Did you know that a clabbered raw milk smoothie tastes very similar to one made with drinkable style yogurt?  This is perhaps the best and most economical way to use farm fresh milk that is no longer at its best for drinking!
In 2004, I wrote an article for Wise Traditions journal titled Learning to Maximize the Use of Your Real Milk and Cream.  The basic premise of the article is that Real Milk and Real Cream (as in fresh from a grassfed cow), do not go bad, they sour.
Big difference.
Pasteurized milk from the store that goes bad must be thrown out. It is putrid and can make you sick if you consume it. It is full of pathogenic bacteria.
Real milk fresh from a happy, healthy, pastured cow that has soured has not gone bad. It has clabbered which means the good bacteria have simply consumed a good portion of the milk sugar (lactose), thereby giving the milk a more yogurt-like smell and taste.
Nevermind that you’ve probably never heard of clabbered milk let alone consumed it. Fact is, clabbered sour milk is totally fine and healthy to eat. Do not throw it out! There are many uses for such a wonderful food, which that article details.
I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that piece over the years and have forwarded it to many people who are using Real Milk for the first time and are unaccustomed to souring as opposed to the putrification of store milk.
Clabbered Milk Smoothie
You can imagine my surprise when I discovered yet another use for clabbered milk that wasn’t even mentioned in that article, yet is probably the BEST use of clabbered milk that I have found to date!
How about using clabbered milk for smoothies!!!
Some of you are probably rolling your eyes right about now thinking, “Like, I’ve been doing that for years already!”
I should have been doing this for years, but I am so rarely out of raw kefir or yogurt for my smoothies that it literally never crossed my mind as an idea.
The thought came to me for the first time just a few days ago when we were completely out of milk. I didn’t have any kefir or raw yogurt either. The next farm delivery was a couple days away.
Buying a lower quality product from the store to get me through? Not an option for me. I’m waaaayyyy too much of a dairy snob for that.
Moreover, I was just dying for a smoothie.
I thought to myself, “Hey, maybe I could use some of that lightly clabbered milk in the fridge, after all it is pretty similar in texture and taste to raw yogurt!”
I have said this before and I’m sure I will say it again, sometimes the most obvious stuff just takes awhile to bubble to the surface! At least that’s how my brain works.
In case you’re wondering, here’s my favorite smoothie of the moment.
Clabbered Milk Smoothie Recipe
Nourishing recipe for a clabbered milk smoothie that is an economical way to use farm fresh raw milk that has slightly soured and loaded with probiotics.
Ingredients
- 1 pint plain kefir preferably raw
- 2 bananas ripe
- 2 Tbl raw honey
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup creamy roasted peanut butter
Instructions
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Mix all ingredients together in a mason jar using a handheld blender.
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Serve immediately and enjoy! Refrigerate leftovers.
More Smoothie Recipes
- Peanut butter banana smoothie
- Kefir smoothie
- Smoothie alternative
- Raspberry lassi recipe
- Coconut milk smoothie recipe
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hi Sarah,
We make a smoothie that is very similar except we add raw pastured eggs and coconut oil too. It increases the protein and also makes the smoothie richer with a more frothy texture. We sometimes use raw milk if we don’t have yogurt on hand. This what we have for a quick breakfast on most weekdays. We all love it and it keeps us satiated until lunch and then some. Since there are quite a few of us we have 3 blenders going in the morning and use half a banana or so and an egg per person. It is quick and easy to make and clean up and I feel good about it nutritionally so I don’t feel that I had to compromise that to expedite our morning routine. I really love your blog and all of the info that you pass along! Thanks!
Sarah, Thank you so much for sharing your ideas on making raw yogurt. I have made yogurt that way but now its been more than a week, it is in the refridgerator and turned sour. Is it safe to eat this yogurt now? if not, are there any ways of using soured raw yogurt?
Many thanks for sharing wonderful videos and informative articles here. They are a huge help!
Love,
Dipti
Sarah,
I have been making my own yogurt for a few months. I am wondering if even though I used Fage
a commercial yogurt for my starter, if by now the yogurt is better than commercial yogurt I started with? It is really fun and empowering to make it! Am I just having fun or is it better for us?
Jean
Ooops – meant to leave those comments on the “How much milk…” post!
Oh, and Kelsey, in my area at least, there is a big price difference. Goat milk costs at least $2 to $4 more per gallon than cow milk and I have to drive over 20 miles to buy it!
I pick up a half-gallon once a week at the health food store. I usually run out a day or two before my re-stocking day. They get milk in fresh once a week from Dungeness Valley Creamer. If I buy a gallon, I usually have too much and it goes sour. I DO drink soured raw milk, or find a way to cook with it, but I don’t particularly enjoy the taste when it has soured slowly in the frig. I have done smoothies too!
I DO clabber, when clabber is made from fresh milk that is set out right away to clabber….I think it gets a different-tasting colony of bacteria going.
If I am planning to clabber milk, make kefir or cheese, or cook a lot with recipes that take milk, I as much as I think I will need.
It’s just me drinking it. My son doesn’t like the taste and won’t touch it.
When I have to, either because the health food store sold out or I am out of milk money, I buy Umpquaa brand pasteurized (NOT ultrapasteurized) milk. I think they are the only brand left in my town that isn’t ultrapasteurized.
elizabeth, maybe you would consider buying two half gallons and feezing one so you never run out of fresh raw milk. i believe the enzymes and probiotics remain intact, correct me if i’m wrong sarah. i refuse to run out of raw milk!!
Sara,
Not sure, but I believe the answer to your question is the enzymes in raw milk kill off the bad bacteria so that the good bacteria can flourish.
Pasteurization kills those enzymes, which allow the bad bacteria to prevail.
How do you know that the bacteria in soured milk are good bacteria. I know in the old days it was whatever happened to get in there. But for cultured dairy we add specific bacteria. Isn’t it possible that without the competition from good introduced bacteria, the bacteria souring the milk could be bad bacteria?
Hi Kelsy, yes you can make yogurt with soured milk. It will just taste stronger than usual.