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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
So many ideas, I can hardly wait to pull it out of the refer. One other thing: My cat LOVES clabbered milk.
To get the most out of your sour milk, make the mozzarella cheese first, then immediately boil the leftover whey & add a tablespoon white vinegar per quart of whey to make ricotta too. “Ricotta” means “Recooked” & is traditionally made after a rennet based cheese such as mozzarella.
What about using it to make soap?????
Yes, absolutely!
Is there a limit to how long soured milk is good? I saw mine in there and left it cause I didn’t want to deal with it at the time and the cream is separated to the top and the liquid at the bottom but it’s been a while.
Soured milk will just get stronger in flavor if you leave it out longer after it has already separated. If it doesn’t have mold, it is fine to use, but you may find the tartness overwhelming for recipes.
In some of your suggestions a little more information would be helpful. For example: soaking the banana bread batter, how much sour milk would you use to soak the batter, how long would you soak it and how might the extra liquid affect the end product? Having actual recipes using the sour milk would be very helpful.
Thanks and Im glad to know I can use soured raw milk in cooking. I have a little raw milk left that may sour soon as I find it takes about two weeks to sour in the back of my cold frige. I am expecting in four months so I buy fresh grassfed raw milk whenever possible to be healthy. I was told to avoid raw dairy although I eat raw hard aged cheeses. However, I purchase my raw milk and each time I have a glass I heat just enough milk for me to drink to whats considered the safe temperature. So far everything seems to be going well. Usually I drink it all before it gets sour and use what little is left for various things. Since I have been expecting, I gave been cautious about drinking any bit of soured leftovers, giving it to my husband. But now I am glad to know I can safely drink it. It usually never gets sour enough that it curdles when heated a bit as we drink it too fas
I wanted to add tgat I also use raw soured milk in ranch dressing. I add vinegar, which thickens the mikk, tgen slowly add olive oil tgen add the herbs. Its also good in blue cheese dressing.
Hi – we accidentally left a gallon of milk out of the refrigerator for 2 days (it got pushed behind some moving boxes). Is there anything that can be done with it since it did not sour in the refrigerator? I hate to dump it!
Raw milk doesn’t have to sour in the fridge to be safe. It just sours faster when unrefrigerated. Any of the uses in this list would work fine.
Well now that i am commenting, I can no longer see the original post. but someone asked why we can cook ‘soured’ raw milk which essentially pasturizes it and use it but we can’t use spoiled pasturized milk. Well, basically it all comes down to fermentation. Raw milk ferments in the same way yogourt does. So your soured raw milk is just in the process of becoming yogourt so to speak of course not literally because the ferments, the bacteria are different. Whereas pasturized milk contains no bacteria/ferments to make it into yogourt. Everything in pasturized milk is already dead so it just rots. So to put it simply, raw milk ferements and pasturized milk rots. Cooking yogourt does not make it rot, it just kills the ferments. We use yogourt all the time in baking and other recipes, which we then eat right away or freeze with no ill affects because fermentation is not harmful. The same applies to raw milk. Cooking it kills the bacteria that are fermenting it. This will not harm you in any way. Whereas, no matter how much cooking you do to pasturized milk, it will still always be rotten and the bacteria that exist in pasturzed milk, that cause it to rot, are contaminats. They are not lacto-ferments and thus they can cause serious illness. So just like you can’t cook rotten meat and eat it because the bacteria that exist there make toxins that are dangerous to humans, you can’t cook and eat rotten pasturized milk. So it boils down to the fact that raw milk ferments and pasturized milk rots. I hope that helps! I would like to add that i put LIGHTLY fermented milk in coffee. The coffee taste is already so bitter that you can’t taste the sourness of the milk. But it must just be beginning to turn furmented as anything very strong will show through. I LOVE the cheese sauce idea though!! Gonna give that a try and then freeze it till i need it. TOO HOT here for pasta and cheese or pretty much anything cooked. LOL
Make raw eggnog with it!
Feed it to chickens – they love it!