How to make sour milk? Is it as healthy as yogurt?

[Koalamom]

I don't have any starter. I have raw goats milk and want to make it easier to digest. How do I make sour milk to drink and is it going to give us cultures like yogurt would?

[bobandjess99]

????
I was under the impression that sour milk is just that...sour milk. As in....buy the milk. Wait. In about 7-12 days, it will begin to go bad, or "sour". Drink it then. It's really gross though, in my opinion, lol. I don't believe it has any "cultures" in it. It's just milk on the cusp of going bad. I guess it's an acquired taste? Here, as soon as the milk starts to turn sour, we can make maybe a batch of pancakes or something, otherwise, it goes down the drain. We can't stand the stuff here. But maybe I'm missing something?

[CookiePie]

You could get some kefir grains & culture it, super easy to do and extremly healthy with more probiotics than yogurt & no heating required so your milk stays raw.

[Koalamom]

My kids are allergic to milk kefir. I have retired those grains months ago. I guess I could try it with a little milk and grains and let it culture for a short time.

[bobandjess99]

If your kids are allergic to milk, how about drinking water kefir to get your probiotics?

[Koalamom]

We do use water kefir, and we are ok with small amounts. It is the same with all ferments. I guess we experience too much of a detox and our bodies are just not able to handle it. This is my first time getting milk in a long time since I thought we were done with dairy due to allergies, but this is raw goats milk we are trialing. I hope it works! Plus we are sensitive to sals, and that is higher the more the product ferments.

[JamieCatheryn]

You could buy a buttermilk culture starter if you wanted. But yeah, wait over a week and raw milk will naturally become sour milk.

[ursusarctos]

Originally Posted by bluebirdmama1

I don't have any starter. I have raw goats milk and want to make it easier to digest. How do I make sour milk to drink and is it going to give us cultures like yogurt would?

You don't need starter if the milk is raw. Raw milk contains its own "starter" - the lactobacteria that make it so healthy to drink in the first place. If you leave the milk long enough (or out on the counter if you want it to happen faster) it will naturally sour. As I understand it, that means the lactobacteria eat the lactose and produce lactic acid, which gives the milk its sour taste (correct me if I'm wrong, anybody). The milk doesn't actually go "bad", though I think naturally soured milk is probably an acquired taste. My raw cow milk always slowly sours after a week-ish and it smells pretty strongly cheesy, though not *rotten* which is how I know it's ok. I even tasted some last time this happened and it tasted better than it smelled I still used it to cook with though