Can I eat it? Snowpocalypse 2.0 edition

February 10, 2014 3:12 PM

So...Ralph forgot I had already made a milk and bread run and bought another gallon-but didn't check the date (it was the last gallon at that convenience store. ) So, I opened it for milk for my coffee and right after I poured it noticed the date. Feb 4th. This is the 10th. And then I noticed the slight curding once it met my coffee and generic sweet and low. It didn't smell or taste sour, but it did leave a few curds at the bottom of the cup (yes, I drank it.) So, my question is this: Since obviously this is not fresh milk, and since I DO have other milk in the house-what milkusing recipes can I use this for?

I am already planning a batch of cheese biscuits, but that will hardly scratch the surface. What can I do with this milk besides pour it out or feed it to the outside apartment community stray cat? Hive mind, I look to you....

(I know there is a previous question that alludes to this, but I really want some recipes. I know the milk won't KILLme.

posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies to Food & Drink (27 answers total)

Use it for anything that calls for buttermilk/acidified milk. To leaven biscuits, muffins, quickbreads, pancakes, etc. To marinate/tenderize meat for fried chicken. Custard for buttermilk pie. Buttermilk mashed potatoes. Homemade ranch and blue cheese dressing!
posted by peachfuzz at 3:20 PM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

As every British granny will tell you - scones. They freeze well too.
posted by Helga-woo at 3:21 PM on February 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

Leaving aside the curds, I might try crockpot rice pudding.
posted by readery at 3:24 PM on February 10, 2014

I did the same thing and tried using it to make yogurt, but the curds never came out. So that's more of a thing I wouldn't recommend.

I think any cultured buttermilk recipe should be workable.
posted by thewumpusisdead at 3:26 PM on February 10, 2014

One Hour Cinnamon Rolls calls for buttermilk and sounds fabulous.
posted by Adridne at 3:35 PM on February 10, 2014

Best answer: Fresh ricotta. Homemade paneer.
posted by supercres at 3:37 PM on February 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I'd make homemade ricotta.
posted by gauche at 3:37 PM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Who here likes pancakes? I love pancakes.

made with sour milk
posted by drlith at 3:43 PM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Buttermilk is not the same as soured milk. That said, if it didn't taste horrible, I'd use it to make scones, cake, pudding, muffins; basically, anything that gets cooked or baked. Not because cooking and baking will mitigate the spoilage, but because you won't notice the sour taste after cooking and baking.
posted by cooker girl at 3:48 PM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Ralph deserves thanks for shopping, not a tummy ache. Toss the milk or give it to animals. They can handle a lot of ick that people can't.
posted by Cranberry at 3:56 PM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Pour it out, save the carton, and bring it back to the store for a refund. You should get one without question since this is their fault.
posted by Wordwoman at 4:02 PM on February 10, 2014 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I came to suggest ricotta. My husband once turned a liter of greenish milk into individual ricotta cakes (think muffin tin), put a walnut on top and drizzled them with honey. A delicious dessert. Dessert which seemed to be made from magic.

Don't listen to the naysayers. Gauche's recipe calls for heating the milk to 190F, while wikipedia says that flash pasturization is only 161F for 15 seconda.
posted by lollymccatburglar at 4:15 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'd make manjar/dulce de leche - toss it in a pot, add a little sugar, simmer until it turns into delicious caramel.
posted by foodgeek at 4:19 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

My grandma made her famous Irish soda bread with slightly spoiled milk for 40 years; all eight of her kids alive and well and fighting over dibs on the recipe. Alas, my sister has it at the moment, but I'd google for any soda bread recipe that calls for buttermilk and use what you've got. (You want the white flour and raisins/currents/sultanas version of Irish soda bread, not the brown Irish soda bread).
posted by Diablevert at 4:54 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Unfortunately I think a lot of the curd-forming things people are suggesting (yogurt, paneer, ricotta) wouldn't work as well with convenience store milk; the homogenization and pasteurization processes sometimes monkey with that. I've only ever had luck with ricotta/yogurt/etc. when I was using the fancy-ass organic stuff because they're gentler with the pasteurization and homogenization process.

I'm afraid I'd call this a loss.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:13 PM on February 10, 2014

Response by poster: I'm eating my cheese biscuits right now and they taste fine. I used a lot of milk in that coffee and it was fine too.

If the milk starts to smell soury I will probably give it to the cat, but so far so good.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:35 PM on February 10, 2014

Baking with spoiled milk seems like a bad idea, too.

Years and years of traditional Irish soda bread disagree. Darina Allen's Forgotten Skills of Cooking covers a lot of traditional baking recipes that do well with sour milk.
posted by bfranklin at 5:36 PM on February 10, 2014

Unless it says otherwise, the date on the carton is the last day it can be sold, not the last day it's safe to eat.
posted by brujita at 5:47 PM on February 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

Mod note: Folks, just answer the question.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:59 PM on February 10, 2014

I'd add it to a bathtub of hot water and take a bath.
posted by icanbreathe at 6:19 PM on February 10, 2014

Best answer: Unfortunately I think a lot of the curd-forming things people are suggesting (yogurt, paneer, ricotta) wouldn't work as well with convenience store milk; the homogenization and pasteurization processes sometimes monkey with that. I've only ever had luck with ricotta/yogurt/etc. when I was using the fancy-ass organic stuff because they're gentler with the pasteurization and homogenization process.

I've successfully made paneer and ricotta with a gallon of store brand or whatever-non-fancy brand milk. Fancypants milk might work better, but it's not impossible with run of the mill stuff.
posted by geegollygosh at 6:38 PM on February 10, 2014

My mom used to make Jello instant pudding every time our milk got iffy, and I thought it was a real treat since that was about the only time she made it.
You'd also probably be fine making any kind of egg-and-milk custard: quiche or flan or baked custard, or rice pudding.
posted by aimedwander at 7:19 PM on February 10, 2014

Make paneer. Boil that milk to just boiling, add few teaspoons of lemon juice (from real lemons). Wait until you see curds on top and the filter this curds+watery whey with a fine muslin cloth (Don't throw away that whey!).

Keep the curds (paneer) tightly bound with the muslin, or if you want to shape it like it is sold in stores, just manipulate the muslin cloth into a rectangular brick about 1-2 inches thick. Place this muslin+paneer on a flat surface with some sort of heavy load (a pan?) with a flat surface. Check in a couple hours, and paneer should be ready.

With the watery whey you get - its very high in protein and calcium - just use it in place of or with stock in soups, use it for baking etc. Very nutritious.
posted by greta_01 at 8:24 PM on February 10, 2014

Oh honey, bread pudding for the win!

And rice pudding! Yum!
posted by Lynsey at 9:12 PM on February 10, 2014

you can totally make yoghurt with it as long as your starter is LIVE yogurt and you don't make it too hot. You have to start at blood heat and keep it warm.
posted by glasseyes at 2:52 PM on February 11, 2014

Milk Liqueur, milk that gets you hammered
posted by yggdrasil at 4:21 PM on February 11, 2014

Response by poster: Cheese was made. By Ralph. I tasted it. Crumbly but yummy.

Thanks, all. It did just fine.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:41 PM on February 12, 2014