Polish Sour Milk / Maślanka

My parents were Polish and they always used to make sour milk by leaving glasses of milk to go off and then leave them in the fridge for a few days. Mmmmmmmm... delicious. I have tried to make it but with the treatment of today's milk, it dosen't work. But, by heating up the milk first, letting it cool, adding two spoons of Kefir to it and putting it in the airing cupboard for few day, it's superb. Just like the old days!

Bleh, my parents do this too. Not that devine. Makes the house smell. I usually try drink out all the milk BEFORE it gets sour so that they have nothing to work with. Its worked so far.

It used to make my stomoch turn when my dad did that. Eehwww

that method can be also used to make your own cottage cheese. One difference though - you don't just heat it up, but instead keep it on low heat for a few hours until you see the white stuff is separated from the watery (yellowy color) fluid. The next step is to drain the whole thing with cottage cloth (ususaly overnight) , and thus be ready to make a real cheese cake.

mmm kwaśne mleko. i love it!

My dad would go to a farmer and get raw milk straight from a cow then he would make the kwasne mleko and eat it with potatos and koperek.

YUK!!!!

yummyyyyyy!!!!

OK, so maybe it's not that bad, but I never did like it. Some Polish dishes are made by letting them stand for days, like żurek, bigos, serwatka, kwaśne mleko.

I like the fresh stuff. The other junk does funny things to your bowels.

They are not "let" stand for days. That's how you make them, or how you make them acquire the right taste. (think wine)

OK. They are "ordered" to stand for days.
Cheese too. That's why cheese and wine go together.

Be firm with them. Otherwise, they might run away.

We used to have a gentleman buy RAW milk off from us that had NOT been cooled at the farm.... He used it to make Kwasne Mleko.

you actually heat it after it has separated. in the US the milk and all associated products are pasteurized so letting it stand only makes it spoil not move on to another phase. there are natural products available at the "health food" stores that an addition of helps with natural cheese making process.

btw. it takes a lot of milk to make cheese. 1gal makes maybe one serving of farmer's cheese.

I was astonished at the amount of milk required, when we made a small amount of cheese, in a biology lab at school.

I had thought about making cheese at home this year but it didn't happen. I'm not sure how to get hold of unpasteurised milk and I didn't have enough cardoon flowers (rennet substitute, traditionally used for cheese-making in some Mediterranean parts). So maybe next year.

I don't so much like the sound of just leaving some milk to go off. Maybe you need untreated milk and the right stuff floating around in the atmosphere. There is some Belgian beer I have heard of that is made with natural yeasts from the atmosphere rather than cultured strains used in nearly all brewing. Looks like I have some work to do.


Doesn't make it sound appetising.

I've been wondering about why some people turn up their noses at sour milk, but will eat yoghurt without any problems. The name makes all the difference, I guess. Call it "organic yoghurt" and watch it become the next health food craze.

Sour milk is not that bad rich in vitamins and proteins.
I presume that was the main reason why Slavic tribes started to make it centuries ago.
It just makes you full quickly, provides energy from proteins and calcium along with vitamin C (sic!) produced through the process of bacterial fermentation.
You need them when it's so cold out there :)
Same with sour kraut, gherkins and pickles.
Enjoy :)

Hello. Does anyone know about how sour milk was used and then fried in a pan to make a soft, spreadable cheese? I'd be interested in finding a recipe if someone can lead me to a site. Thanks :)

that's what i was thinking too.

and yeah, the homo milk likes to spoil instead of sour. :(

Zsiadłe mleko (clabbered sour milk) is now commercially available and packaged as such in Poland and in Polish shops abroad.

Twaróg (white curd cheese or farmer cheese), whether home-made or shop-bought*, undergoes what is known in Polish as zgliwienie. That means it is on the verge of fermentation and starts getting a bit slimy round the edges. In that form it is fried until melted. Traditonally it is seasoned with pepper, sweet paprika, possibly caraway and simmered a while longer. When it cools the gooey, rubbery mass can be spread on bread or, if it is stiff enough, sliced. It's not bad, esp. with generous vodka or beer accompaniment.

*Nowadays the comemrcially sold white cheese may be lace with spoilage retardants and may therefore not produce a palatable end-product.

Now I know why I love sour milk. My mom is Polish! Must be genetic.

my dad was Welsh and one of our favourite summer starters, in place of soup, was sour milk poured on to boiled spuds.
Mum would let a pint or two of milk go sour then pour it on to four or five portions of freshley boiled potatoes. the heat from the spuds would just be enough to give the dish the correct temprature for comfotable eating.add salt and pepper, heaven

shout out to all you people, I loved reading all your enteries, doesn't help me make large batches of sour cream though, but it is nice to know what I can do with that store bought homo seperated but not too sour milk. I would try some of those recipies if my kids were more liberal in what they ate. finicky eaters all. mskrose

ahhh kwaśne mleko, the good stuff! Dziadek loves it, drinks it all the time... no wonder he is still around! Its really not all that bad.

tAK JEST! this is the best stuff for summer with your potatoes and bacon..lets celebrate!

I remember about 15 years ago I asked for sour cream in a store in the UK. The woman looked at me with utter disgust and said "Sour cream? No, everything is fresh here". I found it later under the name "Greek style yoghurt"

There is 10 times more cells of bacteria in an on a human body than the cells of human body itself. Fermented, unpasteurized foods like yoghurt, kefir and sour kraut help to keep that in balance. I know from personal experience: there is something in the air at my workplace that causes my sinus to suffer, unless I drink a glass of kefir every day (I suspect fungi spores). I am using kefir from a US company called Lifeway. Curiously, home made kefir does not work as well for me, although it is more bubbly (more yeast) and delicious.

One can buy the cultures for cheese making and kefir on the Internet easily.

we were raised on sour milk and potatoes. Old fashioned unpasturised milk just left for a couple of days. No wonder we grew up to be healthy adults with all those natural probiotics. Sourdough bread and sauerkrout too. Masses of good bacteria

Maybe I am a wierd Pole but I never liked sour milk with potatoes, really wierd combination in my opinion.
I like sour milk on its own.

And slawekk is right about "Greek style yoghurt". (The one they started selling in Carrefour stores is actually very close to thick sour milk my grandma used to make. Perfect to put some extra salt on it and eat it with a spoon.)

And do you know that sour milk is a good homemade remedy on sunburns. Just put chilled sour milk on sundurn and let it dry.

yeah - "sour milk and potatoes".

the real sour milk (kwaśne mleko) is made from unpasteurized milk and it's very refreshing.
if you don't want to wait you may try "maślanka" or "kefir".

in Polish cuisine 'kwaśne mleko' is often served with potatoes. here you have a sample of such a kind meal :)

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I just finished drinking a glass of sour milk.

I discovered that sour creams made by certain companies work better when making the sour milk. I do not know why. I use Shamrock Farms sour cream and no fat milk.

One can use regular milk, etc. The secret is finding the right sour cream.
Use 2 table spoons of sour cream and with 24 oz of milk. Stirr the milk with the sour cream in it and let sit for about a 2 days. Use a glass jar, cover the jar with a small plate. Do not refregerate the milk. Once the milk becomes sour, them you can refregerate.