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Are you on the hunt for a quick and easy breakfast treat, a beverage with numerous health benefits, or simply one of those curious types who is always up for sampling an unfamiliar food product? Are you familiar with kefir?
Kefir, pronounced keh-FEER with the emphasis placed on the second syllable, is a fermented drink based on cow’s milk. It has a tangy taste, a hint of fizz and little to no lactose content. It can contain trace amounts of alcohol, but not enough that you’d notice it. Sometimes it’s sold in fruit flavors, but more often, it’s consumed in its plain state. Kefir can be mixed with oats or breakfast cereals, used as the base for a smoothie or incorporated into numerous recipes that don’t call for heat.
Although similar to yogurt in that both are cultured milk products, there are key differences between the two. Whereas yogurt is cultured exclusively with bacteria, kefir is made with a mixture of both bacteria and a type of yeast. This specific type of yeast is referred to as a grain and somewhat resembles tiny cauliflower florets. The textures of the two products differ too: yogurt is thick and creamy, whereas kefir is thin and slightly bubbly.
Until recent years, kefir was a product found almost exclusively in the countries of the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and health food shops. Nowadays, it’s quite commonplace and widely available in supermarkets in the U.S. and Europe.
Kefir is heralded as a healthy product due in large part to its content of probiotics, living organisms regarded as good bacteria which can help boost the immune system and promote good digestive health.
Although kefir consumption is becoming ever the more mainstream, the product still manages to retain an aura of mystery. Research suggests kefir’s origins trace centuries back to an area deep in the Caucasus Mountains, between the modern-day countries of Russia and Georgia. A handful of scholars have put forth the idea that kefir grains might be the manna from heaven that fed the Israelites as they wandered through the wilderness. According to other legends, the Prophet Muhammed gifted kefir grains to shepherds as he traveled through the Caucasus region. These reusable grains were passed down through families and jealously guarded, as it was believed they would lose their potency if shared. As for the origins of the word, kefir is believed to derive from a Turkish word that refers to a state of feeling good.
Kefir was a popular drink throughout much of the former Soviet Union, and how this came to be is a tale worth telling. Largely forgotten outside its region of origin for centuries, the use of kefir as a treatment for tuberculosis and other internal diseases gained the attention of Russian doctors. Members of a professional society of physicians thought it could prove beneficial to produce the product commercially, but they faced a dilemma in procuring the grains needed to make it.
In the early 1900's, a representative of the physicians’ society approached two brothers by the name of Blandov, who ran a dairy in Moscow but also had a hand in facilities in the Caucasus, with a request to begin producing the stuff on an industrial scale in the Russian capital. The only obstacle was how to obtain some of those elusive kefir grains. Brother Nikolai came up with the idea of dispatching one of his young and beautiful employees to the court of a Caucasian prince, where she was to use her female powers of persuasion upon him.
The prince feared retribution for giving away the precious grains. As she and her party departed the region, they were stopped by mountain tribesmen who returned her to the prince, who was determined to make her his bride. A daring rescue mission mounted by agents of the Blandov brothers saved her from the forced marriage. And the prince, when hauled before the Czar, was forced to provide his would-be bride with ten pounds of the grains as compensation for insults endured. In 1908, the first bottles of commercially produced kefir drink were sold in Moscow.
Looking to whip up a batch of the stuff at home? You can buy the grains online or in a type of German shop known as a Reformhaus. Homemade or store-bought, it can make for a change in a diet rut, and just might do your body good.
