How to Pasteurize Goat Milk

I do recommend to anyone that drinks milk, especially children, to drink pasteurized milk versus drinking milk raw (unpasteurized). Pasteurizing milk kills bad bacteria that could be harmful to the body.
Many people, who have arthritis, like to drink goat's milk raw because the raw goat's milk contains something that pasteurized milk does not have that is supposed to help the arthritic pain.
For my own family, I pasteurize our goat milk.

The pasteurization process is really simple!

For pasteurizing your own milk you will need -
a Candy Thermometer
a Clean piece of cheese cloth or a flour sack dish towel
a Clean Stainless Steel Pot
a Clean Metal Spoon for stirring the milk

a Bowl of cold water with lots of ice
and clean glass *containers for storing the milk

First, strain the milk through the piece of clean cheesecloth or a clean flour sack dishtowel into the clean stainless steel pot. Straining the milk will catch all of the hairs or other things that might have fallen into the milk during milking time.
Note - The piece of material you use for straining needs to be very clean. It shouldn't be washed in harsh detergents or fabric softeners, especially detergents that are scented. I suggest getting a few towels to keep for straining milk through only! To make sure your towel is clean enough, you can alway dip it in boiling water, that should kill anything that isn't good in your milk.

Attatch the candy thermometer to the pot. (If you don't have a candy thermometer that attches to the pot, dip the thermometer into the pot often to check the milk's temperature.)
Set the heat of stove top to medium high. Stir the milk as often as possible if not constant.

Watch the temperature on the thermometer. When the temperature on the thermometer reaches 165 degrees Farenheit, set a timer for 15 seconds. When the timer ends, put your pot of milk into a the bowl of cold, icey water and stir.
Try to get the pot of milk into the water as quickly as possible. The quick cooling of the milk gives the milk a better flavor.

When the ice in the cold water melts, take the milk from the bowl of water, pour into clean containers, and put the containers of milk into the freezer for further cooling.

It shouldn't take the milk very long to get cool in the freezer.
After the milk has cooled in the freezer, put the milk into the fridge. The milk is now without the bad bacteria and ready to drink. Give the milk a good shake and enjoy!

* Containers - Never use plastic containers to put milk in. Plastic holds bacteria. Don't use any container to store milk in that has cracks, seams, or crevices, those little places are just a place for bacteria to hide.

I have found glass containers are best for storing milk. I like canning (Ball, Kerr, Mason) jars to keep my milk in. Each milking's milk in in it's own container, I never have to worry about milk from different milkings getting put in the same container, and canning jars make giving the milk a good shake easy.

Everything used to pasteurize the milk should be as clean as possible.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog! Please check out some of my other posts and visit my blog again soon!

~Belle~

Please visit my store: http://www.homesteaderbelle.blogspot.com/

Fried Fish, a LaMancha Dairy Goat, and Homemade Goat Milk Ice Cream

Tonight, for supper, my family and I had fried fish. My sister, brother, and dad all went fishing yesterday. They caught a bunch of Blue Gill.
The fish we fried was delicious!



Earlier today, my sister made some homemade vanilla ice cream with all of the goat's milk that she has been getting.
The ice cream was very good!

My sister bought a LaMancha dairy goat about a month ago. My family has had LaMancha dairy goats in the past and loved the taste of the LaMancha's milk. Our last LaMancha doe we had died about three years ago from old age. Since the death of our last LaMancha doe, we have had Alpine goats. The milk from the Alpine does is nothing like the milk from the LaManchas (in my family's opinion). Nobody in the family liked the milk from the Alpines, so the Alpines are now dried up and we drink the milk from my sister's LaMancha doe. My family has found, by experience with dairy goats, that LaMancha goat's milk is much more creamier and has a better flavor than the Alpine's milk. So, for now on, I think that we will only keep LaMancha goats for milk.


My sister had been looking to buy a LaMancha dairy goat for over a year. LaManchas are difficult to find in this area. She did finally find one.


The doe that she bought gives 3 - 4 quarts of delicious, creamy milk a day. The milk has lots of cream in it. My sister has been taking all of the cream from the milk and making butter with it.
I found a recipe online for homemade Mozzerella cheese that I want to make soon. If the recipe is a good one, I will share it here on my blog.



Below is a picture of the delicious, creamy goat milk.

It is wonderful to have fresh milk everyday and to know exactly where it came from.

Thank you for reading and visiting my blog! Please leave a comment if you would like to. Please come back very soon to my blog!

~Belle~

Check out my shop here - http://www.homesteaderbelle.blogspot.com/