Maybe it’s just me (entirely possible), but making my own plant milks has been the biggest challenge in the quest for self-sufficiency. Here’s my truth: the nut bag is stupid. Human civilization is advanced, productive and intelligent-ish. So spending hours working myself into a sweat as I kneed and squeeze the stupid nut bag, spilling half of it in the process and turning my kitchen into a crime scene is not a sustainable procedure. There’s got to be an app for that.
While I appreciate modern convenience, our family goes through boxes of soy, almond and rice milk like it’s free. Only it’s not. At price points of $2-4 each, this is an easy category to target when budget cuts are necessary. I push water as often as possible, but I’ll agree that it doesn’t really work for cereal.
When I purchased my Vitamix for $450, I vowed to reach a break-even point as quickly as possible. So, following my personal financial principal of “spend money to make money”, I purchased bulk quantities of organic soy beans, oat grouts, shredded coconut, almonds, rice and hulled hemp, and began to search for the perfect recipes. I bought Rubbermaid containers that fit in my refrigerator door, and ordered the nut bag that was required in every recipe.
I was excited to get started. This was going to be awesome, for sure. Each recipe was a little different, but they all had one thing in common.
No matter which milk you are preparing, it will need to be strained. And every recipe I read calls for using a nut bag. And they all produce happy people drinking delicious milk made from whole ingredients in an easy process.
Either I’m doing it wrong (likely) or they left out the part where working the milk through the nut bag is akin to doing laundry on a wash board down in the creek.
I tried so many times. Soy, almond, rice, oat, hemp and coconut milk alike. I’d pour it into the nut bag and it would just….sit there. Gentle coaxing, full out beating, tears and bad words were employed. Nope.
I even attempted to construct a homemade vice, considered purchasing a cheese press for $200, and tried to get smart with a spaghetti squash.
After deciding that a commercial grade sieve was the answer, an out-dated word in the product description caught my eye. It was a simple word that is no longer tossed around at parties. Because it’s 2012. But back when Def Leppard ruled rock n’ roll, and before Spanx and spray tans made mini skirts an option for women over 30, nothing beat a great pair of L’eggs like control top NYLONs…
Nylon!
In a far away drawer, tucked in between a pair of leg warmers and the last can of Aqua Net, I have a pair of pantyhose saved for emergency use only.
Who would have guessed that making my own soy milk would constitute an emergency of such drastic proportion?
I got the nylons. I cut them up. I poured the milk into the pouch and held my breath.
It was perfect. Painless. In less than a minute, I was squeezing the last of the liquid and dreaming up other recipes for the leftover okara (pulp).
I have tried it with every kind of milk. Many times each. (I’ve been working on this for months!) Almond, soy, rice, coconut, oat and hemp.
The only one that I didn’t love was the hemp. It is grassy and bitter. But it tastes the same in the nut bag too. I threw away the rest of the hemp and called it a success. I’ll take 5 out of 6. And they are fabulous!
You’re welcome.
[…] desired, strain the milk using a nut bag or cheesecloth. Or ditch the nut bag and grab an old pair of […]
Yesterday I found accidentally your web with this suggestion about how to strain the milk with nylon. Today I try it with coconut and oat and it works! My friend was so surprised that it takes just a few minutes. Normally I was pressing and squeezing much longer, don´t speek about the mess around. Thank you! Greetings from Prag.
I never bought the nutbag…. I’ve used paint strainers from Lowes…. those work pretty well. Will have to try the nylons! I like the idea of tying them onto the cabinet handle, too!
Is the paint strainer considered food grade?
do you think pantyhose nylon is?
I’ll have to buy the hose. I have been using a white hankerchief that’s designated kitchen use only. Works great for almond milk, not too good for soy. The hose (and I’ll have to check out the paint strainer, too) sounds like a good option.
I was reading that the vitamin is so powerful that blending nuts to long will make them so fine it won’t drain well. I have a vita mix in the mail. But for now I use a ninja and my almond milk comes out of the nut bag really well. It is a very fine mesh bag. Im So glad Im finally getting a vitamin. I might have to ditch the bag and buy some nylon hosiery. Thanks for the Tip. By the way some people are using a cheese press to do the squeezing. Fun stuff!!
Oops, that was “glad I’m getting a vita mix not vitamin” lol
fantastic suggestion! i just started making my own nut milk but i was cursing the muslin bag i was using. thank you!
Just use a coffee press like a bodum (aka french press).
I find with peanut milk you don’t even need to strain it.
That’s brilliant! I’m going to try it.
Oh my gosh, thank you!!! I’ve been wondering just where in the hell I was going to be able to find a nut milk bag other than buying one online. You rock!!
could you please tell me if you wash and reuse it several times? If so, how long does it last before you have to buy another one?
I wash in the washer. I tend to loose them before they tear! (Too many kids with too much laundry!) I suppose it depends on the quality of the nylon.
Thanks for the suggestion. I just started to make my own ‘milk’ and was about to purchase a milk bag. So grateful that I came across your post as I think it will save me lots of struggle and frustration. Definitely giving the hose thing a try.
Nylons? Brilliant!
There are chemicals in nylons that I wouldn’t want in my food.http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Pantyhose.html
You should use cheesecloth sold for food purposes.
Oh my gosh, it was like I was reading about myself. Haha. And I laughed the whole way through. Genius!
I found your blog because I was certain that paying $6-$15 for a fabric bag was insanity. And then I read and all my suspicions were confirmed. Lol. Thanks for posting!!
I just made almond milk for the first time using this nylon nut bag from Amazon. It worked great. http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Quality-Nut-Milk-Bag/dp/B00KLT6X9W/
I was battling which nut milk bag to buy. It so nice to read your article before I made the plunge and some splashes (the mess).As the saying goes “necessity is the mother of invention”.
