Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A creamy drink made of fermented cow's milk.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An effervescent drink prepared from the fermented milk of cows: used by the natives of the northern Caucasus region, and now extensively used elsewhere as a food for. invalids. It contains from 1 to 2 per cent. of free lactic acid and from 1 to 3 per cent. of alcohol. The original ferment used is a particular fungus called kefir grains (which see).
Wiktionary
- n. A fermented milk drink from the Caucasus and Eastern Europe.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An effervescent liquor like kumiss, made from fermented milk, used as a food and as a medicine in the northern Caucasus.
- n. A sour fermented milk drink, used in various regions of Asia, made by addition of Streptococcus or Lactobacillus cultures to cow's or goat's milk; it is considered by some as a form of yoghurt.
Etymologies
- From North-Caucasian languages via Russian кефир (kefír). (Wiktionary)
- Russian, probably ultimately from Old Turkic köpür, (milk) froth, foam, from köpürmäk, to froth, foam. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But kefir is fermented with more and different types of bacteria, in addition to yeast, which means the final product has more of the beneficial microorganisms, or "probiotics," that first made yogurt a popular health food.”
“But kefir is simply not lactose-free, any more than yogurt is.”
“One of the benefits of both ayran and kefir is that the process of fermentation sees milk's natural sugar, lactose, broken down, used as food by the bacteria.”
“If kefir is not available in Mexico (anywhere at or near Costa Allegre) I can make my own, but would need to import kefir corns, if legal.”
“Men's Health Editor in Chief David Zincenko recently touted a product called kefir as one of summer's six essential flat belly foods.”
Leslie Goldman: The Flat Belly Food You Don't Know About: Kefir
“Lifeway Foods, the Morton Grove, Ill., maker of a probiotic dairy beverage called kefir, reported that first-quarter earnings nearly doubled as revenue climbed 24%.”
The Wall Street Journal: M/I Homes Slides; Saks, Tenet Advance
“Among the nomadic tribes of northern Europe and central Asia who did not even cultivate grain, milk was fermented into the drinks called kefir and koumiss.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“Unlike other fermented milks, in which the fermenting microbes are evenly dispersed, kefir is made by large, complex particles known as kefir grains, which house a dozen or more kinds of microbes, including lactobacilli, lactococci, yeasts, and vinegar bacteria.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“Another remarkable fermented milk little known in the West is kefir, which is most popular in the Caucasus and may well have originated there.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘kefir’.
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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A great ferment
sauerkraut, kvass, kumis, yogurt, pulque, sourdough, kimchi, skyr, lassi, vinegar, miso, surströmming and 12 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Sweet Smoke of Rhetoric
The ones with which I flavor my speech, and the ones I love to find peppered in literature.
perspicacious, acerbic, vituperation, loquacious, castigate, vitriolic, scintillating, provenance, frolic, attendant, pursuant, epistemology and 313 more...
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Exotic Tastes
Interesting words related to food, ingredients, dishes, cookery, cuisines and so on. Exotic in this case is entirely subjective, with funkelberries on top.
tatty, neep, flummery, babaganoush, tahini, samphire, loblolly, scrumpy, fressen, luwak, duxelle, edamame and 213 more...
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Fermentations
fermented foods from all cultures
beer, tempeh, bread, kefir, yoghurt, langfil, bouza, sauerkraut, choucroute, kimchi, vinegar, kumis and 11 more...
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gumboots's Words
supercilious, undue, coreligionist, titular, kefir, lithe, complaisant, complacent, homo sovieticus, gingerly, remont, undulating and 1 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for kefir.
asativum Not to be confused with kaffir. Sep 19, 2008
slumry I love strawberry kefir. Jul 3, 2007