Bonny Clabber

I am fascinated by fermented dairy.  I love the idea that these little magic critters will happily predigest milk for me, making it easier on my stomach, removing some of the sugar, and improving its benefits.  It is thrilling to take the bowl of scalded milk that I left in my warm oven the night before and find creamy, beautiful yogurt.  I love that there are so many varieties--beyond yogurt, I have made piima, labnah, crème fraich, and buttermilk.  My next project is kefir. 
 In all the many varieties of cultured dairy, you add a starter culture, inoculating the milk with the specific species of microbe that produces the result you want.  The starter you begin with predicts the product you end up with.  It is fascinating to me that there are so many variants to soured milk.  In every culture that traditionally used dairy they depended on microorganisms to preserve their milk.  Each culture had its own unique version, from cheese to yogurt to sour cream, but the goal was the same—imbue perishable milk with a bit of immortality. 

Bonny clabber is another fascinating dairy ferment but it is a little different.  It is the product of wild fermentation. You don't inoculate the milk, it inoculates itself.   You set the milk out for a few days and let it go.  It thickens and curdles.  In the end you have something that looks a lot like cottage cheese and tastes very sour and yogurt-ish. 

Apparently, clabber came to the southern United States, especially Appalachia, with immigrants from Scotland.  The name, “bonny clabber”, is from Gaelic for soured milk. I can imagine that those thrifty, frugal people were unwilling to throw away nutritious milk that had soured in the hot weather (I can relate-raw milk is expensive and I don’t want to waste any of it).

Bonny clabber has died out with the advent of pasteurization.  In fact, it's a little difficult to get over the cultural notion that milk that has gone sour, and in the case of bonny clabber, has thickened and curdled, is not ok to eat.  Paradoxically, I have no problem enjoying yogurt, kefir, sour cream, or any other more “cultured” dairy ferment.  I had a hard time finding much about bonny clabber on the internet. I found a Civil War recipe, which was kind of cool, and Jenny at Nourished Kitchen mentions it when talking about the variety of cultured dairy.  Alchemille tried it back in 2009 and I found a mention of it in a book called Scotch-Irish Foodways in America.

 So, I had a gallon of raw milk that went sour this weekend.  Normally, I make sour milk into chocolate milk or eggnog and let my kids have a special treat.  I don't want to send expensive raw milk down the drain just because it's sour--raw milk that has soured is not like pasteurized milk which becomes putrid and rotten.  The little magic critters just start using up the milk sugar and turning the milk sour...it actually becomes MORE nourishing.  So, I find a way to get it into my kids' tummies. 

This time I decided to completely jump the shark and see if I could make bonny clabber.  I put a quart of sour milk in a mason jar, covered it and set it in what I have come to call my “ferment cupboard”—the cupboard above my range that stays nice and warm.  Three days later (that would be this morning), I took it down and opened it.  It had curdled into a solid mass and smelled like warm yogurt.  I put a little in a bowl and tasted it—wow! Very sour!  The texture reminded me a little of custard.  It was shiny and thick and white.  The cream had risen to the top of the jar and curdled separately, so I spooned that off first.  I had read that you can make clabber butter with clabbered cream…now, that’s a thought. The whey breaks out very quickly when you start to spoon out the clabber so I decided to stain some of it off.  I used a coffee filter to line my strainer and left it for a couple of hours.  It strains a lot slower than yogurt. 

After the straining, it looked more like cottage cheese than custard.  I tried it with brown sugar, cinnamon, and cream and it was good…different but good.  My 9 year old had it for breakfast and he liked it too.  I can’t see us having it very often because it requires a good heaping helping of sweetness to deal with the sour taste, but once in awhile a little bonny clabber might be a nice thing. 

Adventures with Homemade Yogurt

Last week my kids and I tagged along when my husband went to Dallas on a business trip.  Dallas is our hometown, so we had a great time hanging out with our family and some of our old friends.  One person I got to visit while I was there was my good friend, Leisa.   Leisa has three little girls and is one of those moms that is very conscientious about her kids.  She works very hard to give her children healthy “food” in the spiritual, educational, as well as physical sense.  I am consistently impressed with her thoughtful and purposeful parenting.

So, in the course of our conversation as we spent the afternoon together, I had to tell her about all the new things I have been learning about food and nutrition (am I becoming a Real Food evangelist?).  We had some very deep discussions about grains, natural fats, raw dairy, and grassfed meat.  Two things that came out of our conversation were a trip to a local raw dairy farm and a lesson in yogurt making.  At the time, I showed her how to make yogurt from pasteurized milk because making raw milk yogurt is a bit of a can of worms (healthy worms, but worms nonetheless)…Her eyes were already a looking a little overwhelmed, so I was trying to keep it simple. 

