"SourMilk" news and stories

Ever since I switched to buying raw milk in bottles a couple of months ago, I've been searching with ways to use up slightly sour milk. I'm working at incorporating more milk into my diet and cooking, so that I'm able to use it up before it goes off, but I'm just not always able to manage it. However, I'm learning that there are a number of ways to incorporate the sour milk into cooking and baking and I'm beginning to see it as a culinary asset as opposed to a hassle that must be dealt with if I want to prevent waste.

Saturday afternoon, knowing that I had about two cups of sour milking hanging out in the fridge, I started googling around and discovered that in addition to biscuits, pancakes and waffles, a number of people make cake using sour milk. There was one story that I found particularly endearing, about how when one woman was young, she and her siblings would hide a glass of milk in the back of the fridge, so that it would sour and their mother would have to make this cake.

I cobbled together pieces of several recipes and came out with a cake that was light, fluffy and with just a bit of tang from the milk. I used a lot of cinnamon and so it ended up tasting a bit like coffee cake. The next time I make it, I think I'll dust the top with the turbinado sugar, in order to end up with a caramelized, crunchy top. It would make a great addition to a brunch menu, or would be wonderful for a special treat, especially topped with a cream cheese frosting. The recipe for my sour milk cake is after the jump.

The idea started as a way to use up some sour* milk. I couldn't bear to just pour it down the drain and so I started scouting around for ways in which to use it up. I remembered reading a line in a vintage cookbook about saving sour milk for quick breads and muffins (oh, the food knowledge we've lost over the years, I'm sure my grandma Bunny would have know what to do with sour milk without consulting a cookbook). Flipping through my turquoise-covered Joy of Cooking (the edition from the late 1960s), I settled on making a batch of biscuits.

I realize that for many of you out there, the idea of making biscuits to go with dinner isn't a groundbreaking idea. However, I grew up in a family where we did not eat bread products with our evening meal (although my grandparents always had bread on their dining table and my sister and I used to think it was the most thrilling thing ever) and so for me, dinner-time biscuits feels subversive and exciting.

They came together quickly and baked up quickly, adding a level of special-ness and comfort to a regular old dinner. There were a few leftover and I ate them for breakfast the next day with peanut butter and homemade jam.

*When raw milk sours, it's still usable in baking and cooking. Sadly, when pasteurized milk goes bad, it's just bad and can't be salvaged.