Traditionally, a sour milk soup is served with a grating of black bread or dark rye, but if this sort of bread isn’t hanging around your kitchen, substitute crushed digestive biscuits as below.
SERVES 4
6 digestive biscuits, crushed to a fine powder (or 4 slices of stale rye bread, grated)
500ml sour raw (unpasteurised) milk *
25g vanilla sugar (or more, to suit your taste)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Divide the digestive crumbs between four bowls. Whisk the sour milk, sugar and cinnamon together for a few minutes until the sugar has dissolved.
Divide the milk mixture between the four bowls and allow to stand for a few minutes before eating, so that the digestives swell and soak up some of the milk.
OTHER FLAVOURS:
This is also delicious with some finely grated orange or lemon zest added to the milk when you whisk in the sugar.
A knife tip of crushed cardamom seeds can be used instead of the cinnamon.
OTHER USES FOR SOUR RAW MILK:
Sour raw milk can also be used in place of buttermilk in things like pancakes and waffles, or in baked goods such as scones and soda bread. Sour milk is also great to marinate meat in. It is best to use it the day it turns sour.
* If you are worried about using raw milk, this soup can also be made with 300ml of buttermilk and 200ml of pasteurised milk, whisked together. Milk is pasteurised to kill off any harmful bacteria and give it a longer shelf life, but through the process of pasteurisation many of the good enzymes and bacteria that are beneficial to a healthy gut and a strong immune system are also destroyed. The flavour of the milk changes considerably too. Raw milk is most delicious and is totally different to what is available on the supermarket shelves, but it can only be sold by farms directly to consumers, so it is solely available at selected farms or farmers’ markets, not from regular shops. I have noted where raw milk can be bought in the list of suppliers here.
THE SIMPLEST YOGURT
THE SIMPLEST YOGURT
The beauty of yogurt is that each new batch is made with the last spoonful from the old pot. I love the cycle of renewal it goes through – the idea that you are keeping something going means you get to know it and understand its ways, and the ingredient becomes like an old friend in the kitchen, always there, steady and reliable.
Yogurt is so cheap and easy to buy that you could argue: why bother making your own? Well, it’s so easy to make (easier than going to the shops for many of us who don’t have them on the doorstep) and it means you can choose to make it exactly how you like it: more creamy perhaps, runny, thick or very set – most shop-bought yogurt contains added emulsifiers, which change the texture of the yogurt, making it more creamy in consistency overall. Really it’s a matter of personal preference, but I find yogurt with added emulsifiers lacking in character.
You don’t need any special equipment to make yogurt, but a yogurt-maker is cheap to buy and I strongly advise getting one if it is something you plan to do regularly. Failing that, an airing cupboard is the perfect spot for yogurt. Yogurt also sets well in jars, wrapped in a tea towel and perched on top of the radiator or on a tray near the boiler, and if you are lucky enough to have an Aga, you can just rest the tea-towel-insulated jars at the back overnight and in the morning your yogurt will be ready. If you live in a warmer climate, you can simply set the yogurt outside in a shady spot – while living in New England I did this during the summer months, and it worked a treat.
MAKES ABOUT 750ML
You will need 6 small, lidded jars
750ml whole milk (raw or pasteurised)
2 heaped tablespoons live bio-yogurt
Heat the milk in a large saucepan until small bubbles start to form on the surface. This takes about 5 minutes at most, so don’t walk away from the pan – a watchful eye is important, as it can boil over very easily. Once the bubbles start to rise up the sides of the pan, turn the heat off and set the pan aside to cool to a lukewarm temperature. Whisk in the yogurt until there are no lumps. Pour the milk into small, sterilised jars (I use Weck jars, but any old jam jars will do as long as they have lids), then seal the jars and let them sit undisturbed in a warm place, such as a yogurt-maker or any of the spots suggested above, for 8–10 hours, until the yogurt is set.
Refrigerate until needed.
Note: If you like your yogurt more creamy, switch 200ml of the whole milk for single cream.
BUTTERMILK AND QUARK
Buttermilk is the liquid left over after beating cream to make butter. It is slightly sour in flavour and is most refreshing to drink in a way that pure milk, which has a natural sweetness to it, isn’t. I am incredibly fond of buttermilk and especially like to drink it with a small pinch of salt.
The buttermilk we buy in cartons, however, is not a by-product of butter-making; it is what’s called cultured buttermilk – essentially, milk fermented through the addition of cultures, which makes it slightly thicker in consistency than original buttermilk – and this is what I use most regularly in the kitchen, as I am sure is the case for most of us.
Just like milk, cream or yogurt, buttermilk is an ingredient that lends itself well to both sweet and savoury dishes. It has a clean flavour with a tang of citrus, and I find myself using it more and more these days. When baked into quick breads and cakes it not only serves to moisten the crumb but also adds lightness. As well as baking with it we add it to soups – indeed even use it as the soup – marinate meat in it, whisk it into pancake and waffle batters, shake it into dressings, churn it into ice creams and turn it into wobbly desserts.
The most important thing we make with it, though, is quark – a fresh, spreadable cheese – which in turn also gets used in many delicious ways.
Quark, one of the most hard-working ingredients in the German kitchen, is basically a soft cheese that is made out of cultured milk (buttermilk), where the curds (solids) have separated from the whey (liquid). It is very easy to make at home (the only downside being that it needs to hang for a day), but is so cheap and widely available that rarely does anyone bother these days. I adore the stuff: creamy in colour, dense in texture and tangy in flavour, it’s an ingredient so versatile that I couldn’t do without it. Quark is not only delicious but healthy too, as it is high in protein and low in fat, one of those magic foods that leaves you feeling fuller for longer – it works well in place of Greek yogurt. We bake with it, embellish it with herbs, whisk it into batters, whip it into desserts or simply enjoy it spread on bread – it certainly gives cream cheese a run for its money.
SHORTCUT QUARK
If you do have 5 minutes of spare time and don’t need to use the quark immediately, it is well worth making at home. While you won’t be saving any money in doing so, the quark you end up with will be far superior in quality to that which you will find on the supermarket shelves. This is a shortcut way of making quark, which results in a slightly less sour and fresher flavour than traditional quark, where the buttermilk is heated at a low temperature for several hours so that the curds separate from the whey.
MAKES ABOUT 320G
You will need a muslin or a cheesecloth
1 litre buttermilk
Place a colander over a large bowl, then lay a clean muslin in the colander and pour the buttermilk