Here’s how we did it:

We went to the grocery store and bought ½ gallon organic milk and plain, whole milk, live culture yogurt (we bought Dannon that day but I have also used Greek Gods and Trader Joes).

We preheated the oven just to warm and then let it cool so that the inside was warm but not hot.

We heated the milk in a saucepan on medium heat to 180 degrees, stirring to prevent sticking or burning (Makayla and Grace were the stirrers).  Then we took the milk off the heat and let it cool to 110 degrees.  We added two heaping Tbsps of the store bought yogurt and mixed it gently but thoroughly through the milk.  We put the milk into glass jars (she had some clean spaghetti sauce jars, I use quart sized mason jars at home) and put them in the oven.  I headed back to my hotel at that point but instructed her to leave the oven closed with the light on overnight.  The next morning she took the jars out and put them in fridge for a few hours.  After that, she strained the yogurt through a clean cloth, taking out some of the whey (which is great for other things like this and this and this) and thickening up the yogurt. 

I believe she also sweetened it with some homemade fruit jam.

The yogurt experiment went well, I guess, because today I got a text from her asking a very simple question: “When I make yogurt with raw milk, do I still have to heat it to 180 degrees?”  And thus, the can of worms was opened.  The answer to this “simple” question is the result of about 6 months of experimentation on my part.  Here it is:

In order to get the yogurt starter to "take", you have to kill off all the existing microbes so that the ones in the starter won't have any competition...in essence, you have to pasteurize it. That is what the heating to 180 degrees does. If you are using milk that is already pasteurized, it’s all good because the milk is already "dead" and you are putting the starter in to make it alive again.

However, if you are using raw milk, some people don't think you should heat it beyond 110 degrees because you don't want to hurt all the living components of the milk. You can make yogurt with raw milk by only heating it to 110 (which won't hurt it at all), letting it cool just a little and then adding the starter. The difference is that it will not get thick. It will be a runny, yogurt drink. It will be super healthy and delicious (and you can add stuff to flavor it up) but it will not be thick and firm like store bought yogurt. You will also get slightly different consistency each time because you are dealing with an already established ecosystem that will be individual for each batch of milk. I make this kind of yogurt sometimes and it is a yummy surprise...sometimes super sour, sometimes has little clumps, sometimes thicker, sometimes thinner. All of it is delicious and healthy.

On the other hand, if you want thick yogurt you must heat it to 180 and sacrifice a lot of the existing microbes and enzymes in order to give your starter a chance to grow.  This heating does not completely deaden and alter the milk like commercial high heat pasteurization and homogenization does. In addition, the milk still has all the great vitamins and minerals from the healthy cows. So this yogurt will be much more nutritious than Dannon or what not. Your results will, again, not be as consistent as when you start with store bought milk.  But however it turns out (thick, thin, clumpy, smooth) you can be sure it is still healthy and good for you. Raw milk does not go "bad", it just sours as the milk sugar gets used up by the microbes. 

My children are very very picky and I have found that if their yogurt is different every time, they will turn up their noses. So, this is what I do--I have found a dairy where the cows are grassfed and healthy but the farmer does pasteurize (NOT homogenize). He does what is called "gentle, low heat batch pasteurization”, which is a different process than the high heat, factory processing that all store milk goes through. His milk is only heated to 165 degrees. I buy a gallon of this milk to use it to make yogurt for my kids rather than take my chances on raw milk yogurt. This way, my results are consistent, the yogurt is from healthy milk, and my kids eat it...we all win.
I do not know if there is a source for vat pasteurized and non-homogenized milk in your area. Ask around at the farmers market and on the internet. You might find one. If you can't and your kids insist on thick yogurt that looks the same every time, you could just continue to use organic whole milk from the store. By adding back in the live cultures, you are giving them good stuff for their tummies and making sure that they don't get the yucky additives that store bought yogurt has. 

I hope my answer was helpful to Leisa.  I guess she is really going to just have to experiment to decide if she (and her children) will prefer homemade yogurt from raw milk, vat pasteurized, or settle for organic from the grocery store.  In my opinion, homemade yogurt made from any of these types of milk is nutritious and delicious…and it makes me feel like a super mom when I watch my kids eat it for breakfast.

So, I just got another question from Leisa.  She wants to know what to do with raw milk when it sours.  Another simple, straightforward question with a long, complicated answer…I’ll get right on it!

