How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Ok so let's say you have 1 gallon of raw whole milk from your cow.

How do you get heavy creme out of it?

Apparently commercial dairies use centrifuges to do it quickly but how was it done traditionally and how can a small home user do it?

Is there a way to improvise a home made centrifuge to do this?

Or is it some method of letting the milk sit in the fridge on a wide pan or something and waiting for the creme to settle on top and then somehow scooping it off.

Please share your techniques if you know how to do this, I am really interested.

I also would like to know how long you may let the milk sit there collecting creme before it becomes 'depleted' and what will you be left with when you are done, i.e. does 1 gal whole milk becomes 1 qt. heavy creme and 3 qt skim milk? Or what is the resulting proportions...

Also, if you know of any fantastic books on home dairying, pls share :) A book that details everything about milk on a small scale would be perfect, including manual and electric methods and encompassing handling and processing milk, cheeses, yogurts and butter, with a bias towards keeping things raw and natural whenever possible.

edit: just stumbled upon some home milk separators (I guess I never found it before because I was concentrating on the word "centrifuge") and I came across items like this: http://www.allivet.com/Cream-Separator-p/50039.htm

Looks really cool! Anyone have experience with these?

I wonder, what kind of difference is it between skimming the creme off and separating it off with a machine? Is it significant or is it small?

And what can I do with the remaining skim milk besides drinking it - I suppose I can use it for making cottage cheese or even yogurt right? Anything else?

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

These are just wild guesses so hopefully someone can correct me but I think you have 2 choices:

You can get butter from the whole milk first by churning. The leftover "buttermilk" should still be thick and eventually separate into cream and milk(?)

Without churning, the whole milk fats can be used for cheese curd and yogurt production(?)

Just guesses

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

I never tried making butter with whole milk, but maybe you could. I believe everyone uses heavy cream, removed from milk, to make butter.....and fresh buttermilk is quite thin because you turned the cream into butter, and are basically left with skim milk.

To get the cream to begin with, you can either let it float to the top, and skim it off ( hence the term "skim milk" for the leftovers ), or use a mechanical separator.

Here's a small, hand crank model:

http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c..._2042_10067514

Cost 495 FRNs at this website

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Let the milk set in the fridge for a day or two. the cream will go to the top. Ladle it off into another jar. If you want butter, shake that jar for 30 min, and butter will form. You dont have to shake it hard. you could even roll it under your foot while you are in a rocking chair.

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

That sounds pretty neat, I heard some people accomplish this using low speed blenders. But I have not heard of any details (rotary speed, duration). Do you know anything about this method or would advise against it?

Also for skimming creme off the top method, does the container need to be certain dimensions (i.e. wider than it is tall to allow for top surface area) or does that not matter? And does the container need to be open?

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

I use to put my milk in a big mouth 1 gallon glass jar. (like what whole pickles come in)
Then just ladle it off . You can see when the cream floats to the top. I never used a blender for it. I just put it in a quart jar with a lid and shook it. Or made my son shake it. Child labor is wonderful!
http://www.specialtybottle.com/Produ...llon/gal1f.jpg

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Great idea, I will definitely try this. So about how much (roughly) creme would you ladle off from a gallon of milk in your experience?

And the leftover milk since its not as efficiently separated as a centrifuge probably still tastes nice n creamy not as bland as skim milk right?

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

I did this by accident with a mixer at high speed and went past the point of whipped cream. It was OK butter, but not great. Maybe low speeds would work better. I have also noticed butter at the top of my ice cream maker when it's overly full after I open it up; it forms at the very top of the dasher and above the "water line". A bit strange to have little bits of butter as an ice cream mix-in, but I got used to it (yummy!). I think making butter is pretty easy and can be done in lots of ways. Not sure about making good butter though.

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

You can see the separation line, sometimes about 1/3 way down from the top. If you go too deep, you get the milk. I would leave about 1 inch of the cream on top of that line. A lot depends on if you have milk from a high butter fat gal like a jersey, compared to a Holstein. When you drink the skimmed milk, you will have to judge on how much of the cream you want to leave in it to suit your taste. You have to shake your skimmed milk a few times to make sure its mixed up before you pour. Goat milk is harder to separate. But with cows milk, I could never justify the cost of the cream separator, as it just floats to the top! When you skim the whole raw milk, to me, it taste like store bought whole milk.

