(1) Bad milk (2) ???? (3) Yummy?

April 1, 2010 11:57 AM

I have about 3/4 of a liter of sour milk - can I cook or bake this into something tasty?

I've looked at previous questions about using up milk about to go bad, but what can I do with milk that's already soured? I thought about making yogurt, but would I just end with yogurt that tastes like sour milk? Ideally, I'd like to make something that uses it all up at once, rather than using it a 1/4 cup at a time in something like pancakes. Would it taste noticeably bad in rice pudding, once it's been cooked and sweetened?

posted by iona to food & drink (17 answers total)

1) Throw out the bad milk
2) Buy new milk
3) There is no step 3
posted by Oktober at 12:03 PM on April 1, 2010 [12 favorites]

I am unaware of anything to be done with your spoiled milk. Milk that is intentionally soured with vinegar or lemon juice can be used for cooking, but spoiled milk is AFAIK useless.
posted by workerant at 12:05 PM on April 1, 2010

It probably isn't sour, unless it is raw milk - pasteurized milk spoils before it sours. Real soured milk from raw milk you can use in cooking and you can even drink it. But you almost certainly have spoiled milk here. Throw it out.
Rule of thumb with milk: if you take a big sniff and it makes you want to barf, you can't use it.
posted by annabkr at 12:07 PM on April 1, 2010

A couple of people have apparently tried making cheese out of it, as detailed here and here. I'm really not sure it's a risk I'd be willing to take, personally.
posted by infinitywaltz at 12:14 PM on April 1, 2010

Scones are greatly enhanced if you use sour milk in them. Don't miss the opportunity.
posted by tel3path at 12:14 PM on April 1, 2010

I make dog treats with past due milk and cheese. Mind you I wouldn't try this with incredibly spoiled milk just kinda sour. Moldy stinky cheese on the otherhand -- that's some tasty dog treat stuff.
posted by countrymod at 12:26 PM on April 1, 2010

I use sour milk in pancakes all the time. Delicious.
posted by SLC Mom at 12:27 PM on April 1, 2010

Thanks for the quick answers - I was hoping I could do something other than pour a few dollars' worth of organic milk down the drain, but that's what I'll do when I get home. It's more-or-less drinkable (accidentally drank some in my tea this morning before I noticed), but it definitely does not taste good.
posted by iona at 12:28 PM on April 1, 2010

I've successfully made some lovely strained Greek-style yogurt from sour milk! It does have a slight bit more "tang" than usual, but it works both on its own, and as an ingredient to creamify curry!
posted by Greg Nog at 12:35 PM on April 1, 2010

Some people are conflating "soured" milk with "spoiled" milk. Let your nose be the guide.

If the smell is "vinegary", then what you have will essentially resemble buttermilk in baking. (Although, you won't want to drink it.) This very rarely happens by accident, even with raw milk (as mentioned above).

If the smell is "bitter" at all, and it makes you in any way nauseous, then there are compounds in there that are simply not edible. In which case, the milk is unusable, and you should get rid of it. Don't try to use it in anything.

Hope this helps.
posted by Citrus at 12:53 PM on April 1, 2010

Milk that is intentionally soured with vinegar or lemon juice can be used for cooking, but spoiled milk is AFAIK useless.

If it's sour (i.e., it's started to go off and is more vinegary than you'd like when you try to drink it straight, we're not talking stuff that's been sitting around for a week or two after it started to taste off), I use it for scones or Irish bread. When I don't have sour milk on hand, I add vinegar to fresh milk, and the bread turns out the same. I grew up making it this way; we always used plain grocery store (whole) milk, though, so I have no idea whether or not the milk's correctly "sour" as explained by the posters above. I haven't died or gotten ill from it yet, but your mileage may, of course, vary.
posted by ubersturm at 1:06 PM on April 1, 2010

If it's sour, use it for banana bread. I normally have to make sour milk as ubersturm describes above.
posted by questionsandanchors at 1:57 PM on April 1, 2010

You may also be interested in this previous question.
posted by flabdablet at 5:36 PM on April 1, 2010

You can make Quark out of it (I think in English it's spelled quarg?).
In Germany we use Quark as a bread-spread. Tastes great!

If you leave the milk sitting white lumps will form and separate from the remaining disgusting looking greenish liquid. Once these lumps have formed simply strain everything through a cheese cloth. Discard the liquid, keep the lumps... they're the Quark. Quark can be transformed into cheese but is delicious all by itself.
Smear it thickly on a slice of good bread. Drizzle some honey on it. Eat. Enjoy.

I love Quark.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 6:03 PM on April 1, 2010

Here's more precise instructions on making quark (without additives such as rennet):

1) pour milk in bowl, cover with cloth, let sit at room temperature for 2 days. You will end up with thick sour milk.
2) preheat an oven to about 90F (30C). Turn off oven, place bowl in oven for about 30 minutes.
This will cause the thick stuff to separate from the greenish liquid. About 2/3 of the original quantity of milk will turn in to the thick stuff.
3) place fine cheese cloth in a 2nd bowl, pour contents into 2nd bowl, tie up cheesecloth, gently lift and leave hanging above bowl for 2 hours until all the liquid has dripped away.
4) this should result in a fairly fluffy, moist quark in the cheesecloth. If it's not moist enough or you left it hanging for too long... simply add a bit of cream, milk or yogurt to achieve the desired consistency.

More on quark from Wikipedia
posted by Hairy Lobster at 6:15 PM on April 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hairly Lobster's point on quark is great, but you can't make quark out of your sour milk because it's not milk that has been soured with a specific bacteria, such as the bacteria in yogurt or buttermlik -- it's soured with some random errant bacteria. Trying to induce the growth of the bacteria (which is what making cheese/yogurt essentially is) and then trying to ingest that harmful bacteria is not a good idea.
posted by suedehead at 9:54 PM on April 1, 2010

Hm, I don't remember my mom ever putting buttermilk into the mix though I do know that there's versions of quark recipes out there that call for it.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:43 AM on April 2, 2010