How to Make Clabbered Milk

Clabbered milk, also known as clotted, soured or curdled milk, has a long tradition as a food of the American south. Beneficial bacteria in the milk converts the sweet milk sugar (lactose) into lactose acid. This gives the milk a tangy taste similar to yogurt. This milk also has a reputation as a healthful dairy beverage. Making clabbered milk is really easy, but it can take from 24 to 36 hours, depending on the temperature of the milk and the temperature of the room.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1 gallon wide-mouth jar with lid
• 1 gallon of raw (unpasteurized) cow’s milk

1. Clean a wide-mouth 1 gallon jar with hot water and dry it thoroughly.

2. Pour the milk into the jar and close the lid tightly.

3. Shake the jar. The cream in raw milk will separate, resulting in a layer of cream on top of a layer of skim milk. Shaking insures that the cream remains distributed throughout the milk during the clabbering process.

4. Set the jar on a counter in a cool shaded place, somewhere out of the way in your kitchen.

5. Check the milk every 6 hours or so. If it looks like the cream is separating, give the jar a little shake.

6. Visually check the milk after 24 hours. You should begin to notice visible clumps of milk at this point.

7. Taste the milk to see whether the taste has started to sour. If it is only slightly soured and if the milk still looks mostly like regular milk, let it sit a bit longer.

8. Following Step 7, check the milk every 6 hours over the next 12 to 24 hours. When the milk is sufficiently clabbered, it will have thickened into a semi-solid looking liquid and it should be quite tart to the taste. Store the finished milk in your refrigerator.
   
   Making clabbered milk doesn’t take a lot of effort, just a little patience. It’s fast, tasty and good for you. What could be better?

Tips & Warnings

• Process a glass of clabbered milk in a blender to make it smoother and easier to drink.
• Add frozen berries and honey, then blend for a delicious tangy milkshake.
• Unrefrigerated fresh cow’s milk will clabber faster than refrigerated milk.
• Buy raw milk from a known and trusted source only.
• These instructions will not work with pasteurized milk (it will just become spoiled using this method).

[affinitynoire]

on 8/25/2008 Great article. Also, great posting the instruction not to use pasteurized milk! Thanks for sharing!

[LilacGirl]

on 5/7/2008 Good information, and well-written. Five stars.