I used to buy kefir and yogurt from the raw milk dairy, but now I get raw milk and clabber it since you shared your recipe. Such an easy thing to do once you have your starter. I'm soon to start the kefir adventure, too.
Question about clabbered milk - I made my initial clabber starter quite a while ago and have continued to reuse the resulting clabbered milk to keep going. The clabbered milk was getting so thick and creamy, much like creamy cottage cheese. Very lovely. Then this past week, I started the clabbering process as usual. About five hours later, things went wonky in my jars. The milk separated into curds and whey and looked funky. Smelled fine, but it was hot that day, and so I put the jars in the fridge thinking maybe the heat had caused the strange fermenting. Today, I stirred the jars, and the result is a very thin liquid. The lovely creamy cottage cheese quality is gone. Can a clabber starter run its course and suddenly do this? Or is there another explanation? The end result tastes fine, smells fine, and I'm not sick yet from drinking it. Wondering what's up.
I have a suggestion as to why I sense your clabber took a turn...
I suspect that the clabber got too hot for the bacteria. In this case, some beneficial bacteria likely died with the heat, causing the curds to separate from the liquid (whey).
For this reason, I, too, have to change out my clabber culture occasionally, particularly during the summer months.
In this case, I suggest creating a new culture and starting fresh. If it's super hot where you are, try keeping it in a cooler place (below 95°F), which should improve your clabber's integrity and shelf life.
Keep me posted, and I hope this helps! Don't sweat it too much. The land of bacteria is very sensitive, and needing to start fresh with a new culture happens to all of us!
Thanks for this insight, Heathar. I had some raw milk that needed to be used yesterday, so I tried the old clabber again just to see what would happen. It worked beautifully. This was not clabber from the separated batch but some clabbered milk I had remaining from the fermentation before that. So I think it's good still. With summer coming on, I know what to watch out for now.
Oh, yes, I forgot. Farmers cheese recipe, please. Thank you, Heathar.
I will post the recipe for you and everyone very soon! Excited for you to try it!
I used to buy kefir and yogurt from the raw milk dairy, but now I get raw milk and clabber it since you shared your recipe. Such an easy thing to do once you have your starter. I'm soon to start the kefir adventure, too.
Question about clabbered milk - I made my initial clabber starter quite a while ago and have continued to reuse the resulting clabbered milk to keep going. The clabbered milk was getting so thick and creamy, much like creamy cottage cheese. Very lovely. Then this past week, I started the clabbering process as usual. About five hours later, things went wonky in my jars. The milk separated into curds and whey and looked funky. Smelled fine, but it was hot that day, and so I put the jars in the fridge thinking maybe the heat had caused the strange fermenting. Today, I stirred the jars, and the result is a very thin liquid. The lovely creamy cottage cheese quality is gone. Can a clabber starter run its course and suddenly do this? Or is there another explanation? The end result tastes fine, smells fine, and I'm not sick yet from drinking it. Wondering what's up.
Hi Mare,
Your clabbered milk sounds AWESOME!
I have a suggestion as to why I sense your clabber took a turn...
I suspect that the clabber got too hot for the bacteria. In this case, some beneficial bacteria likely died with the heat, causing the curds to separate from the liquid (whey).
For this reason, I, too, have to change out my clabber culture occasionally, particularly during the summer months.
In this case, I suggest creating a new culture and starting fresh. If it's super hot where you are, try keeping it in a cooler place (below 95°F), which should improve your clabber's integrity and shelf life.
Keep me posted, and I hope this helps! Don't sweat it too much. The land of bacteria is very sensitive, and needing to start fresh with a new culture happens to all of us!
Thanks for this insight, Heathar. I had some raw milk that needed to be used yesterday, so I tried the old clabber again just to see what would happen. It worked beautifully. This was not clabber from the separated batch but some clabbered milk I had remaining from the fermentation before that. So I think it's good still. With summer coming on, I know what to watch out for now.