Cyndy - soymilk test results

[Guest guest]

Hi Cyndy,

Good for you! Since you ended up with a taste you liked, I'd call your first

attempt at making the milk a success, no matter what else happened. It does

sound like you made quite a concentrated milk (!) and need to be using more

water and possibly a coarser weave of straining cloth to be more efficient with

your time. Did you heat the pot and cook with a cover to save evaporating your

water? I admit I've never made the milk with a traditional blender. I always

used either the immersion blender on the stove-top or the soymilk machine. Was

the okara you made fine like silt, or more coarse, like fat coarse sand?

 

My numbers, which I've checked and use all the time, are that one cup of

soybeans makes two liters or quarts of final soymilk when I've made it by hand.

For me a cup of soybeans weighs about 170-180 grams or 180g/454g per pound =

0.39 pounds. If beans are a dollar a pound that means I make two liters (half

gallon plus) of milk for 39 cents. If you invest in a soymilk maker, they are

even more efficient since they grind the beans even finer. This morning I used

150g of dry soy beans soaked and percolated through my soywonder machine to make

two liters of soymilk, effectively that's three half-gallons of milk for a pound

of soybeans, not counting a little salt and sugar.

 

So it truly will be economical, probably with just a little more experience.

 

Let me know how it goes & if I can help more,

 

Slim

 

 

 

 

 

 

, " CR " <aceeross wrote:

>

> Hey Slim,

>

> Well, I made some soymilk yesterday. It was really good! The only concern

left for me now is the amount of soymilk I ended up with. I used 1 c. of beans

soaked for about 10 hours with 4 c. of water. After bringing the soaked beans

and water to about 180 degrees F I pureed them in my blender until really

smooth, with a little of the cooking water. Then I put the pureed beans and

cooking water back into the pot and cooked them for 30 min. I strained the

mixture through a wire mesh sieve with a layer of grocery store cheesecloth. It

took a really long time...at least an hour I let it sit, then when it looked

like it really couldn't drain anymore I squeezed the cheesecloth and measured

out what had accumulated. The recipe I used said I should get about 3.5 cups of

soymilk, but I only got about 1.5 c. Well, after it sat in the fridge overnight

it was more the consistency of soy creamer, so I added some water until it was

the consistency of my store-bought soymilk. But that still only gave me 2 c. of

finished soymilk.

>

> Azure standard sells organic soybeans in a 25 lb. bag for about $.90/lb

(although that's not where I bought the soybeans I used this time; they were

much more expensive because I bought a small amount to experiment with) The 1

c. of beans I used was 1/2 lb. So I ended up with 2c. of milk for $.45, which

would be $1.80 for a half-gallon, which is cheaper than the almost $3 I pay for

a half-gallon of store soymilk right now. So that's some savings, yes, but not

as much as I had hoped. Maybe I'm hoping for too much. I thought it would be

cheaper. So I guess I was wondering if my yield was as much as it could have

been.

>

> Any ideas or input on this?

> Thanks so much!

> Cyndy (in OR)

>