How to Use Curdled Milk Instead of Pouring It
If you’ve seen this video , you already know that I am one of those perverts who, like a child, drink whole milk just for the taste. I love it, and years of feelinggood have helped me develop a sophisticated “milky taste”. If my milk is even a little sour, I can taste it.
This light taste or even stronger sour taste does not necessarily mean that the milk is useless. According to a 2015 NPR interview with Dana Ganders of the Natural Resources Defense Council, sour pasteurized milk is unlikely to cause illness:
Gunders writes that milk becomes more acidic with age, creating an environment “hostile to germs that can cause disease.”
This does not apply to raw (unpasteurized) milk. Don’t drink sour raw milk (fresh raw milk is dangerous in itself ).
But a little bit of astringency won’t hurt you. If your milk is not moldy or rancid and vomiting, sour milk that is a little outdated can be used to make many treats.
Baking is the most obvious choice, and the best option if you want to hide the astringency is to use it like “regular” milk, cup by cup. (Gunders is very fond of using it in pancakes.) Just last night I baked a lemon-olive butter cake with a little milk that was two weeks past the shelf life, and I will do it again. (The expiration date is the manufacturer’s best guess of when the milk will be “freshest” —that is almost a waste of time). The milk in question is not what I would like to drink – it took on a slightly yellow tint and smelled a little sour, but it mixed perfectly with the thick, already slightly tart, batter. (The Tasting Chart states that curdled milk is actually better than fresher food and that the extra acid helps with loosening, but its effects are difficult to quantify.)
If you have a lot of it, you can use curdled milk to marinate poultry and pork with great results – just add a little salt and leave the meat in seasoned sour milk overnight, then cook as usual. You can also bring all the “sour” garbage to its logical conclusion and make cheese. Ricotta ( sous-vide or otherwise ) is never a bad choice.