For those who get fresh milk

[Hayhay]

What do you store your milk in?

We've been using left over milk bottles; not sure how good that is seeing as they say not to reuse them. A friend uses the glass cranberry juice jars....but seeing as we don't drink cranberry juice that's not an option!

Hayley

[Hausenview]

Hi Hayley,

We use 1 and 2 litre glass bottles that we bought from the cheap discount stores. The 1 litre ones in particular are good for pouring whereas the 2 litre ones have a wider opening, better for skimming the milk from the top. We use to have trouble being able to clean the 1 litre ones properly because of the small opening but I think it was Vicki that suggested using a beer brush which works really well.

Jodi

[minnie]

Hi Hayley,

We use the glass one litre bottles and change the rubber rings every so often.

We found the milk goes off way quicker in the plastic supermarket bottles than the glass.

As Jodi said we use a beer bottle brush to clean them in hot soapy water, rinse with very hot water and drain and then every so often DH does them before filling with iodine. Alternatively every so often bleach and rinse really well.

We usually (depends if we're not in the mood) separate the cream, so it's a case of filling all the bottles at once... my Mum thinks our fridge looks very funny with the line up of milk bottles.

Vicki

[Hayhay]

Thanks, good ideas. How about for freezing? The dairy we're getting our milk from is not close; so I need to freeze and I imagine the glass bottles are no use for that.

Vicki how do you separate the cream? Haven't worked out a good way of doing that yet.

[Mojojo]

I have a stash of water bottles - like the Mt franklin kind - that I have frozen milk in, then just transfer to 1l glass wide-necked bottle when defrosted.
I only freeze them in 600mL lots as I am home by myself a lot of the time and thats about all I drink before they turn.

(the old water bottles are also great for freezer bricks for the esky, away 3 days camping last weekend and everything still Icy cold when I got home)

Apparently you can freeze in glass - leave room for expansion and the lid off until frozen solid, then replace lid - but I haven't tried it and not sure if I would trust it!

[minnie]

Hi Hayley,

I used to leave in a plastic square container (the big decor ones with a handle, like a square bucket) and skim, which is okay but nowhere as good as using a cream separator.

We got an old Lister separator from ebay, for a good price, some go for big money at times, and we use that.

Here's some pics http://www.seco.com.au/cream_separating.php

The cream is 'really' thick, but the next day it's the consistency of philly cream cheese it's so thick, so it makes wonderful ice-cream and you should have tasted the creme brulee last week, RICH!!

Like Jo, I've used old drink bottles for milk and water. Great ice bricks in the esky for shopping and if it's a really hot day you get a good cold drink.

Vicki

[Hayhay]

Wow that separator LOOKS beautiful! What price do they usually go for? I've done a quick search and couldn't find any currently for sale. One of those would look so lovely just sitting on the bench even wouldn't it?

Great idea about the water bottles used for ice coolers.

[Mojojo]

I love the old separators too. gorgeous. And still working. after a hundred years or more in some cases... Now if anyone tries to tell my that my any of my kichen appliances will still be perfectly functional in 100 years, they are dreaming!

We have got lucky, a chance conversation lead me to find that a friend's Mum has a complete one sitting in the back of her shed and she is willing to part it! Now... Just have to drive to vic to pick it up...

[minnie]

Hi Jo and Hayley,

Great score Jo, what a find!!

We paid $150 for ours a few years back, but they fluctuate in price and you have to ensure you have all the cones etc. When you got ours they were going for more but the person listed it as a 'milk separator' and I think less people found it, so it's a good idea to look for both.

It's probably about 80 years old and looks it, but works perfectly.

And yes Jo I can't see any of my kitchen tools lasting that long 'and' still working, that was when they made things to last.

Vicki

[Hausenview]

Hi Guys,

We have also been looking for an old cream separator. They are not easy to come by particularly in working order for a decent price! Tried all the secondhand places and antique places but the response I usually get is we haven't seen one of those for many many years. I love the look of Vicki's old one.

Jodi

[minnie]

Ebay had a beautiful SS one still in the original box with receipt, never used and sitting like that from the 50s from memory... oh I'd have loved that one, it went for about $900 but what a beauty.

A local 'junk' (not really junk, but not really antique) shop had about three at one point all for $150. I went back to look for a friend and they were all gone and haven't had any since. Now I wish I'd bought them and then sold them to people who were going to use them as intended. What a waste sitting as a piece of artwork in a kitchen.

