Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
The many uses for sour raw milk at home which, unlike pasteurized milk, does not go putrid, but naturally ferments into probiotic clabber.
One of the most frequent questions I get from readers is what to do with naturally soured milk, also called clabber.
Sour raw milk is quite unlike pasteurized milk that has gone past its “use by” date. Pasteurized milk goes putrid and must be thrown out at that point, but raw milk is still a highly useful item in the kitchen.
The difference is that pasteurized milk is quite literally a dead food. In other words, there are no enzymes or probiotics present. So, when store milk goes bad, it becomes a huge foodborne illness risk to consume it and it must be discarded.
Sour Raw Milk is Safe
Raw milk, on the other hand, is loaded with enzymes and probiotics. When raw milk starts to sour, it simply means that beneficial bacteria called probiotics have started to use up the lactose (milk sugar) which causes the milk to no longer taste as sweet.
Raw milk that tastes sour is still very much safe to drink and is even more beneficial to health as the higher level of probiotics initiates the fermentation or clabbering of the milk.
So if you find yourself with some soured raw milk in the refrigerator, check through this list and see what makes the most sense for using it up. It doesn’t have to be raw cow milk either. Any type of unpasteurized milk will do including sheep’s milk, goat milk, camel milk, and even water buffalo milk!
Whatever you do, though, don’t throw it out! There is no need for even a drop of your nutrient-dense, grass-fed dairy to go to waste!
There are so many uses for the clabber itself as well as the raw liquid whey separated from it.
Uses for Sour Milk (Clabber)
1. Make scrambled eggs with it.
2. Whip up a pan of quiche with it.
3. Add it to a breakfast smoothie.
4. Make homemade pudding with it (if slightly soured).
5. Make hot chocolate with it.
6. Use it for garden fertilizer (just pour around the base of your plants or trees). It really gets the worms going crazy.
7. Give it to your pet. Cats love it!
8. Make egg custard pudding with it.
9. Make this traditional British white sauce recipe with it.
10. Ferment homemade kefir with it.
11. Make yogurt with it.
12. Blend with flour to soak pancake batter.
13. Use it to soak cold breakfast cereal batter.
14. Use it to soak waffle batter.
15. Remove the soured cream off the top and add to homemade soups.
16. Remove the sour cream off the top and add to meatloaf.
17. Just drink it. It tastes like buttermilk and is very good for you.
18. Use to make devil’s food cake.
19. Make omelets with it.
20. Use it instead of water to cook up your soaked breakfast oatmeal.
21. Use it to soak crepe batter.
22. Soak banana bread batter with it.
23. Soak pumpkin bread batter with it.
24. Use it to soak buttermilk biscuit batter.
25. Soak muffin batter (any kind) with it.
26. Separate the liquid whey from the clabber.
27. Remove the sour cream off the top and add to a baked potato.
28. Add buttermilk culture and make buttermilk with it.
29. Take a bath in it. It was good enough for Cleopatra, right?
30. Separate out the liquid whey and make ricotta cheese.
31. Make mozzarella cheese with it.
32. Whip up a pan of flan using it instead of milk.
33. Make sweet potato casserole with the sour cream off the top.
34. Make cottage cheese with it.
35. Use as a base for ice milk (if only slightly soured).
36. Use it instead of evaporated milk to make pumpkin pie.
37. Use it to clear up pinkeye.
38. Soak frozen fish in it until thawed for improved texture and flavor.
39. Soak dull-looking silverware in it for at least 30 minutes and then rinse for a beautiful shine.
40. Use it as a conditioner for your hair. Or, take a bath in it. Remember Cleopatra?
41. Repair fine cracks in your china by boiling them in the soured raw milk (the milk reacts with a chemical in the china to seal the crack). I’ve never done this myself but it supposedly works.
