During the height of milking season, we have an abundance of milk for ourselves and our herd share members. Much more than we can drink, make cheese of, or even eat in ice cream. What do we do with all that extra milk?
Freeze it, of course.
Raw milk can be frozen and stored for 4-6 months. There are multiple ways to freeze your milk. I will describe the different ways, what method we use, and why we use that particular method.
1-Glass Jar Method
Place milk is a clean glass jar, leave 1-2 inches of air between the top of the lid and the top of the milk. Milk expands when frozen, so it needs room to expand or it will break your glass jar. Glass is also more brittle the colder it gets, so be careful moving the jars once the milk and the jar are frozen.
2-Ice Cube Tray/Plastic Container
You can place milk in ice cube trays or plastic containers, square ones work better for storage. Once the milk is frozen, pop the milk out. If using a plastic square container, can leave out for a few minutes until side loosen up and pop the large block of milk out. Then place cubes into a ziploc bag (label with amount and date) and store in the freezer.
3-Ziplock Bag and Bowl/Pan
Measure milk, label bags with amount and date, grab a freezer safe bowl and set ziplock bag into the bowl (prevents bag from rolling away), pour milk into bag, seal and freeze. You can use a baking tray to freeze flat. Once frozen, remove from bow and store in freezer.
We personally use the Ziplock Bag and Bowl Method. I find it is easier to find a flat surface in our fridge for a bowl than an ice cube container or a tray. We also found transporting frozen milk in a flat square really difficult, especially with smaller coolers. It also removes a step. Rather than have to transport from a plastic container to a plastic bag, it just goes straight into the bag.
Problems with Plastic Bags
-if using a small ziplock bag, the milk with expand and tear small holes in the bag. So de-thaw in a bowl. I often put a smaller bowl with the frozen milk in a larger bowl with hot water. It's sort of a double boiler thawing method.
-it is plastic. While we would love to find a financially and economically stable freezer option, we find ziplock bags made the most sense for us. Glass is the more economical, but the risk of dealing with fragile glass that might break and destroy the milk inside due to shards of glass was more than we were willing to risk.
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