I grew up on a farm with several milk cows, we always had at least three of them “in production”, so fresh raw milk was plentiful. Milk that was, starting to sour was referred to as “blinky”, and milk left to natural ferment until it turned to a solid mass of curd was referred to as clabber or clabbered milk. Granny used to what she called “clabber cheese”.
She would skim the majority of the cream from our Jersey milk, cover the jar and leave it to set until the milk clabbered. She would then transfer the clabber to a colander lined with a thin muslin cloth, and leave it to drainĀ a few minutes, before tying up the four corners of the cloth and hanging the pouch full of curds over the sink to drain until it was pretty dry.
Once it was drained to her satisfaction, she would rinse it briefly by dipping the pouch of curd in cool water several times, then drain it again before putting it in a bowl to store in the fridge. When she was ready to eat it, she would dish up a serving, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, pour on a little fresh milk or cream, and give it a gentle stir to break up the curd a little bit before eating it. I didn’t care for it as child; I think it was the idea that the milk was “rotten”, which it really wasn’t, but to a kid, soured milk = rotten milk. (NOTE: it certainly does mean that today if it’s pasteurized, homogenized milk that has soured. Pasteurized milk does not contain the beneficial bacteria necessary for the culturing process to work and form a true, healthy, nutritious, soured milk. Instead, you end up with putrid, rotten milk, which is not safe, and only good for tossing in the trash.)
Nowadays, not having access to fresh, raw milk, I add purchased cultures to store bought milk and use the resulting clabber to make my own fresh cheese at home.
I wonder if my Granny is laughing at me as she looks down from heaven?
āElizabeth 2022
I wish I could have eaten some of Elizabeth’s Granny’s clabbered milk. I think I would have liked it, but I might not have.
Thinking of clabbered milk reminded me of the following posts I’ve shared over the years.
Last night’s video: Sad News About Bryson Farm Supply Closing.
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Clabbered milk was brought to the Appalachia by Ulster settlers. It was referred to as bonny clabber as well, a nod to our Scottish past.My dad was a fan of it and butter milk growing up, when he would help on local milk deliveries as a boy. It is also incidentally used as a reference to being covered in mud, ie, clabbered in gutters!
Tipper, Not sure but I believe milk goes from blinked to clabbered?
The Milk is Blinked! | Blind Pig and The Acorn
The Milk is Blinked! January 12, 2017, blinked, blinky an adjective Usu of milk; soured. 1956 Hall Coll. Del Rio TN
My Mom let the cream rise to the top of the milk which would clabber under the cream. The cream was poured off to be churned for butter and buttermilk. The clabbered milk was used to make cottage cheese. As I remember, the cottage cheese was very good.
The skimmed milk in stores today was called “blue john” in northeast, TN when I was growing up.
I think it was Jerry Clower who said most people fed clabbered milk to the hogs and it was the French who took the clabbered milk, added a few berries to make yogurt. The rich people then got a taste for clabbered milk without know that they were consuming clabbered milk. Not sure that was exactly how he told it, but it was along those lines.
Great memories of my parents drinking clabbered milk when I was growing up.
I got some milk at dollar general, shew!!!
Iāve never heard of that kind of milk, but what a wonderful memory story Elizabeth wrote. Thank you for sharing it with us, Tipper.
My father used the same method as Elizabethās Granny in making a ābag of cheeseā as he referred to it. I still to this day prefer brands of brands of ālarge curd cottage cheeseā that are not as creamy and a bit dryer. Eaten with a dab of salt and pepper was also āup my alleyā. As most rural families in Eastern Kentucky, clabbered milk was always an option at mealtime ā¦..
We didn’t have any cows š I would have loved to try some of these delicacies!! Prayers and love to your family, Tipper. <3
We had two cows that Daddy and Mother milked twice a day. They used a cream separater to get the cream off the milk. Mother kept a little cream to churn for butter. The rest was taken to our little grocery, that bought cream.
I have had my share of clabbered milk in my lifetime. The dairy farmer up the road has known me for years but will not sell me raw milk. He said someone he knew got sued when they sold raw milk and the buyer got sick. I teased him about leaving a gallon by the barn door so I could pick it up when he wasn’t looking. I finally gave up! Thanks for the creamery info, Randy, I will definitely check out their website.
My grandmother did a similar thing but she called it clotted cream.
That clabbered milk really brings back some good memories. There’s nothing better than a big plate of pinto/soup beans over a slab of good corn bread with a big jar of clabbered milk to drink. In fact, the kids used to put corn bread into the milk and then eat it with a big tablespoon. Tipper, I hope your posts can keep this traditional way of making clabbered milk alive for future generations. some won’t like it, but others will love it!
