flowerbug
Super Self-Sufficient
i'm not sure if this method works for others but it was ok for me.
i did grow my own soybeans, so a bit on that first, if you go out into a field around you where soybeans are grown you are likely to get soybeans that are more suited for animal feed or further processing and also they are likely to be GMO and not the best for making soymilk. i did this one year and they weren't very good.
luckily we did have a health food store we visited from time to time so i picked up some organic soybeans from them to grow and had a bumper crop that next season (44lbs from a patch less than 10x10ft).
to make soymilk first soak the beans (i would usually start them around 5-6pm, rinse and put fresh water in before bed and then rinse and put fresh water in again in the morning). by the time i was ready to make the soymilk they were usually ready too. they will be about doubled in size.
if you have a very good blender this is easy. put some of the soaked beans in with some water and grind them as fine as you can get them. it doesn't matter if you use too much water, but you don't want too little. some foam is ok, it will cook away... dump this in a big pot and add water to get to the right volume. this is a thing you'll have to learn yourself but i can give the rough dry volume of the beans before soaked as 1 - 1.5 cups per gallon of water. after you cook up a batch you can tell if you want more or not.
cook. stir. the foam might get too much if you really cook a fast hard boil and it may go over, i just turned the heat down and kept stirring once in a while. i never did this with a pressure cooker (with all the foam i'm not sure it would be a good idea). how long to cook? i think it was about a half hour or so. you can tell by the smell, taste and how the surface looks.
strain out the chunks (they're edible
i used to eat it for breakfast and/or feed it to the worms). in moderation... i had a nice coffee filter i used for this that would get most of the chunks out. if you leave it sit for a while first and then only pour off the top carefully you can avoid a lot of the grit without using a filter at all, but i always did, just because i am not always that graceful.
refrigerate. it lasts about a week. i could drink it before i used it up.
i never froze it. probably could.
as for flavor it was certainly different than the store bought versions but i liked it a lot more.
if it comes out tasting really odd you may have either got the wrong kind of beans or not done something quite right (not soaked long enough, not cooked long enough or perhaps it spoiled). i only had odd/off flavors from using field soybeans and once i switched to the organic beans it was what i expected it to taste like.
i would try to get my recipe set up for how much i would drink in a week so i would only have to do it once a week.
compared to store bought prices i thought it would be a great business because i don't think it was all that hard to do or expensive other than some time. but fresh was the key and keeping it cold enough after making.
i liked the flavor as a change from regular milk.
it was useful for cooking too (used with coconut milk for Thai foods).
if you like tofu:
in the world of soy products tofu is simply the next step of dealing with soymilk. you curdle it like you do cheeses, scoop it into some kind of cloth to contain it and then press it to the desired firmness. the liquid has some nutrients in it so i would drink it (after all that energy/work i don't like to throw anything away!).
i did grow my own soybeans, so a bit on that first, if you go out into a field around you where soybeans are grown you are likely to get soybeans that are more suited for animal feed or further processing and also they are likely to be GMO and not the best for making soymilk. i did this one year and they weren't very good.
luckily we did have a health food store we visited from time to time so i picked up some organic soybeans from them to grow and had a bumper crop that next season (44lbs from a patch less than 10x10ft).
to make soymilk first soak the beans (i would usually start them around 5-6pm, rinse and put fresh water in before bed and then rinse and put fresh water in again in the morning). by the time i was ready to make the soymilk they were usually ready too. they will be about doubled in size.
if you have a very good blender this is easy. put some of the soaked beans in with some water and grind them as fine as you can get them. it doesn't matter if you use too much water, but you don't want too little. some foam is ok, it will cook away... dump this in a big pot and add water to get to the right volume. this is a thing you'll have to learn yourself but i can give the rough dry volume of the beans before soaked as 1 - 1.5 cups per gallon of water. after you cook up a batch you can tell if you want more or not.
cook. stir. the foam might get too much if you really cook a fast hard boil and it may go over, i just turned the heat down and kept stirring once in a while. i never did this with a pressure cooker (with all the foam i'm not sure it would be a good idea). how long to cook? i think it was about a half hour or so. you can tell by the smell, taste and how the surface looks.
strain out the chunks (they're edible
i used to eat it for breakfast and/or feed it to the worms). in moderation... i had a nice coffee filter i used for this that would get most of the chunks out. if you leave it sit for a while first and then only pour off the top carefully you can avoid a lot of the grit without using a filter at all, but i always did, just because i am not always that graceful. refrigerate. it lasts about a week. i could drink it before i used it up.
i never froze it. probably could.
as for flavor it was certainly different than the store bought versions but i liked it a lot more.
if it comes out tasting really odd you may have either got the wrong kind of beans or not done something quite right (not soaked long enough, not cooked long enough or perhaps it spoiled). i only had odd/off flavors from using field soybeans and once i switched to the organic beans it was what i expected it to taste like.
i would try to get my recipe set up for how much i would drink in a week so i would only have to do it once a week.
compared to store bought prices i thought it would be a great business because i don't think it was all that hard to do or expensive other than some time. but fresh was the key and keeping it cold enough after making.
i liked the flavor as a change from regular milk.
it was useful for cooking too (used with coconut milk for Thai foods).
if you like tofu:
in the world of soy products tofu is simply the next step of dealing with soymilk. you curdle it like you do cheeses, scoop it into some kind of cloth to contain it and then press it to the desired firmness. the liquid has some nutrients in it so i would drink it (after all that energy/work i don't like to throw anything away!).
