Evaporated milk

[Phil V.]

Has anybody ever tried to make evaporated milk with goat milk? Thought of trying to make it myself. I thought of seeing if anybody had success doing it.

[Frosted Mini's]

I have heard of someone doing it with a dehydrator, but since milk is mostly water, it takes a very long time to make hardly any...more of a pain than it's worth. You can also can or freeze milk for future use. Canned I guess tastes weird though, so mostly for using in cooking and/or for feeding animals/goat kids/etc.

[motdaugrnds]

I make "condensed" milk all the time out of my goat milk. It is easy yet time consuming. I just pour what I will not use up that day into a large enamel pan with the burner on low (milk is just barely bubbling). I stir it very frequently making sure nothing sticks to the bottom or sides of this pan. When the milk is reduced at least half or more, I pour it into my plastic bottles, leaving about 2" on the top, keep the lid off and freeze it. Once frozen I put the lid on and screw it down tightly. When thawing, just let it thaw in the fridge. It turns out real good and much better than store-bought canned milk.

Sometimes, if I'm not watching as closely as I should, it will start lumping on the bottom; and this will burn if I let it clump. The more "lumpy" condensed milk is still good and I freeze it just like the other; only this is what I use in soups, gravies or cooking. (I've actually burned some and used it for in candy recipies...yummmmy.)

[lovinglife]

I did it in my crock pot with the lid off or cocked.

[Pony]

I've not had great success with freezing. The milk separates, and the texture is funky. Wound up giving it to the piglets.

When I started reading this thread, the crock pot came to mind. Lovinglife, how high was your crock pot set when you did that, and how long did it take?

[lovinglife]

I had it on low and everytime I went in the kitchen I would give it a stir. I believe I did one batch which started out at one gallon and ended up putting it in pints that I froze, took maybe 10 hours... not real sure, I just reduced it over half and was happy. I have used it for making gravy or anything else that called for milk or condensed milk.

[Pony]

Thanks!

[wintrrwolf]

This year I canned some goats milk with my pressure cooker and it worked really well! would suggest using new jars and lids though, older jars sometimes just break.

[Poultryguy]

My physics told me that under low pressure, water boils at a lower temperature. So I'm thinking, what of heating milk in a slight vacuum to accelerate evaporation? Anyone knows any such setup?

[Pony]

Originally Posted by wintrrwolf

This year I canned some goats milk with my pressure cooker and it worked really well! would suggest using new jars and lids though, older jars sometimes just break.

How long did you process it? How many pounds pressure?

[wintrrwolf]

Originally Posted by Pony

How long did you process it? How many pounds pressure?

start out with everything room temp, load the pot, when it starts to steam let it steam for 10 minutes then put the 10# weight on, wait for it to reach the 10 mark or 240 degrees, then slide off heat, let pressure drop.