Clabbering Milk

Ingredients:

Farm fresh raw milk (unpasteurized), about a week or two old is best.

Process:

Leave your milk on the counter in a jar (sealed) for 2-3 days in a warm spot until solids appear. Shake it to see if it’s turned thick. It should not yet be separated.

If the milk is still mostly white when shaken, and has turned thick, it is done clabbering. Store your clabbered milk in the refrigerator. If you leave the milk on the counter longer, it will separate turn into curds and whey.. If this happens, drain off they whey and cream cheese and use in your favorite recipes.

Ingredients:

Farm fresh raw milk (unpasteurized), about a week or two old is best.

Process:

Leave your milk on the counter in a jar (sealed) for 2-3 days in a warm spot until solids appear. Shake it to see if it’s turned thick. It should not yet be separated.

If the milk is still mostly white when shaken, and has turned thick, it is done clabbering. Store your clabbered milk in the refrigerator. If you leave the milk on the counter longer, it will separate turn into curds and whey. If this happens, drain off they whey and cream cheese and use in your favorite recipes.

Pour milk into a jar and leave it covered with a towel (or in my case a paper towel) to allow friendly bacteria/wild yeasts to enter.  Let it sit on your counter.

Twice daily, take the paper/towel cover off and replace it with a proper lid for gentle shaking. This ensures that the bacteria is distributed equally in the milk. Then replace the lid with a paper/towel.

Cream will separate on top and have bubbles. Almost ready to separate

Eventually the cream will rise to the top and you will see some bubbles.  The clabber at this point is thicker than fresh milk and sour.  This can take from 2 to 4 days, just be patient. If you want, you can stop the process right here by refrigerating the clabbered milk.  This is useful in recipes calling for soured milk.

But I like to take it a bit farther (mostly because I don’t want the sugars right now and I also want the whey for other ferments)

Finally, the curds and whey will separate.  Once this process starts, let it continue for at least 12 hours. It’s hard to get the curds out of a container, so I suggest you use a container with a wide mouth.

Drain the whey out. Place the curds in a strainer (a yogurt cheese strainer works very well for this) and let the whey drain for a few more hours. You then have a rich and tangy clabber with a consistency of a creamy cheese.

Since the clabber is fermented it can either be refrigerated or left out during the fall, winter and spring.  For summer especially, I would recommend refrigeration.

Clabber has a number of uses, you can simply spread it on toast, or mix in herbs and other items for a flavored cheese. It can also be used as a starter for cottage cheese or sour cream or cultured butter. I eat it like yogurt as well.  Because I have never been able to make a good raw milk yogurt starter, this gives me the benefits of raw milk and the taste of yogurt. It’s thick and creamy and reminds me of greek yogurt.  Because all the whey is gone, the clabbered milk  is protein rich and light on sugars and carbohydrates.  Too tangy for you?  Add some honey.

Waffles and pancakes, biscuits or bread (gluten or gluten-free) will benefit from having the more sour milk type clabber added in place of regular liquid.

Historically, most milk was fermented in some way prior to use.  Fresh milk just didn’t last long.  Clabber is one of those ways.  Clabbering milk is one of the easiest, worry-free ways of prolonging your raw milk’s usefulness and benefits.