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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
The only problem with cooking with it is that it kills all the good probiotics.
Hi all!! I have a question for anyone who could answer. Would good raw milk smell like old bad cheese and taste off when soured? I developed food poisoning symptoms the day after consuming some raw milk that smelled and tasted this way. It had a cheese like consistency on the glass jar. I thought raw milk is still ok to comsume after souring? I’m worried I found me some dirty milk! I also have some grocery store eggs that I soft boiled and suspect I may have got salmonella from. I’m just not sure if it was the eggs or the milk.
I’m wondering what the milk should smell like and still be safe? The raw milk I have smells almost like strawberries which has me concerned to say the least, but I don’t want to dump it if that’s okay- I’d much rather make yogurt out of it.
Is the liquid that is separated from my organic sour cream and yogurt when I 1st open it liquid whey?
If you use the raw milk for cooking, does the heat destroy the enzymes and probiotics?
Hi Kaitlyn,
In a word, yes. But then cooking anything since man discovered fire kills enzymes, probiotics, some vitamins that are heat sensitive, microbes, as well as bacteria (both good and bad). About the only thing that is more destructive than heating (to over 102 degrees) / cooking / boiling raw milk and all the good things in it is to place it into a microwave.
The way a microwave works is this: Using electromagnetic radiation it excites the molecules of a substance (usually the water) until they burst, it is this small explosion (the friction produced by the excited molecules) that generates a lot of heat, and that is the heat you get to “cook” in a microwave. Using a microwave to heat raw milk, even for those few seconds to “warm” it means that you have exploded many of the molecules, changing it . . . the most vulnerable of those are the enzymes, the vitamins (especially B12).
When pro-pasturized milk advocates talk they always mention that the “bad bacteria” is killed by heating to 161 degrees for several minutes . . . it amazes me that they think people are stupid enough to think that pasteurizing ONLY kills “bad bacteria”, do they think that heat is selective? That is like someone believing that when they take an aspirin (or any medicine) that it ONLY goes to the ONE part of their body where the ache is . . . NO, it goes everywhere your blood goes . . just like heat kills all the bacteria – good and bad.
Cooking/baking is the way we turn raw ingredients into other stuff – no matter what else happens to it, heating it up will always change it – for better (like the chocolate cake I make) or worse (pasteurized milk).
My daughter has just found a source of raw milk for her family so I have decided to try it. I find it spoils before I can drink it and have just decided to cancel. While searching online to see if spoiled milk is safe I found much to make me worried about raw milk and was going to discourage my daughter when I found your site. I have book marked it and will send it to my daughter. Unfortunately I dumped a quart of raw milk down the drain before I started to search, but maybe it is not all lost, I have a septic system and may have added good bacteria. Thank you so much I will go back to raw milk!
I drink mine straight until I no longer like the sour flavor. Then I’ll use it to make kefir. I actually like the flavor of the milk starting to sour, but at some point, the flavor is less likable to me. I don’t believe the milk goes putrid for months, if at all. Ok, I just tasted some that I’ve had in my fridge for many months, and it wasn’t bad (I’m talking 6+ months). I separates into whey and sour cream. The whey tastes pretty good and the rest is sour, but still not bad, really. It’s sour, but not putrid. I don’t know if what the cows eat make a difference or not. My milk comes from 100% grass-fed cows; no grains are ever given to them. I think sour raw milk is “fit” until you don’t like it anymore. Different tastes for different people, essentially.
You stated, “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.”
When you say, “gone past its “use by” date, how long are we talking? days, a week or can it be months gone by? When is sour RAW milk no longer fit to be used?
Kefir lime plants love it!
I wonder if there’s a trick to getting things to set up, though, using soured raw milk? I tried it in my quiche recipe last week, baked it nearly twice as long as usual, and it was still runny. I’ve never had that happen with quiche before! I just made the egg custard recipe on this site, timer just went off, and it’s still almost entirely liquid (I used soured raw goat milk for it). What’s happening? Why won’t it set up? I was really looking forward to the custard!