42. Use it ice cold to soothe the discomfort of poison ivy.
43. Dab some on mild sunburn for instant, cooling relief.
44. Rub dry skin patches with it several times a day to make skin soft again.
45. Make cheese sauce for Welsh rarebit with it.
46. Make paneer (easy South Asian cheese that requires no rennet).
47. Make potato cheese soup.
48. Freeze the milk and use it later when you have a dire need for clabbered milk.
49. Make tapioca pudding with it.
50. Make bread pudding (soak the bread in the milk).
Need More Ideas? Let’s Keep Going…
51. Stew pork loin in it.
52. Make no-bake cheesecake with it.
53. Make lassi with it (Indian yogurt-style smoothie).
54. Use it instead of water (or a blend with water) to cook up amaranth porridge.
55. Separate the whey to use as a natural facial toner.
56. Use to cook up teff breakfast porridge.
57. Use blended with water to make cream of buckwheat porridge.
58. Make fermented almond milk.
59. Make homemade orangina soda.
60. Brew some detoxifying beet kvass.
61. Make homemade ginger ale.
62. Add a cup or two of the separated whey to a warm detoxifying bath instead of vinegar.
63. Make fermented lemonade.
64. Use instead of yogurt to make fermented potatoes.
65. Make homemade sauerkraut.
66. Use the separated whey instead of sauerkraut juice to make homemade pickles.
67. Make apricot butter.
68. Make probiotic mango chutney.
69. Use whey instead of raw ACV to make homemade mustard.
70. Use the whey to make fermented corn relish.
71. Blend up some probiotic thousand island dressing using some of the separated whey.
72. Make raw cream cheese.
73. Make fermented cilantro salsa.
74. Use whey to make homemade ketchup.
75. Add the whey to homemade mayo so it lasts three times as long in the fridge.
76. Add separated whey to potassium broth for extra minerals and digestibility.
77. Use to make cultured rice water.
78. Blend some to homemade wild rice milk to add probiotics.
79. Mix a teaspoon into a glass of homemade electrolyte beverage to add more minerals.
80. Use whey separated from clabber instead of kombucha to make a maple dijon salad dressing.
81. Stir a teaspoon of separated whey into homemade barbecue sauce to add probiotics.
82. Use liquid whey instead of raw ACV to make homemade cocktail sauce.
83. Use whey to make fermented salsa.
84. Substitute whey for lemon juice to make homemade steak sauce.
85. Whip up some homemade teriyaki sauce.
86. Add a drizzle of whey to artichoke dip to add probiotics and enhance the flavor.
87. Liquid whey is an important ingredient in hypoallergenic DIY baby formula.
88. Whey from clabber is also a key ingredient in homemade goat milk baby formula.
89. Add a drizzle of whey to sweet potato casserole baby food to add probiotics.
90. Liquid whey separated from clabber (or yogurt) is a key ingredient in homemade baby formula.
91. Use clabber blended with flour to make soaked waffles.
92. Whip up a pan of gluten-free soaked cornbread.
93. Make homemade tomato bisque using the soured milk instead of plain milk.
94. Use it to soak homemade quick oats.
95. Make a pan of Mexican mac & cheese.
96. Use instead of water to cook a pot of whole grain millet.
97. Make a buttermilk-style egg nog with it!
98. If only slightly sour, use it to make a refreshing matcha frappe.
99. Use as a substitute for water in this easy rice cakes recipe.
100. If only slightly sour, use to make a red rooibos latte.
101. Drizzle some into your cup of dandelion coffee if the sourness is very mild.
Do you have more suggestions to add? Please share with us in the comments section!
I’m sure there are literally dozens more uses for soured raw milk and the liquid whey separated from clabber that I’ve missed!
More Information
Organic UHT Milk
A1 vs A2 Milk
Why Skim Milk Makes You Fat
Low Temp (Vat) Pasteurized Milk Compared to Raw
Hi Sarah,
I tried making cream cheese with my slightly soured raw, pastured milk. I let it sit for about 20 hours and it separated beautifully.
I tried the cream cheese today, and it’s pretty terrible. It tastes like bad milk. Maybe that’s what’s mean by it will be sour. I guess mine is VERY sour.
The whey has a bit of white in it. Maybe I could have let it sit a bit longer, I don’t know.
Could I have done anything wrong to get that super sour taste? Should I be concerned about consuming it?
Please respond, I don’t want to eat it until I hear from you. I hope this is just to be expected. I am amazed at the texture of the cream cheese.
