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Fermented milk from Ireland and Scotland

Clabber / bonny clabberbainne clábair

Clabber is raw milk left to sour on its own until it sets into a thick, solid curd. It was eaten with a spoon, beaten with brown sugar, and used as a leavener for batter cakes before baking powder. It needs raw milk, because the souring bacteria come from the milk itself.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Clabber / bonny clabber itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Viili, the closest documented fermented milk ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Clabber / bonny clabber.

Short entryFermented milk

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold food with no fixed amounts; the milk is the whole recipe.
Raw (unpasteurised) cow milkNothing else is added[wp]
Brown sugar, for eatingto taste[foe]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the steps of Viili: 36 h – 44 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteria25–30 °CpH 6.4–6.6 → 4.27

What changes: A dried viili starter is revived by passing it through fresh milk

Step 1 of 4 · steps of Viili
Revive a dried starter in milk
Time
20 h
Reported
Temperature
25–30 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 6.4–6.6 → 4.27
Measured
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Geotrichum candidum
Yeasts

A laboratory protocol. The dry starter is added at 5 % (w/v) to sterilised milk, then moved into fresh sterilised milk after each round; after three more transfers it counted as active. Output: active viili starter.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
liquid to soured milk
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

lactic bacteria in the dry starter multiply, reaching about 9 log cfu/g after the first transfer

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Clabber is raw milk left to sour on its own until it sets into a thick, solid curd. It was eaten with a spoon, beaten with brown sugar, and used as a leavener for batter cakes before baking powder. It needs raw milk, because the souring bacteria come from the milk itself.

What makes this one different

Clabber is milk soured by its own bacteria with no starter, salt or heating, and eaten as the set curd. Buttermilk and cultured milks use pasteurised milk and an added culture.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Clabber batter cakesBatter made with clabber, milk curdled by souring, as a leavener (1891).
  • Dickmilch (Germany)A similar thick soured milk made without heating, still sold in German stores (a Foods of England correspondent).

Safety

Clabber is raw milk eaten without heating after it sours. CDC says raw milk can carry Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella and Salmonella, and that children under 5, adults over 65, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of serious illness. Pasteurised milk does not clabber reliably, because pasteurisation kills the bacteria needed.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The name comes from Irish bainne clábair. A 1917 newspaper letter says bonny clabber had been a favourite dish in Staffordshire 80 or 90 years before, and still was in Scotland. Ulster Scots carried it to Appalachia.

  1. [wp] Wikipedia, Clabber (food)wiki
  2. [foe] Foods of England, Clabber or Clauber (quoting the Hull Daily Mail, 15 August 1917, and The Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery, 1891)web
  3. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milk (31 January 2025)gov