefir fungus looks like a curd lump with microorganisms – they are formed during the fermentation of milk.

Starter preparation
Start by converting dry sourdough into curdled sourdough. Dry sourdough is kefir grains that must first be “activated”. Take 50 g of sourdough, rinse on a sieve with cool boiled water and place in a clean glass jar, previously scalded with boiling water. Then add 250 ml of warm boiled water to the starter and set aside for about 2 days at room temperature.

Swollen and whitened kefir grains must be sorted out. This is done with a spoon, which you previously disinfected with boiling water, just like the jar: you need to throw away the grains that are covered with mucus, and continue cooking kefir with benign ones. Place them in 1% baking soda for 2 hours, then rinse with boiled water and transfer to pre-prepared milk.

Milk: it must be skimmed, not more than 500 liters per 50 g of starter culture, boiled and then cooled to room temperature.

After adding sourdough to milk, leave it for a day. Attention: it is necessary to observe the temperature regime – 18-20 degrees Celsius. After a day, you can check whether the milk has fermented and whether fungi have surfaced or not. If the fungi surfaced, and the milk turned sour, it must be filtered through a sieve, washed off the formed clots with boiled water, pour milk again and repeat the process.

Repeat this several times, up to 5 times. High-quality ready-made sourdough has a sour cream consistency and foams. It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Cooking kefir
Milk can be used any: whole fat or skimmed from powder, pasteurized or boiled. First, pour it into glasses or jars with wide necks. A 200 gram glass will take about 2-3 teaspoons of sourdough. The more – the better the taste will be and the faster the kefir will ripen. To achieve the result, a temperature of 15-20 degrees and approximately 24 hours of time is required.

But this is if you want to get a one-day kefir. If you want 2-3 days, you need to withstand it accordingly 2 and 3 days and at a lower temperature – 8-10 degrees Celsius.