How long does the milk stay good?

[Starsmom]

I have another new milker question. How long is the milk good for without pasteurization? what about staying raw? If your goat steps in the pail do you have to throw it out or is there something else you can do with it...could you make soap with it?

What is the best way to clean everything?

When pasteurizing, should you do it right away or can you wait and combine a couple milkings?

Thanks for all your help recently, I just want my milk to be as healthy and safe to drink as possible.

[gryndlgoat]

Originally Posted by Starsmom

Thanks for all your help recently, I just want my milk to be as healthy and safe to drink as possible.

Here's my system. I only milk one goat and only once a day in the morning (she still has kids and they get the daytime milk then are separated from her at night).

I use a 8 quart stainless steel two-handle stock pot as my milk pail. I use glass mason jars as my milk bottles. The stock pot and jars I wash well with dish detergent and water, rinse well, and put in my oven at 250 F for 15-30 mins (usually do this the night before).

I also have a plastic canning funnel that I line with a new, moistened coffee filter before heading to the barn. At the barn, the funnel goes into the jar, the goat goes onto the milk stand, udder is washed, the grain goes into her little tray and I start milking into the stock pot. As she eats up the grain, she starts to fidget and that is when I stop milking, pour what I have collected into the funnel, get more grain and start milking again. Repeat this until goat is milked. I normally get a full 40 oz canning jar every morning, with some still left for the kids who are by this time crying for mama. I seal the jar with a plastic lid and let the goat out.

Back in the kitchen, the stock pot gets rinsed and half-filled with water. I put on the stove with a candy thermometer in it and heat the water until the thermometer reads 150 F. I turn the burner right down to low at this point, and the temp of the water stays at 150 for me. I put the jar full of milk into the water for 30 mins, swirling the milk every 5 mins or so. Then straight into the fridge- pasteurized milk. And at the same time, my "milk pail" has been "heat-sterilized" from the days milking germs (the oven step finishes off the sterilizing).

I have had a jar of milk last as long as 2 weeks refrigerated using this system. It has a wonderful flavor- never goaty or "off" in any way- and certainly beats any of the goat milk I can buy in the grocery stores!

I doubt this system would work for milking more than one or two goats, but it sure works for me!

[Starsmom]

I wondered about using a stock pot for a milk pail. I only have one goat, your system seems pretty simple. I am milking 2x daily, should the milk be pasteurized right away, or can it wait in the refridgerator and do a whole days worth at one time?

[gryndlgoat]

Originally Posted by Starsmom

I wondered about using a stock pot for a milk pail. I only have one goat, your system seems pretty simple. I am milking 2x daily, should the milk be pasteurized right away, or can it wait in the refridgerator and do a whole days worth at one time?

I love the stock pot. It has a wide flat bottom and doesn't tip over easily like a pail. But the real selling point was it was $10 at the hardware store, on sale, and the same size stainless dairy pail goes for $30 at TSC.

As for milking twice daily, I don't know if leaving the first milk in the fridge until the second is ready for pasteurizing would make any difference. I'll be starting to milk twice a day soon (the little bucklings are almost three months old and ready to wean) so I'll try it and let you know! I bet it makes no difference at all.

ps- our dogs LOVE cheese and yogurt. If I ever get goat milk with an "off" taste, I know I can turn it into cottage cheese or yogurt and let the dogs at it. They won't mind "goaty" flavor.

[mary,tx]

If you want to save the milk for pasteurizing next milking, go ahead and strain it, and chill it down quickly in the freezer (don't forget it there! Move it down in about an hour).

I'd definitely toss the milk if a foot goes in it. But I don't do soap.

I milk into gallon jars.

[TabletopHomestead]

About 4 days is what I get out of unpasteurized, but I prefer the taste of raw milk. I would use the contaminated milk for soap. Nothing is going to survive the lye.

Originally Posted by Starsmom

I have another new milker question. How long is the milk good for without pasteurization? what about staying raw? If your goat steps in the pail do you have to throw it out or is there something else you can do with it...could you make soap with it?

What is the best way to clean everything?

When pasteurizing, should you do it right away or can you wait and combine a couple milkings?

Thanks for all your help recently, I just want my milk to be as healthy and safe to drink as possible.

