What do you do when your milk goes sour? You throw it out!  It’s awful, it smells and it’s enough to make you barf if you accidentally pour it into your coffee. “Pasteurized milk is dead food –there are no enzymes or probiotics present and the only thing you can do with it is throw it out.” says Sarah, the Healthy Home Economist.  But what do you do when raw milk goes sour?

First of all, in most states raw milk is illegal, go figure. That is how the government seems to work –the good things are illegal and the foods that poison us are available in abundance.  I live in New York where raw milk is not illegal, though I must get it directly from the dairy farmer (this is about the only thing good about living in New York, lol) so I am lucky to have the choice of drinking raw milk. When raw milk goes sour, or clabbered, it is safe to drink. It is also nutritious because it is loaded with enzymes and probiotics.  When raw milk starts to sour, it simply means that beneficial bacteria called probiotics have started to use up the lactose (milk sugar) which causes the milk to no longer taste sweet.  Go ahead….drink it if you like but the list of creations you can make from soured raw milk is endless from kefir to yogurt to baking biscuits! –today I made quiche.

Since my house is already an organic/GMO free household I had a lot of the ingredients I needed hanging around in the cupboard when I noticed my milk had soured so quiche was the best choice for what to do with my chunky, gross looking, sour raw milk.  I probably could have taken the time to whip up a nice crust but I just didn’t want to.  It’s New Year’s day today and I didn’t think any stores would be open but when my husband and I took a drive around town to pick up a few things I saw that Wild By Nature was open and I was able to pick up an organic Wholley Wholesome pie crust, 2 for $4.50, which is pretty reasonable, and a bag each of organic spinach and organic broccoli rabe.  I like to use frozen spinach when making quiche because it makes my life easier –did you ever notice HOW MUCH fresh spinach you need to cook in order to equal a 10 oz. bag of frozen spinach?  Hey, I love to cook as organic and clean as possible but I also try to cut cost whenever possible –certain frozen organic vegetables, like spinach, are worth using. So with what I had hanging around the house, including my two cups of curdled milk, I managed to whip up a broccoli rabe and cheddar quiche and a spinach, mushroom and bacon quiche.

These ingredients are what I had in my house –you can make a quiche with whatever you find in yours. The bottom line is you need 4 eggs, a cup of cheese and a cup of sour milk –or you can use regular milk if you like as well but the purpose of this article was what to do with that awful looking raw milk in the fridge with all the nutrients and I would NOT recommend using sour pasteurized milk –throw that out in the garbage where it belongs!

Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon Quiche

Pie Crust (homemade or store bought if desired)

1 bag of organic frozen spinach 10oz or an equal amount of fresh if you are able to)

4 large mushrooms, sliced and sautéed in a little olive oil with garlic, green onions, and shallots

3 slices of bacon cooked and minced

1 cup of raw white cheddar cheese (use whatever cheese you can find in your fridge)

1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese

4 soy free organic eggs (this is my choice but regular eggs will do too)

1 cup of curdled raw milk

Sea salt and crushed black pepper

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees then place the pie crust in the oven to bake for 10 minutes.  Make sure to poke some holes in the bottom of that crust so that it won’t rise in the center and explode.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.  After letting the pie crust cool a bit place the spinach (thawed and well drained) on the bottom of the pie crust. On top of the spinach layer the sliced mushrooms that have been sautéed in a little olive oil with the garlic, shallots and green onion. Next layer the freshly cooked and still warm bacon bits.  Lastly, layer the cup of cheese on top making sure to spread everything evenly on the bottom of the pie crust.  Then slowly pour in the 4 eggs and curdled milk that you previously whisked together. Pour it slowly and let it be absorbed by the mixture in the pie crust little by little. Sprinkle the top with some more Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper and place in oven to cook for 45 to 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and it is nicely browned on top.

I made two quiches because I had two cups of curdled raw milk.  The other one had broccoli and cheddar –there were less ingredients but the broccoli took up a lot more space than the spinach.  I managed to use every drop of the egg/milk mixture in each quiche.  I was careful and there was no spillover in the oven!

Anyway, this will last in my fridge a few days and everyone will be able to grab a healthy organic lunch or snack that is filled with nutrients from curdled milk that ordinarily would have been poured down a drain.  That would have been sinful. Now I have a sinful duo of tasty quiche instead!!

Spinach, Bacon & Mushroom, left
Broccoli Rabe & Cheddar, right

Check out this interesting article on Milk

Gigi Bowman, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Clean Food