I have tons of things I can do with my raw milk when it's clabbered. No lack.
I'm less experienced with how milk freshness affects mozz or colby or cheddar or parms.
Not that I want to make a habit of it, but I bet there are better and worse cheeses to even attempt with milk that isn't clabbered, but will be in a few more days.
Any ideas?
So your asking what to make with milk that is not fresh but has yet to clabber ?
Assuming the ph is not below 6.3, 6.4 or so then you can make most cheeses , but the lower the acid the more likely you will need to use a ph meter and not a time recipe.
Agreed - in general you want to make cheese with the milk as fresh as possible. Assuming we're talking about milk stored in a refrigerator, be aware that cold storage of milk actually does some damage in terms of how it will work for making cheese. And the closer the milk gets to sour / clabber, the more you have an unknown mix of bacteria - not necessarily dangerous, but not necessarily the right flavors. (There are, of course, cheeses that are made using raw milk, allowed to clabber naturally - but this is done purposefully and in a single episode, not drawn-out over time in the fridge. And even then, most people will add at least some culture to the milk to make sure the desired bacteria dominate.)
One other thing I just remembered , cold storage of milk does not completely slow down growth psychrotrophics ( bad guys) Where as the good bacteria are almost completely dormant.
So don't try to clabber in the fridge , too risky
It is still fine for butter as a last result.
I guess that would be butter than nothing ....
Sorry, just couldn't resist! ;D
One could also pasteurize , rather than throwing it out