# Thawing frozen goat milk



## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

We made the decision to dry up the girls as we have several projects to finish up around here. What we do have is some quarts of frozen goat milk - most of it was put up immediately after it was strained, put in quart bags and then put straight in the freezer. What is the best way to thaw? In a bowl on the kitchen counter? Slowly in the fridge (might take a couple of days). 

Your suggestions and experience is appreciated.


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## LSP Farm (Dec 4, 2011)

I've always just sat it in the fridge and thawed.. I'm drying up my last doe, so I'm gonna be thawing too... My children turn their noses up to cows milk.


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## SANDQ (Dec 27, 2011)

I freeze mine in 2 litre soda bottles, when its time to thaw, I leave it out on the kitchen worktop over night. It is usualy around 40 F ( 5 C ) in the morning, I know this as I have regullay made cheese with it.


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## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

If a person could thaw it where it didn't have to be blended to get rid of lumps it would be an excellent way to sell milk. Just freeze it and then the buyer could take it home in the amounts they need and thaw. Packaging in quart bags is a bit of a pain. Are there better ways? What is the best way of thawing to prevent lumps and separation?


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

I have found a source of 1/2 gallon plastic milk jugs-they are running me $25 for 108 of them, but I found a deal, so yours could be a little more expensive. They work very well for freezing! I have not thawed any for myself, since I milk all the time, but some people that buy milk like to get large quantities at a time less frequently, so these are really handy. The jugs I'm talking about are pretty much like these: http://sd2cx1.webring.org/l/rd?ring=pacificnwgoatbre;id=12;url=http://rockyrun-farm.com/


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## [email protected] (Sep 18, 2008)

I freeze milk in quart size *take-along* bowls. When froze, I run them under hot water (upside down) and the milk pops out and I put two in a gallon size freezer bag. They stack nice in the freezer that way.  To thaw, I put the frozen milk *blocks* back in the bowls and sit on the counter. When thawed, I pour it into a 1/2 gal jar. Have never had problems with lumps or separation. ???


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

I've never had problems with clumps so long as the milk was frozen immediately after milking. It's also chilled while I milk it as my milk bucket sits in a plastic bucket with icewater. 

When thawing the milk (and I use plastic gallon jugs) I always tell new customers to let it thaw overnight in a pie pan to catch the condensation that comes off it. Overnight (assuming room temperature range, if it's hot in your house in summer, things may be different) because it's coming out of a deep freezer. Normally by morning, there is still a fist sized lump of ice or so. At this point I put it in the fridge. I always tell them to gentle turn the milk upside down and back a few times to mix it (and tell them DON'T SHAKE it and why) as the upper milk is watery from the ice floating upwards as it melts, and as the ice melts it becomes more and more watery as the solids thaw quicker. 

I always have problems with zip loc type bags, even the nice "freezer" types, leaking.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Yes, Ashley, I have problem with bags leaking. Not just milk, but ANYTHING!


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## Qadosh Adamah Lamanchas (Nov 2, 2012)

Here is our system that works FABULOUSLY: 

We buy 1 gallon jugs of spring water from the grocery store, drink the water, and save the jug. We pour warm, freshly strained milk into the jug, date it on the lid, and freeze it. When thawing, we put the jug into a bucket and pour hot water over it until it's nearly covered. We change out the water for more hot water until it's nearly all the way thawed. After that, we shake it and put it into the fridge. It comes together again very, very well and doesn't leak and has no off-flavor.


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## 2Sticks (Dec 13, 2007)

Ashley said:


> I've never had problems with clumps so long as the milk was frozen immediately after milking. It's also chilled while I milk it as my milk bucket sits in a plastic bucket with icewater.
> 
> When thawing the milk (and I use plastic gallon jugs) I always tell new customers to let it thaw overnight in a pie pan to catch the condensation that comes off it. Overnight (assuming room temperature range, if it's hot in your house in summer, things may be different) because it's coming out of a deep freezer. Normally by morning, there is still a fist sized lump of ice or so. At this point I put it in the fridge. I always tell them to gentle turn the milk upside down and back a few times to mix it (and tell them DON'T SHAKE it and why) as the upper milk is watery from the ice floating upwards as it melts, and as the ice melts it becomes more and more watery as the solids thaw quicker.
> 
> I always have problems with zip loc type bags, even the nice "freezer" types, leaking.


 :yeahthat


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

John took the defrost timer off my freezers, so they do not defrost my milk....yes I do have to manually defrost my freezers 2 times a year or they ice up. Now I have two chest freezers that are not autodefrost either. 

Straining your milk, immediately freezing it is key, you can't freeze old milk, not even cold milk. I think if you let that butterfat start to separate by even making it cold in the fridge
you start clumping. All my customers drink frozen milk, it's all we drink also, nobody would buy it if it was clumpy.


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I strain just milked milk into a glass 1/2 gallon mason jar and pop it in the freezer. To thaw I set it in a pan of water on my wood stove or pop it in the mircowave.


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

I have had mason jars break in the freezer. I'm sure I just filled them too full.


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## Annie (Jun 10, 2012)

I freeze mostly in 2-liter bottles, but also use Aldi store brand freezer quart ziploc bags (MUST be the freezer type).

Just set one in the sink, usually overnight it will thaw, might take till noon. The milk in bags - I put bag/millk in some kind of larger container as sometimes the bags DO leak. Also overnight.

Yep, straining and straight in the freezer is the key!


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## Goat Town (Nov 20, 2010)

I freeze all milk produced here. I buy 1/2 gallon and 1 gallon milk jugs from a bottling plant in Tulsa. One must not overfill them before freezing or they will crack in the freezer. The one gallon size likes to crack right below the handle, while the half gallon size cracks on the bottom where the four seams come together.

In the past we have had problems with clumping a separating because people take them out of the freezer and slowly thaw them in the fridge. I tried Adrienne's suggestion of fast thaw in buckets of hot water and it worked wonderfully. Now I'm promoting that method with the remainder of my winter milk supply, most of which was put up in June.


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## informative (Aug 24, 2012)

Most plastic bags leak because they are mostly super thin tissue-cellophane thickness.

You probably need to use like 8-mil bags if you expect to use them as proper liquid storage or heavy freezer thaw bag in my experience. Compared to the thickness of "milk jugs" 8 mil is still probably even thinner than those. I've got a bunch of super thick large 12x12 ones I use for storage of random stuff like old electronics and power supply transformers because its nice to see what is stored in the bags when I want to find a power supply for something.

Here is an example of what I use. http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-14416/Poly-Bags-Reclosable/12-x-12-8-Mil-Reclosable-Bags

In the same price range these have about a 2+ gallon capacity but are only 6 mils.
http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-3487/Poly-Bags-Reclosable/14-x-14-6-Mil-Reclosable-Bags


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