You saved me time & frustration.
Thank you.
Hmmm… Got toxic chemicals?I use to think nothing of using plastic.
I use to think all that was in plastic was plastic.
That was the prior FOOLISH and UNEDUCATED ME!
I watched the documentary Plastic Planet and got the ‘Waking Up’ Plastic Free SHOCK of my life!
The Plastic Industrial Complex has been getting away with self policing, tricking, lying (Hint! “BPA Free” is NOT BPA Free and worse chemicals are added!) and fooling the public for decades.
If you watched Plastic Planet and still promoted using plastic I would be very surprised, especially if you consider the harm plastic is doing to the animals.
Thank you for this ingenious way of straining nut milks! I shared this idea in my vegan groups and have bookmarked this for myself when I do buy a Vitamix for myself!
just made my first batch of almond milk and the nylon bag worked great. The almond milk was yummy 🙂 thanks
Just wondered about the dye in the nylon fabric. I know that sometimes the color bleeds when washing a new pair, and I’m sure it wouldn’t be good to ingest that. Maybe there are some colorless nylons available?
be careful about washing the nylons or nut bag in chemical detergents,, you dont want to be ingesting those chemicals. I would just use baking soda in boiling hot water to wash them, then rinse them well and let dry thoroughly.
Thank you so much for the tip, and humor.I soooo feel you.
Anyways because making nut milk was such a pain in the ass I stopped, until I found that with cashews you don’t need to strain it at all. Plus I think it taste better than a lot of the other milks.
I was looking on google on how to make rice milk for my toddler and I without a nut bag and found your website. Thank you for posting this as I have a pair of panty hose and I definitely can make rice milk now =)
Nylons are made out of coal, petroleum, air and water. Look it up. Bad for you to strain your food. Sorry. Can I come up with something else? At this moment my brain is working. I will get back to you. Plastic is made from petroleum products. Bad, bad and more bad. They do not break down and are terrible on the environment. Use glass recycled jars or if you have to, buy some mason jars. PLASTIC IS RUINING OUR WORLD along with other things. Just think of them as made from gas containers.
Please do not delete. I really care about our world and most of all our young ones.
I made the comment about jars because of the plastic containers you put you homemade things in. That is so ironical. I applaud you for your natural foods but please be environmentally active. Your writings are going out to so many people.
I made the comment about jars because of the plastic containers you put you homemade things in. That is so ironical. I applaud you for your natural foods but please be environmentally active. Your writings are going out to so many people.
I cannot believe you deleted my comment when it was so true, and so you keep the lie going. What I said was meaningful and I guess thinking is not allowed. If you cannot take any feedback, you should not be writing these things. We live in America and freedom of speech is so important. You are telling people to use a toxic product and that is not okay. I hope you awaken from your so-called vegan lifestyle which usually includes environmental awareness. Nylon stockings are bad to strain your food. My friend who posted the last comment can not believe what has happened. We were just trying to make almond milk and had no idea that this site existed. When I learn something useful, I incorporate it into my life. I do not delete the ideaI am really sorry you feel this way. Was I too hostile? I live in a community and bounced my response to 20 other people and they all said of course this woman will be open. The End. I will send you boundless energy for your life and hope you are growing as a person. It is the only way to go. Getting stuck is no fun. Being responsible for others, especially children is no joke. Encouraging people to strain food in petro has toxic effects. Can you live with that?
To each their own but I personally wouldn’t use nylon stockings.
Nylon stockings have caused dermatitis. Chemicals are used to inhibit bacterial growth and to azo and anthraquinone dyes used to dye the stockings brown.
I’d rather use a nut milk bag that doesn’t have any dyes or chemicals in it. I find them easy to use. Just fill them up, grasp from the top of the bag and ‘milk’/squeeze downwards into a big bowl. No spillage. Wait for it to drain a bit before squeezing. However, clever picture with the spaghetti squash. 🙂
Do you strain it through the toes or tie up the panty end and cut the legs? Support hose or any kind? Do you use ones with reinforced toes or does it matter? Thanks for the advice:)
YOU ARE A GENIUS!!!!!!!! I had tried the cheese cloth and now my French press to separate the almond milk. Cheese cloth to messy and screen was to small. Searched for another option and found yours. I ran to the store bought knee high sheer hose and my milk was done in 20 minutes.
Thank you so much for your perseverance.
Are nylons food safe?
I just received my Vitamix and like you I was thinking “spend money to save money”. I was on Amazon’s site looking at nut bugs and there were questions there about whether cotton or hemp bags were better. When I googled cotton vs hemp your site was one that came up. I used to use cut-up panty hose to train rose bushes, but I moved to Arizona, (way too hot to wear hose!) so I haven’t thought about all those pantyhose tucked away in my dresser until now. Thank you! I will definitely try them for various straining purposes. (I agree. hemp milk is nasty!)
Have you tried to strain yogurt in the nylons?
Nylon are gross. Why would you go through the effort of making homemade almond milk and then strain it through ammonium sulfate and other toxic ingredients used to create pantyhose? I used a nut bag for years until I read that Ani Phyo chooses not to strain nut milks after blending. She says the fiber is good for you. I tried it and never looked back and couldn’t really tell any difference. I use milk for smoothies and oatmeal. It’s a big time saver.
To be honest, Josie, I didn’t think of that. I really appreciate the suggestion though. I don’t use nylons anymore, though. I found that 90 grade cheese cloth works amazing and have switched to that. This is an old post and I didn’t think to update it. DIY is a journey, and we can’t do better until we know better.
Oh my gosh.. We’re making almond milk for for the first time and realized we didn’t know how to strain it!.. So we Googled. Low and behold your page was the first one we found… And I am SO glad. YESSSS!! THANK YOU!