Raw milk doesn’t go rancid like pasteurized milk; it sours.  As a result, it can be used even after it is beyond the “drinkable” stage, for other purposes.  That is, it gets to a point where it tastes gross if you drink it straight or pour it onto cereal, but it’s still perfectly healthy for consumption.

Because getting the milk is not a simple process for us, we have to guess how much milk we’ll need.  The amount we go through for fresh drinking varies considerably from week to week.  This means that sometimes we have milk leftover that goes sour before we get the newer batch of milk.

I hate to waste it, but I always have a hard time thinking of what to do with it when we’re during that period when we need to use it up.  So I thought I’d make a list.  And then I thought I’d share it with you, because maybe I have readers who can benefit from the same thing.

Pretty much, you can use sour milk in any recipe calling for sour milk (duh), and in most recipes that call for buttermilk.  (I don’t think I’d use it when the buttermilk flavor is the aim – like “buttermilk Ranch.”  ‘Though please feel free to correct me if you’ve tried this and it turned out well!)  Here’s what I came up with through a search in my recipe software:

• saltines or soda crackers
• biscuits/scones
• muffins
• soda bread
• spice cake/quick breads/coffee cake
• yeast bread/rolls
• pancakes
• waffles
• cornbread
• cobbler topping
• marinades
• cottage cheese
• baker’s cheese
• use to dredge meat or fish before breading
• and I think you can use it for soaking your grains (Can anyone confirm that?  Is sour milk sufficiently acidic?)

Have you found any other great uses for sour milk?  Has anyone tried pudding?