Hi everyone! I wanted to make a little post about my current culinary adventure: soy milk.
I drink A LOT of milk, and for the last year I’ve been buying lactose-free filtered milk due to my IBS which is... very expensive. But I’ve decided I no longer want to support the dairy industry so heavily- I can buy eggs from chickens with whole pastures, why can’t I buy milk from happy cows? But unfortunately I find nondairy milk generally lacking in creaminess and good enough taste, which I blame on nondairy being marketed towards “health conscious” people who are migrating over from skim milk, aka gross water.
Silk Soy Milk Original is the only nondairy milk in regular stores I enjoy. It has a slight malty flavor and nothing is too “off” about it, but it’s still quite watery and weak. In Japan I had tasted fresh soy milk which was creamy and delicious, so I tried making my own soy milk. First attempt was awful as I followed an old-school Japanese recipe that heated the blended beans on “as low as possible” for only 10 minutes. That is not cooked! I tried the different regional versions- Thai, Chinese, Korean... They all still ended up with a beany flavor that I never dealt with in soy milk before. A lot of bloggers say “well it’s bean juice!” and suggest covering it with other flavors such as vanilla. After research, I found the beany flavor is caused by a specific enzyme that activates with water, but can be killed before activation with boiling water. People also claim the hulls should be taken off to avoid the beany taste, but only doing this does not fully get rid of it if you soaked the beans with the hulls.
This is a really good collection of information regarding making non-beany soy milk!
One thing I discovered and have not seen anyone else mention- right after boiling the beans (don’t wash, just pop them into the boiling water) is to then soak them in that water, and once the water cools down- hull them!! It is SO much easier to pop off the skins when the beans are still hard but the skins are already inflating. The hard beans may be a little tough on your fingers, but you don’t end up with mashed bean bits and nutrition that filter out with the water.
I was told by friends and random internet comments that regardless of beaniness, soy milk makers make far superior tasting soy milk. So after experimenting and feeling a little hopeless on making it on my own, I caved and bought a Joyoung soy milk maker.
My first attempt with it was just with dry beans I had first boiled for a few minutes to kill the enzyme. Even with the hulls/skins, it still make a pretty great tasting milk! The beaniness is still lightly there, and the suggested amount of soy beans didn’t make it quite as thick as I would prefer, but I think I’ll be able to figure out how to make super tasty soy milk now at 1/5 the price of filtered milk!
Some seasonings I’ve attempted so far- a few tablespoons of canned coconut milk to add creaminess, dash of cinnamon to kill beaniness. I’m going to try adding kinako flour next to add that nutty/malty flavor I enjoy in Silk.
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