# Milk Storage



## laughter777

:help

After coming here (and calling Durvet) and learning that I don't have to wait the 21 days to milk Lily that I would if I were eating her, I kept her milk last night. My new question is if the container from last night was only half full can I put this mornings milk in there after it is chilled down to the same temp??
Most books say no, but I figure since y'all have goats and books do not I would ask!!

Thanks,
Sarah


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## Rose

It's better if you do NOT mix old and new. Putting the new milk warms up the old and encourages bacteria growth. Each milking should go in its own jars/containers. Get it cold, keep it cold.


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## Guest

Hi Sarah,

You said,


> can I put this mornings milk in there after it is chilled down to the same temp??


And the answer is yes  As long as the new milk is cooled to the same temp as the milk from the previous milking you can mix them with no affect on milk quality. I do it all the time and I am _extremely_ anal about milk handling 

Christy


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## MysticHollowGoats

:yeahthat
I am milking a Nigerian so I only get about a pint per milking, so I combine my milk when its chilled.


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## goatsareus

I routinely add warm milk to cold milk and have been for over 30 years and my milk tastes sweet for over one week. I have experienced no problems with adding warm to cold milk. Why don't you try it and see if it works for you too?


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## Leo

I go through milk rather quickly(just milking 2), so I do add the same milk to the container, but I clean everything out once a week, (sterilize all the containers, equipment etc.), if my milk stayed in the fridge for more than a few days, I would do the immediate chill method, so the milk would stay fresher, longer. And if I was selling milk, I would think it would be important to follow grade A procedure in chilling milk.
Megan


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## laughter777

Right now it is just for my family and friends' consumption...no selling no $800 for the grade A raw license!


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## Sondra

I always chill first before adding to older


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## Sondra

OK on this note the only time I have ever added new milk to old is when making cheese by an old ancient book where it says to store last nights milk in the cooler and add mornings milk to it , thus causing curdling without the use of rennet. SO NOPE would not do this for drinking milk


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## goatsareus

BlissBerry said:


> Same here Sondra. Adding warm milk to cold milk is something I can't imagine doing... yuck! :ick
> 
> Sara


Have you had trouble doing this? What was your experience when you tried it?

Like I have said, adding warm milk, actually the milk is about 80*F when added to the 40*F milk, is something I do almost everyday. I have no trouble with the keeping quality of my milk. My milk tastes sweet for well over one week. I have no problems with this procedure. I suspect you who :ick have not tried this. I am only reporting what works for me. I have been handleing raw goats milk for 3 decades and did not know how wrong I have been doing it until I found HT and this forum. Since I have excellent tasting milk, I do not think I will change how I handle my milk :biggrin


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## Guest

When you add warm milk to cold milk you warm the entire container. The milk will then have to cool off again. Proper milk handling requires that the milk is cooled to 40F as quickly as possible, 20 minutes meets grade A standards. With goat milk the short-chain fatty acids: capric, caprylic and dcaproic acid, are very fragile and will break down causing the milk to develop a goaty flavor. These standards came about through laboratory testing not personal preference

Adding warm milk to cold will contribute to fatty acid break down. However, I am sure people who are used to it notice no off flavor with their milk. 

Christy


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## goatsareus

I know I have had, easily, over 200 people taste my goats milk over the years. And 100% of the time, they have said that my milk was the best tasting goat or cows milk they had ever had, bare none.

You do not cool the entire container of milk when adding warm to cold. You would have to shake the jar for that to happen. I do not shake my milk, ever. The milk is stratifed.

If goats milk fatty acids are so fragile, how do you handle chilling milk? Do you put the warm milk in the same frig as cold milk? Do you put warm milk next to cold milk? Do you ever put warm left overs in the same frig as your milk? What temp are your leftovers they when you put them in the frig? How much does that drop the temp of the milk?

I took a 5 hour class in college on safe food handeling one quarter. As a result of that class, I was eligible to sit for a state exam on safe food handeling. I have a life time certificate from the State of Ohio Dept. of Health for Food Protection.

I fully understand the role that cleanliness of animals, humans, equipment and environment play in producing good tasting milk. I also suspect that it is my strict attention to sanitation that I am able to produce such good tasting milk.

I live in Ohio and may have a cooler environment than some of you and may be able to successfully handle milk differently than you. That does not mean my way is wrong/yucky/inappropriate. And I am sure my milk does not have any goaty taste or flavor at least for around 9 days after milking. In fact, I can't get a good goat flavor to my soft cheeses!


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## goatsareus

plus...

there are so many variables..

I just checked the temperature in the frig where I store my milk.


32*F on two thermometers. So that right there makes mine and your milk temperature calculations, inaccurate.

I love thermometers, I take the temperature of almost everything food related in the kitchen. Does any one else do that? If you do, you probably have experience in a commercial type kitchen.


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## Sondra

BETH I think you are taking this as a punch in the stomach against you!! Not at all !! But the info we give here as Moderators of Dairy Goat Info is as a general rule for those new to goats and the use of their products. Just because I keep my eggs out on the counter never putting in a refrigerator and have good success with them, doesn't mean I will come on here and encouraging others to do the same thing. Just because I put fresh cream on top of frozen cream and store until I make butter doesn't mean that is the way it should be done or that I would come on here in an open forum and recommend it to others and especially those new to goats asking for advice. What works for you and what works for me in regard to milk/cheese or egg handling is great and like you I will keep doing what I do for myself. However I would never sell my over a week old room temp eggs to a customer, nor would I recommend you or anyone else to do so. BEST to be on the more cautious side when advising others on proper use of milk.


