I love the tangy, delicious flavor, creamy consistency and confirmed health benefits of live, probiotic-rich fermented beverages like kefir milk. Unfortunately, the kefir milk typically found at grocery stores tends to be an expensive, less healthy and fake version of the real thing.
(This is an excerpt from The Spartan Diet Journal email. Read it here.)
That’s one of many reasons why I recommend that you get and keep live kefir grains.
No, kefir grains are not grains like wheat grains — they’re a specific collective of friendly microorganisms that, when added to milk or just about any drink containing sugar, initiates a natural fermentation process.
In other words, kefir grains are like a sourdough starter, kombucha scoby or vinegar mother. They’re used, cultivated and shared for the purpose of fermenting foods.
Kefir grains are especially valuable in an industrialized food context, because they enable us to make fermented dairy products using pasteurized milk.
Here’s everything you need to know about kefir from the Spartan Diet Journal, plus a recipe for cultured butter.