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
I’ve been meaning to start making my own yoghurt again, so this sparked the idea to use my soured milk remnants, but I have a QUESTION: should the soured milk be used as the milk ingredient in the yoghurt or in place of the yoghurt culture ingredient that is put in after the milk is heated?
This isn’t clear on the link to yoghurt as that only gives the standard yoghurt-making recipe. No mention of soured milk.
Also, I still buy organic Sierra Nevada goat yoghurt, although it is pasteurized, because it is the creamiest, thickest, best tasting yoghurt I’ve ever had. It’s so good I eat it plain. I’d love to replicate it from raw milk. Does anyone know/have a suggestion of which starter culture or yoghurt would create the same thick consistency? Similar to Fage thickness, or other Greek yoghurt. I don’t like runny yoghurt much. Thank you!
Luci – in my experience, raw milk yogurt IS somewhat runny. Aside from straining it, the only way I know of to make it thick is to heat the milk. I would not advocate ANY additives. Some cultures like the milk heated to different temperatures. You can experiment – if you like FAGE, you can culture with it – I have done so, although not with unheated milk. Try doing it in small one-cup size batches to see how it turns out! I have tried Bulgarian, Greek, “Traditional”, Viili and used the Fage. If your yogurt, whatever type you use, is too runny, let it drain in some cheesecloth until it is the consistency that you like.
Luci,
Fage and other Greek style yogurts are strained and that can certainly be replicated with raw milk yogurt. I usually strain (just line a colander with cheesecloth and set it over a bowl- in the fridge if I want it really strained) about half of what I make when I do a big batch. I use the strained to eat and the non-strained for mixing into things.
Ahhh! So that’s the trick. Yes, when I’ve made yoghurt from raw milk before and often it came out a bit runny so I wasn’t sure whether it was bc/ I didn’t let it sit long enough or the starter I used was wrong. Thank you for the advice. I’ll try using my nice goat yoghurt as the starter then.
But re: the soured milk, noone addressed that question, should it be used as the “milk ingredient” or the “starter ingredient”? I hope that makes sense.
Sarah, thanks for this post! As someone mentioned earlier… raw milk is almost priceless to some of us, more valuable than any precious metal or jewel! I would not drink anything BUT raw milk. My husband and I haven’t so much as even caught a cold in the year we’ve been drinking it, and have completely eliminated digestive issues such as GERD! I, too, am so excited about the possibilities of using soured milk! Aside from consuming it, I’ve been just letting it separate into curds and whey! I am thinking it would go great it my sour-cream pound cake recipe. Too bad I break that out just once a year 🙂
Bathe in it! Milk is good for the skin!
I wonder if you could add it to a hot water bath for a milk bath?
Wow, thanks so much for that list! It was perfect timing, as I have a 1/2 gallon of sour milk on the back porch (waiting to go to the dog….), but I hate to waste it (not that I don’t love our dog 🙂 ), so this list is perfect. Occasionally it goes sour and I’m thankful to have more ways to use it.
Thanks again!
I am so glad to read this article! I had just thrown out about half a gallon of soured, raw milk this morning. Fortunately, it was still in the trash can, and now it is doing something useful as fertilizer in my veggie garden! Thanks!
Cherylyn- this is just the pressure from the build up of bacteria. Still okay to use. See realmilk.com
Thank you for alll of the suggestions. I still haven’t convinced my husband to drink Raw yet so it sours before I can drink it all!
Be patient Christine. I have a friend who drank raw milk along with her children for years and her husband kept buying the trash from the grocery store and wouldn’t touch the raw. FINALLY, he tried it one day and was amazed at how good it was. He is now a huge raw milk supporter and loves his raw milk along with the rest of his family.
That is a good story Sarah. Hope that is my hubby someday! I haven’t convinced him to try our raw milk yet either :o(.
But I won’t give up!
I use it for all the reasons listed and to marinate meat, chicken. I pierce roasts and soak them for several days in the fridge before baking slowly. They turn out soooooooooooo tender and delicious. Gravy is wonderful. I also use it to soak liver for a few hours before cooking it. If you are fearful of raw milk you only have to wonder how people lived and drank milk before refrigerators and pasturization were invented. When I was in So. America in the late 60’s, the milk was sold out of tin containers carried on the sides of donkeys. It was warm and certainly not pasturized. I haven’t noticed the population of So America declining from milk deaths.