Sarah,
I belong to a buying raw milk club so I pick up milk by gallons and gallons. One of the gals in very worried about her milk not being in a cooler when transported an hour (even in cold weather). I’m sure it’s OK but I want to respect her. However, is there anything I can say that will assure her the milk is OK?
It will last much longer if kept cold that hour…. I notice a difference when I didn’t keep it in the cooler. I had to buy less and drive more often as it would go bad. Many weeks we would lose 2-3 gallons that were soured from not keeping it cold.
I pick up 14 gallons every 2 weeks for my family and we always keep 10 gallons in my ice chest, and 4 on the floorboard. We go through those 4 first, as they will NOT last 2 weeks since they weren’t kept cold on the way home.
/agree Tiffaney!! Elle, your friend is correct! you NEED to get a large cooler (or several if you get more than will fit into one) AND ice packs – It is NOT a matter of it “being OK” it is a matter of “shelf live” – if you don’t have room in your vehicle for enough coolers to put it all into ice packed coolers then YOU keep the milk that sits in your car for that hour getting warmer and warmer and make sure your friends in the raw milk club get that which was stored in the ice packed cooler for the trip.
Raw milk that is allowed to warm to a temperature of over 34 degrees looses “shelf life” in direct proportion to how many degrees over and how long it stays above that temp.
If you don’t want to get a cooler and ice packs, perhaps you could tell the “gal” in the raw milk club that you would be happy to take HER cooler and ice packs to put HER milk into for the transport home. That way SHE knows that HER milk will stay fresh and she will be getting her moneys worth and you can continue to leave yours on the seat for the trip home.
Would it not be more respectful of her concerns to simply put it into a cooler rather than trying to find “anything I can say that will assure her the milk is OK?” Think “ice cream”, if you had a load of ice cream and had to transport it an hour in a car, would it STILL REALLY be “ice cream” when you got it home? Even if you could “re-freeze” it, it sort of wouldn’t still be what you paid for, right?
While this site has given some wonderful ways to use sour milk, I’m betting that this “gal” isn’t going to all the trouble and expense of buying raw milk to ONLY have it as soured milk in a week or so . . . just a guess on my part, but. . . . just sayin’
(Tiffaney was much gentler with her response, I guess I should learn from kind people like her how to be more diplomatic, sorry if my directness or bluntness offended)
Sarah, how old is “too old” on the raw milk? I have had a quart in my fridge for about 2 months and everytime I go to throw it out, I can’t bring myself to do it. (Mostly because it is so expensive!) I keep thinking I will make yogurt with it, but then think it is just too old. Please help!
I too have 2 month old raw milk that I have left in the back of my fridge. When I smelled it going sour, I tightened the cap and forgot about it as I procrastinated in dumping it out and cleaning the jar. Now, it has separated completely into one solid looking glob and orangish liquid. I know there are benefits to raw milk, but has mine lost all of it? Did I inadvertently make cheese? Is it still good for ANYTHING???
Thanks!!
I’m no expert, and I’m sure you your milk is long gone by now. But I would at least separate the whey and dump that on the compost pile.
I am so sad to read this for you Jennifer Lewis Pfab <3 praying for you..
I am so sad to read this for you Jennifer Lewis Pfab <3 praying for you..
We make our own yoghurt, milk kefir, & cheeses (paneer or cottage takes very little time and effort) If people study the works of Louis Pasture, ‘killing milk’ was used to kill germs in a very unhealthy society as the Europeans were then. We also make our own ‘soy milk’ and Tofu…Again easy, healthy and very economical. The most revolutionary action you can take against the ‘Monsanto system’ is grow your own, milk your own and make your own. Think about your wasted hours of TV indoctrination. they could be PRODUCTIVE HOURS
I’m gonna have a tall cold one right now too. But please, kindly unpack or explain the connection between this picture and the quote.
I’m gonna have a tall cold one right now too. But please, kindly unpack or explain the connection between this picture and the quote.
I’m gonna have a tall cold one right now too. But please, kindly unpack or explain the connection between this picture and the quote.