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## Sondra

Well no I don't have experience in a commercial kitchen but do have two different thermometers in each of my 4 refrigerators and two deep freezers. Just went and ckd my frig in the house and it is at 28 degrees so yep some of my frig stuff is freezing


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## Guest

First off I am not saying there is anything wrong with your milk 

In answer to your questions...



> If goats milk fatty acids are so fragile, how do you handle chilling milk?


The best method for a small home operation is to strain the milk into quart jars, submerge the jars into ice water, make sure the jars are not touching each other.



> Do you put the warm milk in the same frig as cold milk?


Warm milk should not be cooled in the refrigerator, see above.



> Do you put warm milk next to cold milk?


No.



> Do you ever put warm left overs in the same frig as your milk?


No, warm leftovers should not be placed on the same shelf as milk.



> What temp are your leftovers they when you put them in the frig? How much does that drop the temp of the milk?


Leftovers should be placed into the refrigerator within two hours, and not placed next to milk, see above.



> I take the temperature of almost everything food related in the kitchen. Does any one else do that? If you do, you probably have experience in a commercial type kitchen.


Yes on both accounts  I have commercial kitchen experience with restaurants and catering and I have thermometers in all three of my refrigerators, my milk chiller, oven and three kinds of prob thermometers handy in the kitchen

Christy

Edited to answer a question I missed the first time


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## Rose

We have a separate fridge for the milk, too. Warm items do not go into that fridge.

Our milk is chilled as we milk it from the doe. We use an ice bath in the outside SS pail, and milk into the inside pail. Then we strain it into glass jars. When it goes into the milk fridge, it's well on its way to cold. I still put the new jars on the other side of the bottom shelf away from yesterday's milk.

Yup, yup. A bunch of us are compulsive about these things! :biggrin

There's as many ways to handle goat milk as there are goat owners. If you are happy with your way (not directed at any one person, using the collective 'you') then it's fine!


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## Guest

I stand by what I wrote... Adding warm/fresh milk to older/chilled milk is NASTY! :ick

Beth, you can do whatever you want however. 

Sara


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## NubianSoaps.com

I took a 5 hour class in college on safe food handeling one quarter. 
........................

And you also have had goats for 30 years  Which means your class in college is meaningless, 24 new ways of doing it has now been written!

No really, don't dig in your heels, what you will find with some of these young gals is that they have soo much more knowledge early on that we did not...we simply just did it!

And I have changed alot of how I do things, no more excuses that I have had goats for so many years...it's meaningless really. My feeding program is 100% different, I fecal now, I blood test for selenium and pregnancy, I copper liver biopsy...stuck in the passed your goats suffer. So why not try out this method they showed you is true, you may find that you even have better milk than you thought and it will keep longer than even 1 week in the fridge. Vicki


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## goatsareus

Vicki McGaugh Tx Nubians said:


> I took a 5 hour class in college on safe food handeling one quarter.
> ........................
> 
> And you also have had goats for 30 years  Which means your class in college is meaningless, 24 new ways of doing it has now been written!
> 
> No really, don't dig in your heels, what you will find with some of these young gals is that they have soo much more knowledge early on that we did not...we simply just did it!
> 
> And I have changed alot of how I do things, no more excuses that I have had goats for so many years...it's meaningless really. My feeding program is 100% different, I fecal now, I blood test for selenium and pregnancy, I copper liver biopsy...stuck in the passed your goats suffer. So why not try out this method they showed you is true, you may find that you even have better milk than you thought and it will keep longer than even 1 week in the fridge. Vicki


I feel if people think they must go to extreme measures to protect their milk, that they must have an undiagnosed problem with their milk handeling techniques that they are over compensating for. By extreme measures, I mean getting the milk as cold as possible as quickly as possible.

consider this possibility.....what if my technique of adding new to old milk actually improves the keeping qualities of my milk. After all, freshly drawn goats milk has anti-bacterial qualities. My technique could diminish the bacteria of my milk and that could be partly responsible for my milk having excellent taste and excellent keeping qualities.

Oh, and my college class in food safty was not meaningless. It was required in my former position of managing a nursing home kitchen. I am sure if your mother or father was in my nursing home, you would have appreciated my not knocking them off with food poisoning.

The reason I combine my milk is to compact my storage area. I don't have room for half filled gallon jars in my frig.


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## Guest

Beth you have an uncanny knack for reading things into what we are saying, taking well meant advice and opposing views as personal insults :duh

Your milk meets _your_ standards and _you_ are happy with your method. We are not asking you to change. Now let's just leave it at that 

For anyone who is interested, with a timer and a thermometer is very simple to find out what standard your milk meets. Using the cooling method of your choice, take a temp reading on your milk every 30 minutes.

Milk grading is determined by how long it takes freshly drawn milk to get to 40F.

Grade A = 30 minutes or less
Grade B = 1 hour
Grade C = 1.5 hours

The ice water bath with quart sized jars should meet Grade B standards,larger jars will take longer. Putting a gallon of milk in the refrigerator to cool would take over 8 hours to come to temp.

Christy


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