Havenāt heard any talk for many years regarding clabbered milk. Growing up in the 1950ās and early 60ās my great grandmother and grandmother would talk about it. You do not realize the uniqueness of conversations until months and years pass and you wish you could return to those times every now and then.
My mom never liked the cream on fresh milk; she used to get up really early so she could get to the milk pitcher and pour the milk out from under the cream onto her cereal before Grandma just stirred it all back together.
Well now, ain’t I been preaching this same message for years? Oh Elizabeth, I am totally in agreement. Right down to the Jersey cows.
We didn’t make cheese, we made butter and buttermilk, but the process is the same until the very end. The words “soured or rotten” have no place in the conversation. Cultured or clabbered sounds better. It is not an accidental process rather is quite deliberate. Your grandmother didn’t make the curds you describe as a way to use up spoiled or near spoiled milk, she did it because she liked the end result. She didn’t have to add a culture to her milk, she used the natural microbial critters around her and was probably healthier for it.
South Carolina allows the sale of raw milk but I live far too far to go get some. My son and daughter in law have been there several times in the past few months but they always forget to get it for me.
The “āŖ Oh Elizabeth ā«” in my remark, in case you didn’t get it, goes back to the song “Elizabeth” by Jimmy Fortune and the Statler Brothers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTjo0PIeXQw
This post makes me think of how old ideas, practices, etc get “rediscovered”. Recently read that all the hoopla about chloresteral (however it’s spelled) may be wrong. So maybe pasteurization is overkill and has its downside. My Grandma kept a cow and had to milk morning and evening but never did make cheese, just butter and buttermilk. I didn’t realize it then but she represented a passing way of life.
We called this homemade cottage cheese and I loved it with just salt. Years after I left home I tried to buy some “fresh” milk to make this but it wasn’t like my mom’s. I did have a yogurt maker and liked making my own yogurt. Prayers for Granny and you and your family as Granny deals with her treatments.
We used to skim the fat off and process it into butter, and sometimes we would make the clabbered cheese and use it in my grandmaās lasagna recipe. Once it is combined with garlic, Italian herbs and a few eggs, it is basically a ricotta filling. My mom would add a few teaspoons of fresh milk to it to help break it and the eggs down. If not milk, a few tablespoons of sour cream work too. It was the most delicious lasagna! Home Canned tomato sauce, browned sausage and hamburger, more garlic and mozzarella cheese. I can taste it now!!!
I remember. And I can remember milking a cowā¦and how frustrating it was when she lifted a hoof and set in down in a nearly full bucket of milk!
When a cow did that on me, I would pour the whole bucket of milk down over her head and face. I don’t think cows like milk. If one happens to, she soon finds herself between two buns.
When our old cow Daisy did that to my dad, he lost it, punched her in the ribs, and sprained his wrist real bad. He was a barber, so that episode cost him in several ways.
Years ago we had a neighbor who had a milk cow & we would buy milk from her in a big gallon jar. I would skim off the cream on the top to make butter. It was so good & soft . I didn’t have a churner so I would just put it in a quart jar & shake the dickins out of it until it turned to that wonderful butter. It was a lot of work but was worth the shaking effort put out.
Prayers for Granny this week as she goes through more treatments. Hugs!
I may have been wrong by saying raw milk, but I know they donāt do the same things to it like grocery store milk. Before drinking it you have to shake it up real good.
I’ve never had that and would not. I don’t even like any type of cottage cheese. My husband loves it so I go into the other room when he eats it. lol
My wife makes this kind of cheese, from raw milk āfor veterinary useā she buys from dairy farms. Itās not my favorite cheese, but it has its place.
Wow, now I understand why my Grandmother did that with hers. I would see it tied up to a string, hanging on a nail and would watch it sometimes with the drops would take so long to drop. My mother used to wait til the cream rose to the top of a gallon of whole milk to ladle it off and churn it to butter. I sure wish we could do that now. I have to look for a dairy that sells ‘raw’ milk that is suppose to be for animals only..well, I think that is what we are. I do purchase it sometime to make my own ‘rea’ butter. Praying still for Granny and you guys. God Bless.
I donāt remember my grandmother doing anything like this. She did churn butter. They got rid of their milk cow when I was very young. My biggest memory of the cow is when they were trying to get her loaded into the back of a pickup truck with cattle bodies on it. We have a dairy in my area that sells nothing but raw milk from cows that eat nothing but grass grown year round. You can read about this dairy and their method on their website.. They call it the 12 seasons of April. It is Happy Cow Creamery, Pelzer, SC. One of their slogans is 25 feet from the cow to the container. People comes from miles around to buy their milk and other products. I donāt think anything tastes much worse than sour milk.