Does anyone can their goat milk?

[CarolynRenee]

I'm going to be drying off my doe next month & always hate the idea of several months without homegrown milk around the house.

Has anyone ever canned milk before, and what kind of recipes can you use it in (and which CAN'T you use it in).

I'd love to be able to put some up in the freezer, but we've got 1/2 a hog coming, 1/2 a steer & hopefully a couple deer, so the freezer space is already spoken for.

[ufimych]

We have milk of our goats only from April to September. We use extra milk for making cheese and store some milk frozen.

[DQ]

if you go to the preserving forum and search you will find that some can milk. there are no official guidlines for times and don't let anyone tell you it is high acid and can be canned in a waterbath that seems to be passed around alot, it is about 6.7 much too high for safe wb canning, and by all standards requires a pressure canner. It is a bit frustrating that no one will do the proper tests to figure out good standards for it. I have read that the home canner simply doesn't have the appropriate equipment to safely can dairy products but I think that is just a copout.

[julieq]

We just canned almost all of our frozen goat milk to make a little extra room in the freezer. Used a pressure canner. It's thick and golden looking, but should be just fine as compared to canned milk from the store. We prefer fresh milk (or frozen) for drinking and/or making kefir, but will use the canned milk early this spring for cooking.

[mary,tx]

I water bath mine, but use it only for livestock. The one time I pressure canned it, I was very disappointed in the product, and as I recall, it separated very badly, very quickly.

[copperpennykids]

We have good friends that can milk (after they pastuerize it as they are CAE negative and practice Prevention) and then in the Spring they use the canned milk for the kids and the fresh milk for the house.

We always freeze milk - 1/2 gallon in a 1 gallon Freezer bag. Pretty good really. If you freeze it flat, you should be able to store some in your freezer....

[Wendy]

We have good friends that can milk (after they pastuerize it as they are CAE negative and practice Prevention) and then in the Spring they use the canned milk for the kids and the fresh milk for the house.

No need to pasteurize it first as the canning process gets it more than hot enough for that.

[copperpennykids]

Good point. I guess I knew that they pastuerize and figured they did before they canned it. Robin is too smart to work too hard, so she probably just cans it. I do know that she likes having all of that milk ready to go in the Spring when they are busy with kidding and milking and bottle-feeding. Makes chores go much faster.