Left the milk out? What to do with whey?

[mandieg4]

The kids left the milk out yesterday afternoon and I just now saw it this morning. Please tell me I don't have to dump it?! It's about a half a gallon of raw milk I got two days ago. I know I read a post somewhere on here about leaving milk out overnight before making something with it.

 

[Farmfresh]

Personally I would pasteurize it at this point. I know you will lose all of the valuable nutrients that you paid extra for , but who knows what creepie crawlies jumped in while you were not looking. If it is not sour I would probably use it like normal at that point. If it has turned there are still lots of recipes that you can make.

Hopefully on of the dairy experts around here will reply to this soon.

 

[freemotion]

Give it a sniff and put it in the fridge. You can make cheese if you have rennet but it may be a bit more sour than you are used to. I purposely did this last summer to make a batch of cheese with "wild" cultures, just to try it. It is called "clabbered" milk. You can also use it in any recipe calling for sour milk, buttermilk, etc, or any recipe that uses baking powder, as the acidic milk will make it work better. You can put it in recipes not calling for sour milk...use it as the liquid in bread.

I wouldn't bother pasteurizing it. Pasteurized milk left out will sour then rot rather quickly, but the good bacteria in raw milk will protect it most of the time. I'd use it up quickly, though, and sniff it each time just to be sure it is pleasant sour and not "bad," especially if it takes you a few days to bake with it.

Or you could freeze it in portions that match you favorite recipes, like buttermilk pancakes or biscuits, if it is too hot to cook with it right now.

 

[Wifezilla]

You could always make yogurt.

 

[freemotion]

You could always make yogurt.

Oh, no, start with the freshest milk for yogurt. Incubating sour milk could get nasty. I've had a couple of epic yogurt failures!

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Make clabber cheese. You leave it on the counter till it separates.
Drain the whey and save it, and press it out to the consistency you want.

 

[animalfarm]

Feemotion and Babblingbrooks have got it right. Don't pasturize it. It will turn mead into swamp water.

 

[calendula]

This page has some good ideas:

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2009/04/dont-cry-over-sour-milk-using-your-raw-milk-gone-bad.html

 

[Wifezilla]

No yogurt...yes clabber cheese **writes down in ss notebook**

 

[mandieg4]

Thanks for all the ideas! It smells fine, in fact it really doesn't have a smell at all. I actually took it back out of the fridge so I can make cottage cheese. The next question is...what do I do with the whey?