Sally Fallon on Soy

I love Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions.  It is full of information, science, and recipes.
Here she is talking about soy.  When I first read the truth about soy, I felt like someone had played a mean trick on me...why are we told that soy is a health food?  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that soy has become an intrinsic part of mono-agriculture and it's big bucks...They keep growing the stuff and they need to sell it, right?

Josh Rubin on Milk

Josh Rubin (like Sean Croxton on Underground Wellness) is a little off-putting to me simply because I feel like a bit of a fuddy-duddy when I listen to him...he uses slang that I don't understand! 
But once I get past my impression of the messenger, I really appreciate the information.
Here he is talking about milk.

Chicken Broth

Even before I knew about the health benefits of bone broth, I was making chicken stock.  Every time I cooked a chicken, I would throw the bones in my crockpot and boil it for a few hours.  The next day I always made chicken soup, using the stock and the leftover chicken.  It just seemed like the frugal thing to do.  I have learned since then that it is also the healthiest thing to do.  Stock made from bones has tons of health benefits.  It is full of proline,  glycine, and gelatin which you can read about here and important minerals like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and other trace minerals.  There are many places on the internet where you can learn about the benefits of bone broth (here and here) and how to make it (Look here and here and here).  Bone broth is an easy, inexpensive way to boost my family’s nutrition, and chicken broth is the easiest and most inexpensive type of broth. 

When I make broth, I usually make a soup or stew that day or the next but I don’t use up all the broth for that one meal.  I take what’s left over and pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it.  I put all the little broth squares into a freezer bag.  When I am cooking and need to add water to the pan, I throw in a broth cube instead, adding a few more minerals to whatever I am making.  I also use the broth to cook white rice, instead of water.  Rice by itself is not particularly nutritious—just a bunch of starch.  When it’s cooked in broth, however, it absorbs all the goodness inherent in the broth and becomes much more nourishing.

As an added note, canned or boxed stocks and broths have none of the health benefits of homemade broth and have added preservatives, sugar, and junk.  Bouillon, on the other hand, is downright toxic, full of MSG.  Accept no substitutes for delicious, healthy, homemade chicken broth.

Here is how I make it:

Chicken carcass

2 peeled carrots cut into 1 inch chunks

2 ribs of celery cut into 1 inch chunks

1 onion cut into 8 pieces

A few whole peppercorns

2 bay leaves

A shake of dried thyme

A little salt

¼ cub apple cider vinegar

Filtered water to cover

Put everything in a stock pot or slow cooker.  Let it sit for about an hour so that the vinegar can begin leaching minerals from the bones.  Turn on the heat and cover, letting it simmer for 4 to 24 hours. 

Strain out the bones and vegetables (My daughter loves to eat the carrots that come out of the pot). Store the broth in the fridge (you can skim the fat off the top after it chills, if you want) for up to a week and then freeze it.

A Special Way To Start And End The Day

Having a warm mug of something delicious is one of those things that elevates an ordinary morning and makes a quiet evening special.    When I first got my copy of Nourishing Traditions, one of the first recipes I made was Chicken Coconut Soup.  I found it to be amazingly delicious and comforting and I started to make it on an almost daily basis, drinking it in the morning and at bedtime from a mug.  It is warm and comforting, lifting my spirits, soothing my tummy, and making me feel mellow and relaxed.  To make it even better, I know that the bone broth and the coconut milk have health promoting elements like minerals, healthy fats, and are healing for my gut.

Many times I have gone to make this soup and found that I was missing one or more of the ingredients.  However, it is delicious and satisfying when simply made with broth, coconut milk, and salt.  It is even better when one or more of the flavoring elements are added.     

1 quart homemade broth (chicken is my favorite, but any type of bone broth will do)

1 cup coconut milk

1 Tbsp finely minced  fresh garlic

1 Tbsp finely minced onions

1 Tbsp grated ginger

1 tsp red pepper flakes

Lemon or lime juice from half a lemon/lime

Fish sauce or salt to taste

1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Method:

Heat the broth to a slow boil and add the coconut milk.  Turn it down to a simmer.  Add the garlic, onions, ginger, and pepper flakes .

Simmer for about 30 minutes. 

Add lemon/lime juice and fish sauce or salt.  Taste it and adjust, if needed.

Ladle into a mug or bowl and add cilantro.

Enjoy inhaling the flavorful steam as you sip.

Spring Brings Green Grass and Yellow Dairy

This morning I saw that Sarah at The Healthy Home Economist was writing about the wonder of rapidly growing spring grass.  She tells how the color of her grassfed milk changes to a darker beige as the cows feed on the vitamin rich new spring grass.

