Wardeh Harmon (Gnowfglins) in southwestern Oregon makes sour cream for her family and soured (clabbered) milk for her chickens and dog from raw milk she gets from the family cow.
She writes, “We get around 4 gallons of milk per day from our Jersey cow. For our family, this is plenty to make cheese, butter, kefir, ice cream and more — plus we have some to share with friends AND some to clabber (spontaneously sour) for the chickens and dog. I figured out a really easy way to get both clabber for the chickens and sour cream for us, with hardly any work at all.”
This is a fresh cheese, similar to Indian paneer (except that it isn’t pressed or cut into cubes). This recipe makes a luscious, spreadable, fresh cheese.
Chef John of foodwishes demnostrates how he makes fromage blanc with milk, buttermilk, salt and lemon juice. He notes that the ingredient amounts are crucial — you can view his recipe with exact amounts here.
Labneh making is pretty straightforward and can be formed into balls and preserved in oil.
Mariam shows us how to make labneh, step by step:
Dede shows us how she makes plain labneh then flavors it:
The labneh I’ve had before (at a restaurant) was over-the-top in a good way rich and creamy, so may guess is how tasty it is is greatly affected by the yoghurt you use and the milk/cream it’s made with.
The labneh can be preserved in oil and in this way stored for months without refrigeration. To do so, the labneh is drained for longer and formed into balls (labneh makboos).
Evelyn write “This is an old-world recipe. It is really just drained, salted yoghurt, very easy to make and very easy to preserve. I guarantee that once you have made these and tasted how delicious they are, they will become a staple in your home.
The recipe proceeds pretty much like Dede and Mariam’s tutorials but instead of draining the yoghurt for 12 hours or overnight you drain the yoghurt for something like 24 hours, until you are able to form the yoghurt into balls, which you then chill in the fridge to firm up further. The balls are then put into a heat sterilized jar and covered with oil.
I assume that getting out as much water as possible is important in being able to preserve these balls – though the active yoghurt culture will also play its part.
Sarah in Florida shows us how to make a fizzy fermented drink, beet kvass. For this recipe you’ll need beets, whey, salt and water. She mentions that the beets should be fresh and “clean” – so if you grow your own, this would be a great recipe.
Chef John (in San Francisco) of foodwishes shows us how he makes sour cream/creme fraiche.
Very straightforward – The ingredients are cream and cultured buttermilk at room temperature (no heating necessary, though the culturing will go faster the hotter the environment).
Melody Kettle shows us how she makes cultured butter at home. She used Greek yoghurt to culture cream and then her hand mixer (first with whisk attachments and then with paddles) to “churn” the butter. She rinses the butter in ice water and then uses her hands (she could also have used butter paddles) to knead and squeeze the butter.
I’m guessing that the taste of the butter will vary depending on what you use to culture the cream.
In this video Kali Lilla makes unsalted butter and a flavored butter (garlic butter).
Kali Lilla makes her cultured butter in a blender (with a chilled blender chamber/cup). She also used yoghurt to culture her cream but says that the cream can culture on its own but that it will take longer without using the yoghurt as a starter. She saves the buttermilk she presses out of the yoghurt for other uses.
Kali Lilla mentions that the culturing of the cream helps make it easier to digest.
From Wardeh Harmon in Oregon. She discusses the science and the benefits of sourdough:
–No need to buy your yeast – the wild yeasts and lactobacilli in sourdough starter are everywhere in the environment, you just need to encourage them.
–Sourdough breads don’t stale as quickly.
-Sourdough starter is more versatile and resilient than store-bought yeast (for example, sourdough starter can tolerate a wider range of temperature and ph than storebought yeast).
Kimberly Gallagher shows us a method for making a homemade fizzy drink. These first two videos are about making the culture (to which you’ll later add flavored syrups to make your drink):
Here she uses her culture to make a fizzy ginger beer (fermented soda/pop):
Interesting, because I know one of the traditional ways to make ginger beer is to grate ginger, squeeze water through it to extract the flavor, add a lot of sugar to the liquid and let it sit bottled (covered loosely) to get fizzy.
Someone who’d seen the video commented that they used honey instead of white sugar to create/feed their culture and that it had not taken a month to get to the right stage for soda/pop making.
Kimberly didn’t mention this, but I assume that there is alcohol in the beverage (but at what level I don’t know) since it was a sugar solution and was fizzing and wasn’t vinegar.
Here Miho in Japan explains to thedailyenglishshow how she makes a natural yeast starter using fruit.
They experiment with three fruit based starters Miho prepares for from raisins, pommelo and grapes. The first stage of the process is fermenting the fruit in water until it is fizzy.
Then you strain out the fruit, put the strained liquid back in jars and mix flour into it. The ferment liquid-flour mixture should start to rise. It’s this yeasty dough that you use in your bread making.
The raisins won out in terms of producing a viable bread starter.
The Real Know How 