Anyone have any knowledge of or experience with soymilk machines? My wife and some friends were discussing them and need more info before seriously thinking of buying one. My understanding is that they are somewhat like a blender with heat, so that you don't have to pour hot water on the beans when grinding. Some of our friends have serious milk allergies, hence the interest in a quicker and easier way to make a good tasting soy milk. Any info or suggestions would be greatly appreciated/

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), March 06, 2000

Answers

Jim,

I have a soymilk machine and it's great. It's incredibly easier and quick. I will post a link to where you can buy one. It's Fairview Farms out of Iowa. they also sell soybeans. The rest of the family is not crazy about the taste of the soymilk so I'm experimented with flavors, etc. But, if someone already likes the taste of plain it's fantastic. The price is about $123.00.

-- Missy E. (ervings@ctel.net), March 18, 2000.

Here's the link - my husband came in and distracted me and I forgot to post it!

http://www.fairviewfarms.com/soymakerinfo.html

Right now they're internet order system is down but you can call and place an order - just go to their homepage.

-- Missy E. (ervings@ctel.net), March 18, 2000.

I have a soymilk machine and find it superfluous to my other kitchen equipment. Straining the milk takes a long time. Instead of a soymilk machine, if I had it to do over again, I would simply pressure cook the soybeans, then put them and the liquid they were cooked in through the blender, then stain. It wouldn't be much more work. I've had two soy machines, now, and both were fussy things, which didn't always want to work.

-- Deborah Cannon (Cannon@McleodUSA.Net), May 07, 2001.

I have a "soyajoy" machine, same as sold by Fairview, had it two years. It makes 1.5 quarts. If you follow the directions, it takes about 20 minutes and you get a watery, tasteless result. What I do differently is:

1) Put the ground pulp in a FINE MESH strainer, press with a large spoon, and save the "cream" which makes the milk substantially richer. If you don't do this, then most of the soy protein is actually being thrown away with the unpressed pulp. The directions don't tell you to do this because it's a lot more work, the pulp is HOT and unpleasant to work with, requires a fine mesh strainer and glass bowl to set it on (which of course they don't provide).

2) I run two batches of beans through it.

3) I put about half a cup of cooked rice in a blender with some of the milk, then put this through the fine mesh strainer as well, adding the result back into the batch of milk. Most of the rice ends up in the milk and the gritty stuff stays in the strainer.

4) I add some sweetener. I've tried sugar, honey, maple, rice malt, wheat malt - each has it's own pros and cons.

All of this makes a far, far superiour product than according to the included directions. It's even better than Silk in my opinion. But it's also 45 minutes nonstop rushing around in the kitchen (including cleanup) to make 1.5 quarts, and for what Silk costs vs my hourly wage...

I do believe the Soyajoy machine is as good or better than the alternatives, and certaionly the cheapest.

Yes that's a working email addy, feel free to write.

dd

-- David Drexler (gzornblatz@yahoo.com), July 07, 2001.