LAB culture (part 2)

Previously, in Part 1 of the LAB culture series, 7-day-old rice water and milk was combined in a mixture in a ratio of 4:1 (rice water:milk). After another 7 days, the mixture started to separate to become white solid bits in a yellowy liquid. It was supposed to be curds and whey, but in this case, the "curds" part had sunk to the bottom when it should be floating towards the top. It seemed like a failed experiment, so I started again with a new batch of rice water. 

This time though, instead of waiting the full week (as suggested in The Weedy Garden videos), and after watching this Korean Natural Farming LAB serum tutorial a few times, I decided to just use my nose and eyes. 

Since the temperature is relatively warm these days, you could see some small bubbles in the rice water already after just 2 days. It smelled slightly fragrant but not sour. I waited a day longer, just to be sure. 

Then, I added milk to the mix in a ratio of 1:10 (rice water:milk) because that's what they did in the second video. The separation of the curds and whey started just a day later, and after 2 days, the curds became almost solid - and floating! The curds and whey wear a strainer hat like that because it's a bad boy. 

So the liquid is what you want to keep since it's full of LAB, and the curds you can make into cheese or feed to chickens... or eat, if you're a Miss Muffet type. 

 

Is this what curd is suppose to look like? Did Miss Muffet really eat this and enjoy it? 

 

Bad boy with Sick boy (the failed attempt):