Clabber (food)

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Clabber is a food produced by allowing unpasteurized milk to turn sour at the proper humidity and temperature. Over time the milk thickens or curdles into a yoghurt-like substance with a strong, sour flavor. In rural areas of the Southern United States, it was commonly eaten for breakfast with brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, or molasses added. Some people also eat it with fruit or black pepper and cream.

Unlike many Southern dishes, which can ascribe their roots to African origins, clabber appears to have come from the many Scottish nannies who at one time took care of the children of the Virginia gentry. In fact, clabber is still sometimes referred to as bonny clabber (originally "bainne clàbar", from Scottish Gaelic bainne - milk , and clàbar - mud). Clabber passed into Scots and Anglo-Irish 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 France an almost identical food is known as Crème fraîche.

With the rise of pasteurization the making of clabber virtually stopped, except on farms that had easy access to unprocessed cow's milk. You can, however, make pasteurized milk "clabber" by adding a couple of tablespoons of commercial buttermilk to a glass.