separating milk and cream?

[hqueen13]

I'm getting raw milk and the farmer doesn't separate the milk and cream, which makes me happy. However I want to make butter, so I'm wondering the best way to separate the milk from the cream with the least amount of effort. My only thought was to pour it into a pitcher and let it sit until it separates, then Ladle out the cream. I just didn't know if there was an easier way or not.

 

[Smart Red]

NOT a dumb question.

@Myhouseisazoo2, store milk has been homogenized. This means the fat (cream) droplets are broken down into pieces that will no longer separate out from the milk as fresh (raw) milk will do. Also, what is called "whole" milk at the grocery store is only 4% milk fats. Much of the natural cream has been removed from that milk already. Skim, 1%, or 2% would have an even lower (to no) cream content.

Now you know and others may have learned something new as well. Sorry, it's the teacher in me -- I love questions -- that, and living in Wisconsin, 'America's Dairyland' rather implies I should know this answer.

 

[hqueen13]

@sumi I make it in my kitchenaid mixer in about 5 minutes. It actually takes longer to wash the butter than make it. Pour in the room temperature cream into the chilled bowl, cut the mixer on high and keep an eye on it. As it starts to separate, back the speed down slowly. Easy peasy!
Thanks, Britsea. I'll have to do that with the next gallon of milk I get.
Next project is finding a good butter press so I can have sticks of butter!

 

[Britesea]

I'm not sure about the chilled bowl. What I was taught is that if the cream is cold, you get whipped cream; if it is room temperature you get butter.

I use my portable mixer, but to keep the spattering down my DH drilled a hole in a wide mouth canning lid - just a little larger than the rod of the beater. I thread one beater through the hole into a pint jar half full of cream and close it down with the ring. That way, I can beat the c**p out of the cream without getting spatters all over me and the kitchen.

 

[goatgurl]

I'm like most of you, if i have raw cows milk i just put it in a jar and let it rise and skim it off and put it in a jar twice the size of the amount of cream and shake or roll it till you have butter. unfortunately for me i milk goats and it takes days for the cream to rise to the top to make butter or you have to use a cream separator which i don't have. and i agree with britesea, i don't like the flavor of clabbered milk or butter either. and baymule i am a lover of butter bells too. i had one for years and my sister dropped and broke it. someday i'll replace it, it was really old. this is an old hand carved butter mold that belonged to my grandmother. i love it but don't use it any more. just look at it and love it.

 

[wyoDreamer]

You can make butter from the whipping cream you can buy from the store. What you are skimming off the fresh milk is heavy cream.
Yes, you can make cheese from store bought milk. Make sure to buy whole milk - one friend says to buy the Vitamin D Whole milk for a good cheese. I have never tried doing this though, so let us know how it works.

 

[goatgurl]

another short lesson, raw goats milk in naturally homogenized which is why it takes days instead of hours for the cream to rise to the top of the milk. and if you make butter out of goats milk it is white instead of yellow. tastes the same just looks weird.

 

[Britesea]

That's the way I always did it. With care, you can get almost all of it. I just used a regular ladle and stuck it in, letting the cream ooze in from the top rather than trying to scoop it out. I understand there are specific milk-skimming ladles out there though, which might work better.

 

[sumi]

We did the same. That way we got enough cream off for butter and still left plenty to make the milk creamy.

Just out of curiosity, how are you going to make the butter? We used to let it sit in a jam jar and when it was ready my bother, my father and myself would take turns and shake and shake and shake and then shake some more...

 

[WendyJ]

There are containers sort of like measuring cups that have the spout attached near the bottom that are designed for separating broth from fat when making gravy, perhaps something like that would work?