When I bought my butter pats (ebay UK best place for those) the women was really excited that I was actually going to make butter and use them, everyone buys them to stick on the wall as a decoration apparently.

Vicki

[Heidi]

I just recently bought an old Lister cream separator too. I had hunted for about four months. All the ones on ebay were going way past my price range! So found one in of all places Davenport, Tasmania! I had it couriered up to Grafton, which was twice the price of what I paid for the separator! Still, I was on a mission! It works well, but it is quite large, not a nice little one like Minnie has in her pictures. This is one that must have seen some pretty good use over the years in a real dairy! Hey Minnie, want to swap! Its manufacturing date was 1948. So, it is sitting on my kitchen bench at home, lucky I've got a large old recycled general store bench as my kitchen bench, so it does fit! Unfortunately, I have found out that I really don't like the taste of skimmed milk! Minne (Vicki), how tight do you turn your cream screw? We can only seem to get pouring thickness, and another thing, what grade oil do you use in it? I really do need to pluck up the courage to make cheese! I have so many cheesemaking questions, so I'll post them on another thread!

[minnie]

Hi Heidi,

DH says he uses Sewing Machine Oil. The cream screw on ours was set and it really pulls the cream out. We were going to change it but decided to just leave it, especially as the tool to turn it didn't come with the separator we were going to have to hunt for one or get it made at the local place that does that sort of stuff.

The retired Vet up the road had one he said we could borrow that was one from a dairy, huge thing, we declined as it was just too big for us to handle. The kitchen model is just fine for us.

I found the milk after separation for cheese was too light on and the cheese wasn't to my liking, so I always use full cream milk now.

DH loves the taste of the skim milk, I don't really drink milk so it's what he likes when he drinks about six litres a week. I know my niece from Perth last Dec (13 year old) liked the milk and thought it was still creamy which DH always says. So possibly with the cream screw moved a tad you'd get a better result.

This site has some great information on cream separators as well as dairy products, it may be of help with the amount you turn it.
http://www.ilri.org/InfoServ/Webpub/Ful ... essing.htm

There's some good cheese recipes as well.

Vicki

[krzy]

The law that prohibits the sale of raw milk is not of these times anymore. Yes, there MIGHT be a little risk in drinking raw milk, but there is also risk in eating other foods like greens and meats. I am here in Melbourne Australia and working for Amalfi Homewares and you tell me how many times have there been recalls from these "safe" foods been over the past years? Raw milk is a SAFE food, as long as it is been used properly. Store it in the fridge, make sure where it comes from is clean and just enjoy it. It is time to get rid of this, there are tons of countries where raw milk sales is the most normal thing there is. The Netherlands for instance does allow the sale of raw milk. Ever heard of big problems there? No, didn't think so. So why not just regulate the sale of raw milk?

[minnie]

Hi Krzy,

Where the difficulty is with raw milk is when it's taken through many hands, then it needs pasturing, as we saw last year with people feeding their toddler on 'bath milk' in Melbourne.

If you live close to a farm and it goes from good hygiene farm to you, it's absolutely the best milk. But we can't put a blanket it's good if it's taken for days over many hands, then there have to be issues.

In Europe there are many small dairy farms, many have a large herd of 20 cows, in Australia we have some herds now numbering 100 cows. Frankly I'd like to see more and small but people don't want to pay for milk so a dairy farmer does it very hard in the country.

We are lucky in Australia that we are TB free in our cattle, something we would not like to see change. In the UK where badgers carry TB it's a never ending issue for farmers with their cattle, imagine if TB got into our wildlife?


Vicki

[Shadowgirlau]

Do you mean to say I have been living under the miss information that our possums have TB?

Anyway, I hope you have sorted out your issues regarding storing raw milk. I personally feel that so long as one uses glass jugs or bottles to store the milk in that have been sterilized between uses and that as little handling as possible between the buyer and supplier has occurred (taking into account any and all hygiene requirements being maintained by the supplier too) then there isn't really any more of a risk than there is buying and consuming any other milk from the supermarket.

Right or wrong we have these legislation's in place for a reason if if they seem ridiculous. Bit like the talk back show on telly this morning regarding letting 16yr old's vote. My 18 yr old told me when she had to vote for the first time that she had no idea who to vote for let alone how to vote and now she is 32 she still doesn't.

Kathleen