We switched to raw dairy at the end of this past summer and I read Nutrition and Physical Generation just a few months ago, in the middle of winter.  Weston Price tells of the isolated Swiss who regard the milk they harvest during the spring as a sacred food, thanking God for providing them with the means to make nourishing cheese that will sustain their families through the year.  After analyzing butter made from spring milk, he found that it had a special, uniquely vital component that he called "Activator X".  I think I saw somewhere else that this turns out to be vitamin K2.  Price used butter oil from spring butter as a supplement for undernourished children and now I give my own children this same butter oil, mixed with fermented cod liver oil.

Late last summer I switched to raw, grassfed milk, butter, and cheese because I wanted to provide my children with optimal nutrition.  Since it was the middle of winter (and the cows were eating hay) when I was learning about the special properties of raw dairy harvested in the early spring, I  felt a little frustrated that I would have to wait to see that subtle color change. I bought grassfed butter that was a pale, off white color but made a plan in my own mind that when spring arrived and the butter turned yellow, I would buy as much of it as I could and store it in my freezer to use year round.  Since then, I have lost my original source of butter and need to find a new one (I still have butter in my freezer, so it hasn't been at the top of my list).

Perhaps this spring I'll try making butter myself, using the grassfed raw milk I get from Carlton Farms.  If I do, I will be sure to tell you about the experiment and the results.

My Journey

For much of my adult life I have felt the tension of a struggle-struggle against fat, against fatigue, against negative thoughts.  Somehow I had a feeling that the key to winning the struggle might depend on what I put in my mouth.  I had certainly hear Hippocrates’ famous quote, “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.”  And I believed it.  Over the years I tried being a vegetarian, a vegan, and for a brief, disastrous time, a raw vegan.  I watched what went into my mouth and made that a partial measure of my worth.  As I got older and settled into moderation of thinking, I was careful to base my own and my family’s diet on whole grains, abundant plants, and an avoidance of red meat and saturated fats.  I understood and “swallowed” the mainstream message of what constituted a healthy diet.  Yet despite my best efforts, excellent health and the peace of mind that should come from it eluded me.  Especially after I had children, my health problems grew.  I was always tired.  I had just enough energy to take care of my family, hold down my job, and watch TV.  Every year I gained weight.  I struggled with food cravings.  I went through a monthly cycle of mood swings.  Negativity and discontent dogged my mind.   I got my thyroid tested and found that I was hypothyroid but synthroid did not really make me feel much better.  Last summer I had an interesting conversation with my brother.  He had been following a Paleo diet—something I had never heard of.   He said that he had been avoiding carbohydrates, especially grains and eating a lot of meat and saturated fat.  He suggested that I read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson and pointed me to his blog, Mark’s Daily Apple.  That particular blog led me to another and another.  And after reading The Primal Blueprint, my reading list grew.  I was led, inevitably to the Weston A. Price Foundation.  I also discovered The Perfect Health Diet by Paul and Shou-ching Jaminet.  Over the course of months, I came to a new conviction about what it meant to be healthy and began to strive toward a diet of whole, real foods.  I started shopping from local farmers, switched my family to raw dairy, crossed grains (other than rice) completely off my shopping list and accumulated a long list of blogs, websites, and books that I get my health information from. 

Clearly, I am still in the midst of the journey.  My understanding and convictions change as I learn, but here is where I am now:  I do not buy processed or package foods.  I give my children raw, grass-fed milk.  I buy, as much as possible, local grass-fed beef and pastured pork and chicken.  I buy local, pastured eggs.  I cook from scratch, using real, unprocessed ingredients.  I never use gluten, under any circumstance.  The only grain I use is white rice.  I try to eat fermented foods (made by me) every day.

This blog is my record of the journey toward resolving my struggle and finding health and peace.  I am honored to share it with you.

My First Post

Well, here it is.  My first post on my first blog.  The purpose of this blog is to create a space where I can organize, access, and share information that is important to me.  Mainly, since I have been doing so much reading and researching about health and traditional food, I want a single url I can send to friends who ask me about what I have been learning.  I plan to post on this blog as I experiment with recipes and traditional cooking and food preparation. It has become a daily adventure for me and I would love to have a record of my successes, failures, and the lessons that come with them. I will also maintain a list of links to my favorite websites, blogs, and books.  Inevitably, my family will leak into my posts, so perhaps this will also become a place where I can share with our extended family all that is happening with us.

So, as they say, here goes nothing!