What is the deal with this cream???

[allenslabs]

I strained my milk and always separate it out into wide mouth quart jars as they are just easier to pour out of. I went to get a jar and this is what I got. See that line about an inch from the bottom? That is the milk...the rest is cream!! Weird!

[IMG][/IMG]

[myersfarm]

if you let it set a while in the container you milked it into...with the weather cooler here...the first jar you pour will do that...but that is still a bunch of cream

[topside1]

Allen as you know milk from different breeds of cattle contains a varying percentage of butterfat. Jersey milk, the richest, contains about 5.3 per cent. Dairy farmers regularly test the butterfat in the milk of their cows. Mighty obvious that photo shows way more than 5% of something, I'll let the pros take it from here...Topside

[allenslabs]

LOL! Each of the other jars is at least 25% cream. Her milk has been so thick lately...and I'm trying to dry her up. LOL! Too bad I don't make butter. LOL! Sure made some rich chocolate milk the other day. Too thick for me lol! Like a milk shake instead of a glass of milk.

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by allenslabs

LOL! Each of the other jars is at least 25% cream. Her milk has been so thick lately...and I'm trying to dry her up. LOL! Too bad I don't make butter. LOL! Sure made some rich chocolate milk the other day. Too thick for me lol! Like a milk shake instead of a glass of milk.

Why not make butter? With cream that thick it is easy. You could just shake the jar for 5 minutes and you would have butter.

[allenslabs]

I have made it and do like it fresh, just made but it seems that when or if I try to melt it in a skillet or something it smells soured??? I have never been able to figure out how to fix it and so just gave up. LOL! But if I make a small amount then its ok and we eat it right then and there but I can't make it to store it.

[gone-a-milkin]

To make butter to store, you need to get ALL the liquid milk out of it. It takes some practice to wash it perfectly clean.

What I do is freeze the butter. It keeps just fine then.

Esp. since you are about to dry this cow up, why not make and freeze a bunch of butter in small amounts.
It sure is expensive to buy it!

[genebo]

If it's Dexter milk it needs more time to separate. Dexter milk is almost homogenized in it's behavior. My buddy uses a cream separator to make butter from his Dexter milk.

He had his Dexter milk and his Jersey milk tested for butterfat and they were the same, but the Dexter milk had a cream line that made it look like there was a lot more cream. His cream line was about the middle of the jar, not way down like yours.

Either yours is really rich or really slow to seperate.

[springvalley]

I think that when your drying off a cow the milk allways seems thicker, and not uncommon for a cow to give richer milk later in their lactation. When I was selling to the milk company they didn`t overly like my Jerseys because they had such high butterfat. The highest butterfat we have ever had was 6.2%, man that stuff was purdy yellow in the bulk tank. The standard they go by is a 3.5% butterfat, which is common for a holstein cow. > Marc

[allenslabs]

Goodness! It is unreal how thick it is, that's for sure!

[mozarkian]

Allenslabs, Gone-a-milkin heat the nail on the head about your butter. You have to wash your butter until the water is clear and then squeeze all the liquid out -- that trapped liquid gives you that sour smell.
Best way we have found to "wash our butter" is in a thick wooden bowl with shallow, gently sloping sides and a wooden paddle. Soak the bowl in cold water for a little while before you make the butter and then the butter won't stick to the bowl. Just use the paddle to smash the butter against the sides and kept folding it over on itself (kinda like kneading bread) until the liquid is all gone. I set mine in the sink while I do it so cleanup is easy.

[April]

How old was the milk in that picture. I've found that the longer I let it sit the "shorter" the cream line is, but the cream is thicker. The last bucket we milk and the first jar we pour also has the most cream - I guess cream rises in the udder as well.

I totally agree on the importance of thorough butter washing. Having said that, it did take us a little while to adjust to the different taste and smell of fresh butter versus store bought butter. It's definitely a "stronger" butter flavor when you make it yourself.

I tried store bought butter the other day, after two years of only our own homemade butter. It had no taste!

So thankful for the cows!

[allenslabs]

That milk was about three days old. Maybe just two.

I will have to try and work on the butter washing methods. Maybe I'll figure it out but I just can't seem to get it washed good enough. I'll try your idea though. Thank you!

I think today was the last day of milking though. I fed some to the calf and kept 2 1/2 quarts for us and it looks thick too so probably have a lot of cream in it too.

[Trisha in WA]

try using some butter milk to culture the cream before you make your butter. I know it sounds backwards, but the best butter I have ever had is from cultured cream.
I never did like fresh butter either. So give this a try.

[allenslabs]

How do you do that exactly? That is the first I have heard of doing it that way.

[ozark_jewels]

Getting ALL the water out of the freshly made butter is key to sweet butter. I wash mine till the water comes out *clear*, then salt and refrigerate. If not going to be used right away, I freeze it.
We are milking a late lactation Jersey right now. She is only giving a couple gallons a day, but that milk is half cream at this point.

[allenslabs]

The last milking I did was about 75% cream and I am done milking her till she freshens in January.