What happens with milk left out of the fridge?
Imagine that you forget to put raw milk in the refrigerator. Or you had so much milk that it just didn’t fit inside. In any event, you left it out of the fridge. What happens now? You will notice that the milk has thickened, and tiny bubbles have appeared. Or you will even see the curd rises, and the whey separates and remains at the bottom. Is it spoiled, or is it still good? Will you use it, or is it a waste product? Please don’t rush to throw it away. You have got a fantastic dairy product – naturally fermented milk or clabber – with no effort!
Why does milk turn sour?
Quality raw milk coagulates by wild fermentation. Yes, I mean precisely raw milk. As a matter of fact, many bacteria from which milk turns sour are already in the cow. And the pasteurization process will kill these beneficial bacteria – lactobacillus and lactococci. They are responsible for the conversion of lactose into lactic acid. Lactic acid creates casein, which, in turn, curdles the milk. As a matter of fact, all you need is to leave milk at room temperature. Pasteurized milk goes rotten. Raw milk usually turns sour within one to four days.
How to understand that milk is fermented?
Yes, you can use milk left out of the fridge for several days. It is an excellent and healthy dairy product, and all you need is to turn it into something useful. However, please note that before consuming the soured milk, it should turn sour all through!
The main stages of this process are:
- First, you will see how tiny bubbles appear in the milk.
- Then the bubbles will begin to form passages.
- Then the curd rises, and the whey remains at the bottom.
- The curd becomes denser, leaving more whey beneath.
- A crust will begin to form on top.
- Milk and crust will develop an unpleasant sour smell.
Where can sour milk be used? 7 Ideas
1. Make Cottage Cheese or Cream Cheese
2. Make Really Fluffy Pancakes.
3. Use It for Cooking
If your recipe requires sour cream or yogurt, you can substitute curdled milk
4. Use It for Baking
If the milk turns too acidic, use it for baking. Natural leavener
5. Freeze It
Freeze it, after all, and use it for baking later.
6. Feed it to Your Animals
7. Use as Fertilizer
If the smell gets too intense and unpleasant, use it in your garden as a fertilizer or add it to your compost.
Tips and tricks: How to tell if clabber is still good? What is a good clubber “smell”.
Do you know how a fresh natural yogurt smells? This is similar to what clabber smells like. It is a healthy sour dairy smell, so to say. Do you know this really unpleasant smell of a spoiled yogurt?
Once clabber gets a similar smell, it is no longer good for cooking.
Watch the video "What Happens to Raw Milk Left Out of the Fridge & 7 Ways to Use It"
