Clamber for Clabber
Raw Milk Never "Goes Bad"
So your Helios Farms Single-Moo milk (raw milk) is starting to sour you say? Or you just can't make it through all that milk in a week?
If your milk isn't staying sweet for at least a week, please let us know. It's best to tell us which cow's milk it is and what date is on the jar. It should stay sweet for at least a week in a fridge that's under 35 degrees F. If it starts to taste a little off then...
Let's talk fermented milk...Some people say "it's starting to go bad" when in fact our raw milk souring should be considered good. It's really fermenting or culturing, and very soon, you can have clabber. Some people scream for ice cream, and others clamber for clabber. Your gut will tell you it's a good thing.
The first step to turning souring milk into the magic substance called "clabber" is to leave it out on the counter at about 70-80 degrees. In a day or two, it will be clabbered (gelled up) and will be a substance that looks like plain yogurt, or it may separate into what Little Miss Muffet called "curds and whey." Here's a politically correct, pro-curds-and-whey version of the nursery rhyme.
Once you have clabber, you have a probiotic wunderdrink. So let's look at some of the uses for clabbered milk.
You can drink it like buttermilk or kefir.
You can put salt and pepper in it and drink it.
You can put vitamin C, blackstrap molasses, cloves, and ginger in it to make a healing tonic.
Some people make yogurt or kefir with our milk. You can use clabber in the same ways you use yogurt or kefir. We make kefir as a product for our farm members, and it is magical in it’s taste and health benefits, and you can use it just like clabber.
Soak two cups of oats in a couple cups of clabber overnight. Then, in the morning, mix in a half cup gluten-free pancake mix (or flour), three eggs, a tsp salt, a tsp sugar, a tsp baking soda. Heat a griddle and melt lots of Helios Farms Beef Tallow on it and fry up some very-yummy oat pancakes that would earn the Weston A. Price seal of approval. Best served with Helios Farms butter and strawberry freezer jam made with Oregon strawberries, but maple syrup or any jam is great too.
Cut up a Helios Farms chicken and immerse the parts in clabbered milk. Let them soak overnight or all day. Mix three cups of flour, a tablespoon of salt, and a couple tsp of black pepper in a bowl. Heat a deep-sided cast iron skillet and melt about a half inch or more of Helios Farms Beef Tallow. Toss the chicken pieces one at a time into the flour mix and coat the piece, then put it back in the clabber, then put it into the skillet. Fry it up until golden brown. Once it's nice and brown, put it in a glass baking dish in a 300 degree oven for about 15-20 mins. Yum.
Use clabber as a marinade for any meat.
You can pour it over a chicken and slow cook the chicken and then make gravy out of the drippings by adding sour cream, wine, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast as a thickener and flavor.
Use clabber in fruit smoothies.
Use clabber in any baking recipe, like biscuits, that call for buttermilk. Shake it up nicely so it's smooth.
If you have old cookbook recipes (1950's and earlier), whenever they call for "sour milk or buttermilk" the sour milk refers to raw clabbered milk.
You can use it for teat dip after you milk your cow. That's what we use for teat dip.
You can use it in lotions for your skin.
Get creative with clabber. It's a blessing from our Creator.
Note: Clabbered milk was used to make the original baking powders. This is the origin of the old baking powder brands Milk Baking Powder and Clabber Baking Powder, which later became Clabber Girl Baking Powder.
Another Note: Don't be concerned that clabbered milk is full of bacteria that might sicken you. When milk ferments, one of the main products is lactic acid, which essentially sterilizes the clabber. We say that our milk never goes bad, it simply changes into something different. If it tastes good, then eat it. If it tastes too strong, it can still be used for cooking.
Once you've started learning to ferment milk, everyone in the house will be clambering for clabber.
And the science? The health benefits of “acidified milk” (kefir, clabber, buttermilk, cultured cream, etc.) are being studied. We will put some links here, and maybe add more links over time.
Yes sir, brilliant! In my pediatric clinic, my care plans are filled with where one can find their local raw dairy farmer, grass fed and finished meat supplier, and farmers market...along with my favorite kvass, kraut, kombucha and kefir recipes. Clabber has not made it into my care plans, and I cannot wait to try it and have it added. Thank you for the education!
I remember my dad talking about loving clabber milk.