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3263/...91260d01c9.jpg



Finally I found a picture of it. You can see where it is separated!

I went to the local health food store and bought some organic milk in the glass jar.
They charged me a 2.50 deposit on the glass jar. Which was fine with me, as I only wanted the jar!
http://www.thepauperedchef.com/image...1/img_2933.jpg

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Wow, what state do you live in where you can buy raw milk from your Whole Foods? And at that price that is excellent.

I am buying raw milk for $5 per half gallon from a farmer about an hour away

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

That picture is one I took off another web site. Its about 4.00 a gallon here. If you can, get a goat! Milk it and drink for free!

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Man I wish I could. I live in suburbia with 1/3 acre of land. Even if the town "let me" have a goat it's not enough land for a happy goat.

I could maybe get away with rabbits though. They need to develop dairy rabbits. :biggrin:

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

That's right on the button, IC. I milked alot of dairy cows for my great uncle in the late 50's. The cows were milked into galvanized pails, poured into galvanized urns, stored in root cellars and usually bought by folks that didn't have milk cows within a day or two or that same day. The older women of the family always wanted the "skim" after the milk sat for a day or so.

They all lived, male and female alike, to no less than their 80's and half of them well into their 90's.

Good thread. Brought back lots of good memories!

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Creme yield will vary from cow to cow. In general, Jerseys are highest and Holstiens are lowest, with all the other breeds in between. Our Shorthorn gives about a pint of cream for every gallon of whole milk. Since cream is about 1/2 butterfat and 1/2 buttermilk, that approximates to about 6% milk. (And you thought whole milk was 3.5%). I usually skim off about half. This makes the milk a lot smoother drinking than skim, and gives me some cream to make butter from.

I wouldn't bother with a manual seperator unless you are dealing with a lot of milk. They have several dozen discs that set up a centrifugal action. All of these discs must be washed each time you use it (twice a day.) Just not worth it for 1-3 cows. I just ladle it off the top.

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

PS, our cow has a higher cream yield in the morning than in the evening. I don't know if that is normal or not. It makes sense that if she is sleeping all night, she would have more energy to put into cream instead of body maintenance.

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

That's another question I have, how do I know the percent fat in the creme I skim off? Ideally I want to achieve "heavy creme". How do I know if I got it or not?

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

I sometimes work at a raw milk dairy. We separate the cream by putting the whole milk in a tall, narrow tank with a bung at the bottom. Simply let the cream separate naturally and then draw the milk off the bottom of the tank. Stop when you hit cream. You can do this on a small scale at home with an iced tea maker like this:

http://www.disciacca.com/Images/2%20...n%20jar_lg.jpg

Its a lot easier than ladeling the cream off the top.

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Good Ider!

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

How heavy the cream is will depend on the butterfat that the cow gives. To get the cream as heavy as possible, let it sit for a couple of days to make sure that all the cream has risen. If you ladle it off just ladle the top part of the cream. Don't scoop too close to the milk. The closer you get to the milk, the more milk you'll get with the cream, and the thinner the cream will be.

If you drain it off in a jug as George suggested, let a little of the cream drain off with the milk. The heaviest cream will be at the top.

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Wow, cool idea! I'll have to get me something like that!

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

Well, If granny comes to live with you, that would be her job!
Might be a good threatening tool for the kids.... "You do that and your on 'shaken butter ' detail! Then the gov't would step in and say your kids have shaken butter syndrome and haul your butt off for abuse!
:111:

Re: How do you make heavy creme from raw whole milk?
 

I'm not sure, but here is an idea. Leave the milk in an open mixing bowl in the fridge for a couple days. The air will make the creme skin over. you can pull that skin off and put it in another container. It wil re-liquify and give you a thicker creme. I can't guarantee that it will be higher in fat, but I think so because more of the buttermilk will have evaporated leaving fat behind. Be aware that milk and creme are very good at pulling taste and smell from the environment. So if you leave it open, it will smell and taste like whatever else is in the fridge.

I also agree with the other suggestions of letting it sit longer and only taking the top of the creme so as not to get into the milk.

I've also noticed that usually the cream is quite fluid when I skim it. However, there are occasions when it is a thick glob in the top of a sealed jar. I do not know why this happens, but some of my guesses are cow diet, temperature, or contamination. If you get a jar like this, it makes really good whipping creme.