# Separate crean, from milk. . . . How?



## dexfish23 (Mar 19, 2011)

Hi all y'all
I have been wondering this for a LONG time :whatgoat: But how do I separate the milk from the cream(half my family can't have cows milk OR butter!) I have tried to research it but can't find anything. I do know it can be done, I just heard it requires al little bit of work,or something like that.
Thank you all SO much. By the way I have a Kid that you guys helped me help the Mommy with, and he is doing GREAT!!!!! :kidblue:


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Glad all is good with your mama and baby!
Is it because "butter" is normally made with cows milk cream that your family can't have it?

It is a bit time consuming but without a mechanical cream separator, skimming the cream works but doesn't remove all the cream from goats milk. If you want enough to make butter, I let my milk sit in quart jars in the fridge for no less than 24 hours, I skim the cream and put it in a freezer container to freeze and add to it daily, I like to wait til I have at least a pint of frozen cream before I make butter.


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## FunnyRiverFarm (Sep 13, 2008)

When I make butter, I don't even bother separating the cream out anymore. I just put a quart of whole goat's milk in a big jar and start shaking it. In about 30-45 mins you'll be able to see butter chunks floating in the jar...then you just strain it and rinse the butter with cold water and you're done. It's been a while since I've made any but I think 1 quart of milk produces around 1/4 cup of butter if I remember correctly. The shaking is a lot of work but you could probably also put the whole milk in a food processor and acheive the same results


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

We are just getting into this and here is what we have so far.
I am _*NOT*_ patient enough to leave milk sitting around in shallow pans to separate. :veryangry: 
We hunted for almost a year (not wanting to pay $500+) for a cream separator. We finally found one, close enough to go pick up, through Craig's List. It is a 1940's manual. We love it!! It does take a lot of cranking, but we feel it is more than worth it to not have to buy any dairy products. Two gallons of milk yields about a pint of cream. I am lucky enough right now to be able to get that much in the morning if I separate all the babies and mothers at night.
It sounds like you really need to make your own goat butter for your family. You can find a cream separator. Ebay and Craig's List have them often. You need to make sure it is complete and has been well taken care of. Ours was!! And as mentioned before; they sell new for upwards of $500.
Hope this helps and good luck.


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## dexfish23 (Mar 19, 2011)

Thankyou all for your help! I'll try to find one, in the meanwhile I will just do the whole mikl shaking prosess. And Yes they cannot have ANY cows milk whatsoever!


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## billmac (Sep 8, 2008)

This sounds crazy, but my understanding is that cream separators use centrifugal force to separate the cream from the milk. I wonder if you could put say, 1/2 gallon of milk in a gallon container, and then spin it for a few minutes (ie: slosh it in circles), and then refrigerate it overnight. I wonder if that would speed up the natural separation process. Skim in the morning.


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

Anything is worth a try. 
I do know that our separator has many cones that have to go on in a certain order to actually push up the cream. We had the whole family over last night watching the process. (This made it possible for us to unload the 2 gallons of skim milk.) On Easter we will let the kids churn it into butter.
And wow, I found a thing called a *whipomatic* at a thrift store for $2. It makes a perfect butter churn. :dance:


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## dexfish23 (Mar 19, 2011)

So Cool!! I just LOVE thrift stores!!


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## COVELLOFARMGIRLS (Apr 29, 2013)

I found an old separator in my parents barn, but when we ran whole goats milk through it, the milk and cream did not appear to separate. Any thoughts on what went wrong? Do we have to heat the milk first before running it through the machine? Thanks covellofarmgirls


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

The milk should be warm. I usually separate mine straight out of the goat. Some people run hot water through before the milk to warm up the insides. Is this electric or manual? I know our manual has to hit a certain speed to separate properly. We found the instuction book for our model online. That was helpful as well.
Good luck.


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## Di (Jan 29, 2008)

If you go to "youtube" you will find many different ways of separating milk. The one I thought was interesting was the one that put a long silicone tube into the milk and an empty bottle lower down and they siphoned the milk out from under the cream! 

I purchased my cream separator on ebay. It was about $75.00 I think. The crank model, you can get electric for a little more. It's from the Ukraine. So, I was calling myself an "importer" for a while there. lol.


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## milk and honey (Oct 31, 2010)

Di, are you happy with it?


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## Di (Jan 29, 2008)

Yes, I do like it very much. I decided that drinking whole milk would probably make me really FAT...lol...so I got the separator early on. I got the crank model because I said to myself "really, how lazy have we become"? However, I kinda wish I'd gotten the electric model. lol. I get mine all set up and have the bottles all sterile and ready to go. I usually do several days of milk at once...so it's cold milk...I warm it in a big stock pan first...then I dip out of the pan into the bowl on the separator. It's kinda messy, but, not too bad, it takes a little bit to clean up. But, it's worth it.


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## lovinglife (Jun 6, 2013)

How does the milk taste after you remove the cream? What kind of goats do you have and how much cream do you think you get from a gallon or two of milk?


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

The skim milk that you get after separating fresh milk is a world away from that watered down bluish stuff from the store. Once chilled it is quite tasty though not quite as rich as whole. My grandkids prefer for me to mix it half and half. I have so much extra milk that the skim milk often goes to the cats and chickens.
I mix all my goat's milk together so I do not know if my Nubians actually have more butterfat like they say. There is a setting on cream separators to determine light-heavy cream. At first mine was set too heavy and I only got about a half pint from two gallons. Now I have it adusted and get between a pint and a quart from three gallons. That is good enough for butter and ice cream.


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## lottsagoats (Dec 10, 2012)

I have 2 cream seperators, one floor and 1 table top. Both are from the 1940's. Its amazing the difference in amount of cream you can get between rising and scimming and the seperator!


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

Acorrding to the advertising on my son's antique separator; you *save $10 per cow per year.*:slapfloor:

Here is my pride and joy:


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