Clabber is a type of
soured milk
Soured milk denotes a range of food products produced by the acidification of milk. Acidification, which gives the milk a tart taste, is achieved either through bacterial fermentation or through the addition of an acid, such as lemon juice or vineg ...
. It is produced by allowing
unpasteurized
Pasteurization or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than , to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life.
Th ...
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...
to turn sour (
ferment
Fermentation is a metabolism, metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic Substrate (chemistry), substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in ...
) at a specific
humidity
Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present.
Humidity depe ...
and
temperature
Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer.
Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...
. Over time, the milk thickens or curdles into a
yogurt
Yogurt (; , from tr, yoğurt, also spelled yoghurt, yogourt or yoghourt) is a food produced by bacterial Fermentation (food), fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yogurt are known as ''yogurt cultures''. Fermentation of sugars in t ...
-like consistency with a strong, sour flavor. In
Joy of Cooking
''Joy of Cooking'', often known as "''The Joy of Cooking''", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 by ...
, "Clabber... is milk that has soured to the stage of a firm curd but not to a separation of the whey."
Prior to the now-popular use of
baking powder
Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a buffer such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increase ...
, clabber was used as a quick leavener in
baking
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred " ...
.
[ Due to its stability, clabbered milk has been popular in areas without access to steady refrigeration.]pasteurization
Pasteurization or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than , to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life.
The ...
of milk and the regulation of commercial sales of raw milk
Raw milk or unpasteurized milk is milk that has not been pasteurized, a process of heating liquid foods to kill pathogens for safe consumption and extending the shelf life.
Proponents of raw milk have asserted numerous supposed benefits to consu ...
, the making of clabber virtually stopped because the bacteria needed to clabber the milk is killed through the pasteurization process.Buttermilk
Buttermilk is a fermented dairy drink. Traditionally, it was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cultured cream. As most modern butter in western countries is not made with cultured cream but uncultured sweet cream, most mod ...
is the closest pasteurized product to clabber that is available commercially.[ A somewhat similar food can be made from pasteurized milk by adding vinegar or lemon juice to fresh milk, which causes it to ]curdle
Curdling is the breaking of an emulsion or colloid into large parts of different composition through the physio-chemical processes of flocculation, creaming, and coalescence. Curdling is purposeful in the production of cheese curd and tofu; und ...
.Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
's kurt, Polish and for some cultured cheeses.
History
Clabber was brought to the South by the Ulster Scots who settled in the Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...
. Clabber is still sometimes referred to as ''bonny clabber'' (originally "bainne clábair", from Gaelic ''bainne''—milk, and ''clábair''—sour milk or milk of the churndash).Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...
dialects meaning wet, gooey mud, though it is commonly used now in the noun form to refer to the food or in the verb form "to curdle".
In rural areas of the Southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
, it was commonly eaten for breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...
with brown sugar
Brown sugar is unrefined or partially refined soft sugar.
Brown Sugar may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Brown Sugar'' (1922 film), a 1922 British silent film directed by Fred Paul
* ''Brown Sugar'' (1931 film), a 1931 ...
, nutmeg
Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...
, cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...
, or molasses
Molasses () is a viscous substance resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods ...
added. Some people also eat it with fruit or black pepper
Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diame ...
and cream.
Clabber was sometimes served with a specialized spoon. This is a serving utensil formed with the handle made at a 90 degree angle from the spoon bowl, to accommodate the manner in which clabber had to be ladled out of the container in which it formed.
Similar foods
Similar foods are the South African '' amasi'', German ''Dickmilch'' (thick milk), Scandinavian ''filmjölk
(), also known as , is a traditional fermented milk product from Sweden, and a common dairy product within the Nordic countries. It is made by fermenting cow's milk with a variety of bacteria from the species ''Lactococcus lactis'' and ''Leuconos ...
'', Russian ''prostokvasha'', Lithuanian ''rūgpienis'' , Latvian ''rūgušpiens'', Polish ' and Hungarian ''aludttej''.
See also
*
*
*
References
External links
*
{{Yogurts
Cuisine of the Southern United States
Fermented dairy products
Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies
Historical foods