[gccrook]

We milk into a quart mason jar. I hold it in my one hand and milk with the other. WHen it is full, I empty it into the gallon jar with the filter in it. This gallon jar is in an ice bath, so it colls down right away. When finished, that goes directly into the refrigerator, to cool down. We have had raw milk this way that was still good after a week in the fridge. Raw milk doesn't go bad so much as it curdles. Pasteurized milk goes bad, because all the good bacteria naturally present in milk is killed by the pasteurization process. We have found that if the milk is frozen right away, it will keep frozen for a very long time, and then can be thawed an be as good as fresh.

[mpillow]

We only drink milk up to 1 day old.....the rest goes to critters or in the freezer for next years critters.....

I milk, strain it and into the freezer for one hr.

In the freezer I use galon plastic milk jugs....just add to it every day....I wouldnt put milk intended for human consumption into plastic though....

[mary,tx]

I froze extra milk last year, but it didn't take any time at all until the freezer was filling up. Since I want that space for meat and veggies, now I can it to feed to livestock.

[mary,tx]

Regarding cleaning: imo, a dish brush is a must. You don't, however, need to buy special detergents. We wash the milk jars in regular dish detergent.
mary

[mpillow]

A little bleach in your dishwater works well too.

[Cheryl in SD]

fiasco.com had a great section on milking. I have been using that for about a month, no trouble at all. Milk is still good 3-4 days later, but that is the most it has lasted here.

Cheryl

[Emily Anne]

I milk all my goats ( five at the moment ) then bring the milk inside and strain it ( in no perticular hurry ) then put it in the refrigerator. The milk lasts more than a week in the refrierator and rarely do we get spoiled milk. I'll admit, when my brothers forget and leave it in the barn for half the day it usually does not taste very good :haha: . We have very rich, creamy, sweet milk, not goaty at all. We also use plastic jugs, they just have to be cleaned very well and if they smell at all like milk throw them away. I have frozen it and drank and sold it for human consumption up to a year later, it does not taste as creamy fresh but it is still better than store bought milk. However, once in awhile, when it thaws, it will separate as it does when it goes sour, but it is not sour, I just feed it to my pony then. We usually thaw the milk in the sink all night, one time we had a separated one that we just left there (because no one felt like messing with it) and by night it went back together and tasted just fine, strange, but true. Thats how we do it .

[Starsmom]

gryndlgoat, I tried your method, since I only have one milking doe at the moment. Works great, thanks!!

I also wanted to ask, I know that the raw milk will get curds in it as it sits in the refrigerator, that would be normal. Is it normal for the pasteruized milk to also get some very tiny curds in it? The taste doesn't seem to be affected, but I was just wondering. When I notice it, I just run it through the strainer again...not a big deal, but I was just curious if this is normal, or am I doing something wrong.

[gryndlgoat]

Originally Posted by Starsmom

Is it normal for the pasteruized milk to also get some very tiny curds in it? The taste doesn't seem to be affected, but I was just wondering. .

I haven't noticed any curds (but then I haven't been looking for them). I do notice cream "globs" as the milk sits (I strain out the cream with a spoon and freeze it until I get enough for my coffee- yum). I don't think a few little curds are harmful- if the milk tastes good, it is probably fine. It might be that your goat gives a more concentrated milk (more solids or more milk fat?) than mine does (she is a Saanen cross) so some of it maybe curdles out in the cold? Or maybe settles out during the heating?

Anyone else have ideas?

[Julia]

Originally Posted by Starsmom

I also wanted to ask, I know that the raw milk will get curds in it as it sits in the refrigerator, that would be normal. Is it normal for the pasteruized milk to also get some very tiny curds in it?

It's never normal for milk---raw or pasteurized---to get curds in it when refrigerated. It's symptomatic of something being wrong, such as subclinical mastisis in the doe, or serious sanitation problems by the milk handler.

But it's not normal, ever.

[Starsmom]

I guess I should correct myself. It isn't curds in the milk, it is the globs of cream as described by gryndlgoat. I took it out this morning and tasted it and it was cream. I guess that is ok, tasted pretty good. My son saw me and of course said YUCK,your eating that! So I guess all is well with the milk. Thanks a bunch.