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making goat milk

902 views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  Jillis 
#1 ·
I've made goat milk about 2 or 3 times now and it's always turned out good. This time though it won't set firm it's like soft butter for some reason. Is there something I've done wrong? Here's my steps
1) collect enough cream
2) put in jar with lid on
3) shake like a crazy person (the jar not me!) :)
4)put it into butter container and into fridge.

I posted this on the cooking forum but nobody has answered in 3 days so I'm trying you fine folks for answers
 
#2 ·
Do you mean you made goat butter? :D

Could it be that your goats are eating something different? I'm not a goat person so these are all ignorant guesses, but maybe it's affecting the consistency? Or maybe too much liquid mixed in with the solids? Heck, is it possible that a kid is nursing from her too much? Or maybe even another nanny's kid?

Or maybe your goat is sick, not to scare you.....I'm sure someone here can help you! Did you ask on the goat forum?

I just recently bought some store-bought goat milk because I prefer it to bovine milk, and drank the whole carton over a few days. My 5-year old freaked and suggested I'd better buy more and SOON! He loves that stuff. Maybe I should buy a goat. ;)
 
#3 ·
yup I sure did make goat butter.
She lost her baby and I started milking her a couple months back because I had a baby that lost her mommy and she needed the goat nutrition. Belle has been off the milk for weeks now so I'm the only one taking the milke. Unless of course I have to much to drink for myself then the dogs get whatever milk from the days milking. You've never seen happier dogs! :) :) :) Sweetpea isn't on any different diet. Pasture all day except she get her bucket of nibbles while being milked out. The milk will turn a different color or show signs of illness and plus I test her so she's good on that part.
Maybe I did have a little milk in there and just didn't relize it. Back to the milking board I guess.
 
#5 ·
If you're not allergic, try adding a little cow milk to the goat milk so it will separate out more completely. Add the cow milk and let it set for a day. Skim off the goat cream and proceed by doing the butter making boogie. :D
.
You didn't say exactly what the problem was but if it's too runny or not turning into butter-try the cow milk trick-it worked great when I was milking 23 Alpines. :)
 
#7 ·
bostonlesley said:
I've never had much luck at all making butter from goat milk due to the much lower fat content.
I don't think the butterfat content is actually that much lower, especially in the smaller breeds and the Nubians. It is that goat's milk is naturally homogenized, and the fat globules are suspended evenly throughout the milk. If you let the cream rise, you won't get a whole lot.

To be really successful making goat's milk butter, you need a cream separator. And be sure the milk is warmed then fridge temp, or it will clog the machine and not "make."
 
G
#9 ·
Hoping that Westwood was maybe just off his feed since it was late when he posted..
Unlike cows, the fat content of goats milk does vary from time to time..so when I said that goat milk has a "lower fat content" , that was misleading.what I OUGHT to have said was that, goat milk CAN have a variable fat content. If anyone is interested, here's a nice article..and of course, there is the goat forum
which is chock full of folks who have goats, have had goats and love goats :)

http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/goat1.htm
 
#10 ·
bostonlesley said:
Unlike cows, the fat content of goats milk does vary from time to time..
I'm afraid you're mistaken about that. The butterfat content of both cow's milk & goat's milk varies with the stage of lactation---lowest at peak production, and increasing as milk production falls off at the end of lactation. It's universal.

What you wll find is how quickly the butter comes when you churn varies a lot over a lactation too. Sometimes you need to churn *much* longer to get butter than other times. I'd suggest TexasArtist tries making the butter in a food processer. That way one can churn as long as it takes without going mad.

Something you need to keep in mind with making dairy products from your own beasties' milk is that the solids content of storebought milk is standardized, but homegrown milk is not. It changes from week to week. And the way the solids content changes over time has an enormous impact on butter and cheese making, so you won't always get the same results even if you do it exactly the same everytime. You learn to compensate for this, but it takes thought and effort---and an understanding of the process.
 
G
#11 ·
See? isn't it nice to learn stuff?
Thank YOU!!
I thought that you could always make great butter from cow's milk, since the fat always remained at a high level no matter where the lactation cycle was..unlike goats..DUH and double DUH..never too old to learn new things. :)
 
#13 ·
goatmarm said:
I made some goat milk butter for the first time a few days ago. It is not hard, really. After you filter/pasteurize the milk, leave it in a wide mouth container( I left it in the pasteurizing bucket, a soup pot would work too) in the fridge for 2 days. The milk fat rises to the surface, and you can skim/spoon it off. When I did this earlier this week, I got a full cup of thick cream out of 2 gallons of milk to make butter with.
You need a large jar to aggitate the cream enough so that it causes the butter to form. The cream should only take up 1/3 of the jar before shaking it up. Also, the temperature is an important factor. Too warm or cold, and the cream will not form butter. You'll just get whipped cream. A good temp. is 55*. It is well worth the time it takes to shake the cream into butter. It took a lot of aggitation( quite a workout), but the resulting butter was excellent. I suppose if we had a mixer, it would be much faster.
I know how to do it. I've already made butter before. I'm just trying to figure out why this one didn't turn out.
 
#14 ·
I've never made goat milk butter, is it like cow butter with respect to having to rinse it with cool water to get milk out so it doesn't become rancid?

Maybe you shook air into it?

Or left too much liquid in by not using cool, then cold, water to rinse it?
 
#15 ·
Nature_Lover said:
I've never made goat milk butter, is it like cow butter with respect to having to rinse it with cool water to get milk out so it doesn't become rancid?

Maybe you shook air into it?

Or left too much liquid in by not using cool, then cold, water to rinse it?
yup did the rinse thing. Everything was normal. The only thin I can figure is I either msut have had a bit to much milk or shes in the part of her milking where I'm just not gonna get enough cream from her :Bawling:
 
#17 ·
Just a question: if goat's milk has less fat in it, why does it have more calories than cow milk? It has about 20 calories more per cup. Also, what would the fat content of raw goat's milk be?

The dh has mentioned jokingly that maybe we should start a goat farm. A 4 litre bag of cow milk here is about $3.75....and 4 litre of goat's milk is $9.00!!!!!
 
#18 ·
Goat's milk doesn't have less fat than cow's milk. It varies from breed to breed and from animal to animal---the difference is that goat's milk is naturally homogenized. The fat globules are evenly distributed throughout the milk and formed in such a way that the cream does not separate as readily or as easily as cow's milk.
In fact, some sources I've read on the subject indicates that goat's milk has a HIGHER butterfat content than cow's milk...

http://home.comcast.net/~edelweissacres/ewacres4.htm said:
...Goat milk has a higher butterfat content than cow's milk...

...The fat molecules in goat milk are five times smaller than the fat molecules in cow milk. Goat milk is broken down in the stomach in twenty minutes; it takes an hour for the stomach to break down cow's milk...
[url said:
http://experts.about.com/e/m/mi/Milk.htm#hd1][/url]

* Human breast milk is thin and high in lactose, its primary sugar.
* Cow's milk is lower in sugar and higher in protein, and is composed of about 3.5% to 6.5% milkfat, 4% to 8.5% milk solids and about 88% water. Its main protein (80%) is casein, while whey proteins make up most of the rest.
I think most goat's milk also falls in the range of about 4.5% on up to 6.5%.

HTH!
 
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