Soy Milk and Tofu

Soak the soybeans overnight in 3 cups of water. In the morning, drain well and rinse with hot tap water. Divide the beans into three equal parts. In a large pot, bring about 10 to 15 cups of water to a fast boil. If your blender jar is made of glass, preheat it by blending about 2 cups of boiling water for 1 minute at a high speed and discarding the water. Pour two more cups of water into the blender and add one of the three bowls of beans. Blend at high speed for 1 minute. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth and wring the cloth to get all the milk you can (this can raise blister on bare hands--as I type this my poor hands bear evidence to this from this mornings soy-milk making!--so you might want to wear a pair of very clean rubber gloves for this). Compost the leftover soybean mash (okara), or use it in other recipes.
Pour another 2 cups of water in the blender and add the next batch of beans, and repeat the above process, and ditto with the third batch of beans.
Now you have an almost empty pot of water and a bowl full of fresh-squeezed soymilk. Now you have a choice. If all you want is soymilk, then discard the water in the pot and pour in the milk. Gently heat it for half an hour, with no lid, then pour it into a half gallon jar and add water to make a full half-gallon (the half-hour of heating loses a great deal of water, so the milk needs to be reconstituted.) Place in a bowlful of ice-water and chill. If you want soy tofu, discard the water from the pot and pour in the milk. Bring to a boil and add the lemon juice, stirring briskly. After a few seconds, the milk will seperate into curds and whey. Strain through a muslin cheesecloth. Add the seasonings (or other seasonings, to your own taste) to the cheese and keep it covered in the refridgerator.