Freezing Milk?

[the funny farm6]

I was wondering about this the other day myself!

I remembered my grandma used to freeze milk but wasn't sure how she did it.

 

[Dawn419]

Do you know anyone that buys milk from the store in smaller containers? I can't get raw milk here, so have to have the store bought stuff. So, I bought 6 quart containers. When I buy a gallon of milk, I split it 5 ways. I keep one out, put the rest in the freezer. When I get about half way done the last one, I buy another gallon, and split it 5 ways. Then, I either freeze all 5, or leave whichever one has the least amount of milk in it out. (You don't want to fill them all the way up, but allow room for expansion. I try to have them filled equally.)

This is how my mom does it.

I'll save you back the small containers, if you need some. We have a dorm sized fridge and can only do a half gallon or smaller and keep several empties on hand.

Just let me know. I'll be at Moms later today and will raid her stash, just in case. She's been holding the quart sized ones back for me for the whey from my Kefir milk.

 

[~gd]

hey gd, what kind of containers do you store your milk in? Just trying to figure out what will be practical...

I used to use square I quart plastic freezer Containers [they had a slight taper with the bottom being smaller than the top to make sure they didn't split as the milk expands while freezing.] They had a "tupperware" type seal at the top. The last time I looked for replacements I couldn't find them so I settled for some BALL freezer jars. The plastic is much more transparent recycle group 3 "PP" which must be polypropylene. they don't stain or absorb odors like the older polyethylene but they have internal threads on the screw caps and are round so they take up more space in the freezer. A real pluss if you have a chest freeder is that stack very well. drawback is those internal threads can be hard to open if you don't leave enough headspace.~gd

 

[~gd]

I bought some plastic containers at the supermarket of the appropriate size. You could also buy smaller quantities of milk as a one time thing (4 quarts instead of 1 gallon, for example), and use those containers.

Around here the 1 and 2 quart containers are that waxed cardboard and they don't wear well. ~gd

 

[terri9630]

hey gd, what kind of containers do you store your milk in? Just trying to figure out what will be practical...

I just use the container it came in. Just put the whole thing in the freezer straight from the store.

Terri, that only works if I want to thaw the entire amount at once
I need to split a gallon up because we can't drink the entire gallon before it goes bad. So I need smaller containers.

I don't have that problem. I have 2 kids that live on the stuff.

 

[hqueen13]

Uhhh, just read in THE Ball Blue Book of Canning that you're not supposed to freeze raw milk....
Oops.
Anybody know anything about that???

 

[moolie]

Uhhh, just read in THE Ball Blue Book of Canning that you're not supposed to freeze raw milk....
Oops.
Anybody know anything about that???

Did it say why?

When I was a kid we got raw cream-top milk from my uncle's dairy farm, and if we were going away my Mom would always freeze it. I don't remember there being any problems

 

[terri9630]

I don't know anything about raw milk, but store bought milk will separate when it thaws. Maybe that is why?

 

[ORChick]

I don't know anything about raw milk, but store bought milk will separate when it thaws. Maybe that is why?

A good shake before pouring takes care of that.

 

[hqueen13]

A good shake does take care of it (it separates in the fridge, too, so what is the difference!?)
It didn't say why... I was surprised for sure.
Just wanted to make sure that nobody else had heard of anything. We've drunk about 3 quarts of raw milk that we froze first, and it tastes fine...