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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => INGREDIENTS - Lactic Acid Starter Cultures => Topic started by: MrsKK on August 27, 2009, 09:57:18 PM
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Clabber can be used in place of buttermilk or even mesophilic culture for cheesemaking. I will summarize how I make it, plus here's a link to a thread about clabber from the Keeping a Family Cow forum: http://familycow.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Food&action=display&thread=18256 (http://familycow.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Food&action=display&thread=18256) If you have any questions, just let me know.
Clabber can only be made with raw milk, as pasteurized milk has all of the beneficial microorganisms killed off.
Place 1 cup of raw, skimmed milk in a sterile jar, covered with a light cloth and in a place where it will be safe. In the summer weather, my skimmed milk will clabber in about 3 days, using about 1 cup of milk for the first batch. I use about a quarter cup of that to culture the next 2 cups of milk, which takes about two days. Usually by the third generation, the clabber is very mild tasting and makes a really good culture for Neufchatel or other cheeses. Just make sure to only use a tea towel or other lightweight cloth to cover the jar or bowl that you have your clabber in. Covering with an air-tight lid will cause it to taste really bad.
If you can't bring yourself to taste the clabber, just wait until you are to the 4th or 5th generation and it should work really well for you. The clabber left after you take out your culture can be fed to chickens, pigs, dogs, or cats. They love it!
I use about 1 cup of clabber to culture 5 gallons of milk.
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Thank you Karen.
I have only tried this a few times and it seems to work really well. I think it's a great alternative to commercial cultures and seems to have worked as a mesohphilic culture substitute in both my colby and my farmhouse cheddar.
And my cats do love it!
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As we are raising pigs and chickens to butcher, I've been making three gallons of clabber every other day to feed to them. They have been growing really well on it and it really helps keep down the grain costs. I'm not so careful with those batches, but the animals don't mind of it gets tangy.
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Probably like it better!
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will this work with goats milk too?
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I have not tried it but I seem to remember reading someone did this also with goats milk.