I ordered a soymilk (and rice milk, and almond milk...) maker for Wife for
Christmas. She has been trying all different kinds of high priced
commercial soy products lately (trying to find a brand of soymilk she
likes), so I *think* she will like this contraption.

What do you do with the okara that's left over? Would it be a good binder
for my homemade salami? Or a filler in meatballs? Or mixed into homemade
bread dough? Or...?

What do you get if you just salt it and dehydrate it? (poor quality
imitation bacon bits, probably)

Thanks, regards,
Bob

wrote:


> So far, I've just steamed the okara, and mixed small
> quantities of it in with my dogs' food. It wouldn't be
> suitable as the main component of a dog's diet, but it's
> good for them in small quantities. Seeing as they are two
> fairly large dogs, a good deal of okara can be used in this
> manner.

The one time I tried making soy milk/tofu (nasty beans had had too long
a shelf-life, ugh) I used the okara instead of cornmeal (note to UK -
coarse-ground indian corn) when baking breads - as a baking surface to
keep the loaf from sticking. It worked just fine for that.

wrote:

> I think the process is fun: it makes me feel like an
> ancient alchemist, transforming one substance into another
> substance that's quite different. I like grinding wheat and
> baking bread for the same reason. I imagine that's what all
> the jelly and jam makers enjoy too. Plus of course you can
> then feel nicely provident and thrify and self-reliant.

Ah, someone who Gets It. :-)

If my kids were heavy soymilk drinkers, I'd probably be making it.
Spouse doesn't like anything "beany" and right now I'm the one Bringing
Home The Bacon.

wrote:

> The tofu was $2.50 for 14 oz. The soymilk was $2.79 for a
> box, which looks to be about a quart. Yikes!
>
> I can make a pound of tofu for about $0.50 (maybe, maybe
> less - that's allowing $0.25 for electricity and I doubt if
> it takes that much), and a quart of soymilk for about $0.20
> (allowing about $0.10 for electricity).

That's a great analysis, and I do that for a lot of baked goods that I
just can't find around here.

Fortunately for us, there's a *huge* Asian supermarket a mile or two
away - the tofu is not as low-priced as yours :-) but I use so little of
it on the family it's worth it for the occasional trip.

wrote:

> Don't I wish! I love where we live, it's the 'home of my
> heart', but I wish we had some ethnic food stores within
> reach and a USED BOOK STORE!! (Or even a new book store.)

Hmm. Maybe you guys could open one? :-)