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Comment by ronjouch | Hacker News Reader

Two additions to the probably positive effects on health:

1. The author rightfully mentions it, but I'll repeat it nevertheless because fermented foods are often only characterized as "healthy" without any mention for their taste properties: it can simply be delicious. I stopped drinking soda in favor for water kefir [1], and I'm not missing Coke/Fanta/... It takes me 10 minutes to brew every two days and it's yummy.

2. When you make it, you know what's in it. My homebrew kefir is just water, sugar, figs, lemon, sometimes ginger, sometimes maple syrup (and kefir, of course). No concern for unknown colorants/conservatives/additives.

[1] http://nourishedkitchen.com/water-kefir/

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I'm so glad you mentioned kefir! Lots of people have no idea what it is. My roommate in college used to make it all the time - every morning he'd have more kefir, and for maybe 2 minutes of work a day.

Yogurt is also extremely easy to make - just put a spoonful of yogurt in a smallish container of milk, and wait. It's also pretty easy to add things to, just like kefir. Fresh yogurt often tastes way better than storebought, and you know the bacteria are active!

Don't you have to heat it, though? I vaguely remember making yogurt once and I thought I had to keep it at just over 100F for hours on end.

For safety, you should keep yogurt warm as it can be out-competed by harmful things, I once tried using something like this: http://smile.amazon.com/TAYAMA-YX-45A-Tayama-Vacuum-Pot/dp/B...

But I found it difficult to get a thermal pot down to the right temperature range to begin yogurt and switched to making only kefir. Kefir is less likely to lose to a contaminant at room temperature as it is a diverse cocktail.

In my experience, the easiest method is to wrap a heated blanket around a pot.

I make yogurt by heating the milk to 190F, holding it there for a minute or two, then taking it off the heat. The 190F helps break down the proteins (casein if I remember correctly) to help the yogurt setup. If your milk hasn't been pasteurized, this also pasteurizes.

I let the milk cool naturally to 115F, then I mix a tablespoonful of the warm milk with two tablespoons of my starter yogurt (for a gallon of milk). I continue to mix a tablespoon of milk into the starter until the starter is pourable. It then gets added to the pot of milk and stirred. If I'm making skyr, the rennet goes in at this stage.

The pot is usually at 112F-114F and get wrapped in towels and thrown into a warm oven, I usually heat the oven to it's lowest setting (200F) while the milk is warming, then turn the oven off while the milk is cooling. The milk sits in the oven overnight. The 105F-115F range is the "ideal" temperature for the bacteria.

In the morning, the curds get sliced, strained, and jarred.

Once you get used to it, making yogurt once a week takes an active 30 minutes of my time.

Do you have details/a link to what exactly goes into making skyr?

I don't have any links. The method I was taught is pretty well outlined in my comment above. Instead of yogurt being mixed in, skyr (Siggi's is what I use since it's what I can get a hold of) is mixed in. Additionally when the skyr is added to the milk, 1/2 of a rennet tablet is added.

I believe that traditional skyr is made from bacteria in baby goat stomachs; the rennet is substituting this. Additionally, skyr is usually pretty thick, so I strain the curds until I get softened cream cheese consistency.

I submerge my soon-to-be-yoghurt jars in 42°C hot water in a pot, then put that next to the radiator during the winter months, or in the sun during the summer months. Check up on the temperature maybe once or twice over the course of 6-8, then put in the fridge overnight.

I usually make 1.5kg of yoghurt that way, and it keeps for about one to two weeks — but it never survives that long (2-person household), so I make yoghurt around every three days. We use it for breakfast cereals, yoghurt with jam (home made jam for added benefit :-) and ayran. It's fantastic!

Didn't know about ayran, will try it, thanks :) . Do you prepare it just with by "mixing yogurt with iced water", or do you add flavor to it? (like Indians do with lassi [1]).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassi

I do like lassi, from time to time (as long as it is without "black salt," which I consider an acquired taste that I probably won't acquire anymore) but I mostly drink ayran.

It is best prepared with just a couple of tablespoons of yoghurt (3-4) in a liter-sized bottle of water, with a teaspoon of (ordinary, white) salt added to it. Shake well, enjoy :-)

If you use a mesophilic (rather than thermophilic) strain you don't have to keep it warm: it ferments at room temperature. The most popular strains in the US are all thermophilic, but Finnish viili and a bunch of other (primarily Scandinavian) strains are mesophilic and you can just plop it on your counter overnight. "Bad" bacteria won't have a chance as long as you started with clean materials.

One question, what about the sugar that doesn't get fermented? Two percent doesn't seems like an insignificant amount, although maybe I've been somewhat unfair, if we compare them with sodas or a candy.

Not sure I'm getting your question; yes it's up to you to decide the quantity of sugar you like.

There is always residual sugar, which doesn't get fermented no matter how long you leave it. If you really want to avoid all sugar, then you just have to avoid these drinks. I don't think there's a way around it.

Yeah. See also manmal's answer, which covers something important if you do want to absolutely avoid sugar: you have to leave it ferment for a longer time, and it gets vinegar-y.

You can wait until bacteria and yeasts eat up all the sugar, or leave residual sugar in there. The problem is, without residual sugar you will get a vinegar-y taste.

I switched to milk kefir for that reason - I don't want to drink sugar every day, as my SIBO returns quite quickly if I do.

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