My raw milk went sour now what?

We had a customer return the milk she bought because it had begun to turn sour. I was thrilled actually! I had wanted to try some things with the soured milk but we always used ours too fast. So this was a bonus for us!

The thing to remember when your raw milk starts to sour is this - DON'T THROW IT OUT!

Unlike pasteurized milk which doesn't sour, it putrifies because it has no healthy bacteria or enzymes; raw milk is still good and actually better for you when it begins to sour. It is chock full of enzymes and beneficial bacteria, the kind you find in buttermilk and yogurt. This benefits the immune system and the digestive system.

If you want more information about the benefits and safety of raw milk read this. http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/02/raw-milk-discussing-its-merits-and-safety.html

So now that I had all this sour raw milk what should I do with it?

First I made two batches of yogurt, the first one was fantastic the next one I made two days later and it separated a LOT during fermentation and I wound up with curds and whey. I expect that was because the milk had soured more by then. So I put that in my cheese bag and hung it to drain overnight to make a yogurt cream cheese. Great texture! I'll add salt and herbs to that for a great spread.

Next I took all the cream I could skim and threw it in my food processor and made butter. It takes about 5 minutes to separate it into butter and whey. I then poured the butter whey off and set it aside to ferment into buttermilk. Then I rinsed and worked the butter with a spatula until the water ran clear and added some sea salt. Yay I have butter again!

The buttermilk sat overnight at room temperature and this morning my husband drank it all up! He said it was delicious!

So now I had lots of sour milk left. The only thing left to do was pour it all into my cheese bag and hang it to drain. There was a LOT of whey of course. So I looked up how to make lacto-fermented veggies and I made a batch of that. I used cabbage, carrots, zucchini, cucumber and an apple. The instructions I followed I found here http://www.nourishingdays.com/2009/07/the-benefits-of-fermented-food-lacto-fermented-vegetables/ . Fermented veggies are very high in healthy digestive bacteria, and they are SO easy to make! I see more of these in our future...

This morning I checked the drained soured milk and poured out the cream cheese left in the bag into a bowl. It was sweet and a wonderful texture. We had fresh cream cheese on toast with our breakfast this morning. Yum! I have lots of this so I think I will be making some flavored cream cheeses and dips out of it. It is surprising to me the sweet flavor of the cream cheese made from soured milk. Oh what I've been missing!

Lesson learned for me. NEVER throw out soured raw milk!

Happy and Healthy living to all!
Grow Foods Market

Adventures with yogurt

I visited my daughter one weekend and discovered to my delight she was buying raw milk. To my further delight I learned she was making her own yogurt and butter from the milk. I was thrilled and intrigued. I grew up eating the yogurt my mother made but I had never tried my own hand at it. Well if my daughter could do it, there was no reason for me not to try!

I bought a yogurt maker to help me keep a steady reliable temperature. Basically it is just a warmer and nothing more. The MAKING of the yogurt is quite simple and only takes minutes.

Being a raw food enthusiast I wanted to make RAW milk yogurt. I learned this is a little tricky and the yogurt turns out quite thin and runny compared to regular yogurt you buy at the store, but I was not to be dissuaded. I used raw goat's milk my first time out and it turned out quite pleasant, but runny as expected. The trick is to warm the milk to 110 degrees F and no warmer, then add your starter and pop it in your yogurt warmer. There are several methods to heat and warm the yogurt to allow the culture to grow but I am not going to go into them. To make my own life easy I bought a yogurt warmer and I love it!

So how to make a nice thick raw milk yogurt? I called my mother to tell her of my adventures and she shared  an important nugget with me "Don't you know I used gelatin in my yogurt?". Well of course I had no idea! But here's my problem with that. I stopped buying any meat or animal products from CAFO farms 2 years ago. CAFO is Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or factory farms. I feel they are unethical and inhumane in the way they treat their animals. Gelatin comes from cow hooves and bones and I am QUITE sure they are from CAFO operations, so gelatin was not an option for me. However I did have another option, I had Agar Agar. This is a gelatin made from sea plants, so no problems with CAFO there! It is tasteless too so it would not affect the flavor of the end product.

The first try with Agar Agar was ok, yes the yogurt was thicker, but not as thick as I wanted, so the next batch I used 4 times as much. FAIL! The yogurt came out with the texture of school paste! OK, so I backed off and used 1 tablespoon on the next batch and it was a little rubbery in texture, but thicker than my first batch, so I am getting somewhere with it. The flavor was good and not like paste at all. I think probably 2 or maybe 3 teaspoons for a quart of yogurt will be the perfect batch. Next try will be just right!

This last weekend I made raw milk yogurt from Cow's milk but I let it ferment 4 hours too long by accident. It was a thin runny yogurt like my first attempt and rather more sour in flavor from fermenting too long. But it was not unusable. I discussed it with my husband and we started talking about making a dip out of it and I got a brilliant idea, cucumber yogurt dip! Yes!

I used a yogurt cheese cloth bag and poured my thin runny yogurt in it to strain off some whey. (I used the whey to soak my brown rice for the evening meal, double plus!) I pureed two cucumbers, chopped up onion and garlic and added dill and about a teaspoon of lemon juice. Voila! Yogurt cucumber dip to die for! Yum!

I have also strained off my yogurt and made a cream cheese with it when it is dry enough. Flavored with organic herbs it is a delightful spread.

I am thoroughly enjoying my yogurt adventures. I don't know why I waited so long in my life to try making this wonderful food. How satisfying to eat this product I made myself!