# Cream



## lazydaisy67 (Sep 7, 2009)

I'm having a heck of a time skimming any cream off of my goat milk. I don't know if it's her breed (LaMancha) or what? I don't have the coin for a cream separator so I'm just trying to put the milk into a 9 x 13 glass dish and skim what I can off the top with a spoon every morning. It's painfully slow to get even enough to make a small jar of butter!! Any ideas or do I just need to save my pennies for a separator?


----------



## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Start saving your pennies, but you also will have better luck with something deeper and it takes more time than overnight. Like 3 or 4 days works better. Just put the milk in a wide mouthed jar and try after a few days. But it is a goat thing, that the cream does not separate as readily as the cream from cow's milk does.


----------



## Ozark Lady (Mar 21, 2010)

I am having the same issues. I have noticed that it is 2-3 days before there is even a good skim of cream on top. I keep a 1/2 pint jar in the freezer, and in a full week, it isn't full yet! I also have La Mancha, I did notice when I had nubians the cream did seem to rise better, or else I am romanticizing a memory.
I do recall, one day, I put a quart of milk not cream in a jar, and had the kids shake it, it kept them busy, and guess what, we finally got butter... with just ordinary nubian milk, not alot, but some! It was enough butter for supper at least.


----------



## lazydaisy67 (Sep 7, 2009)

I didn't realize it took more than one day for the cream to rise. I will try waiting a little longer. I remember getting goat milk from a neighbor lady a couple of years ago. She had Saanens and I got a good amount of cream from her milk every morning. I didn't think the Saanen had as much cream as some other breeds, but in a week's time I had a pint jar full and made a wonderful batch of butter. I guess I want to make butter because it seems like the easiest thing to start out with. Making cheese just scares me to death!


----------



## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Cheese is easier with goat's milk, simply because of the cream separation issues. But the butter is soooo good. Dh was annoyed that I spent $80 on an antique butter churn (one of the glass jar Dazey types) until he tried the butter. :wink Some cream will rise right away, I have found that you just get more if you wait. As to the amount of cream from breed to breed, that is a separate issue from how well the cream separates.


----------



## Ozark Lady (Mar 21, 2010)

On you tube, I was checking folks getting cream from goat milk.
One lady dated the jars, and said, to wait 10 days to get the cream! She only had what appeared to be a quart jar on each date. I would be literally buried in milk in 10 days!
She said they then drink the milk once she has skimmed the cream. She had lids on her jars, I saw someone else somewhere (?) who said that large, flat, containers without lids were the best for getting the cream to rise in more volume. I guess we just need to experiment, and remember lots of things are lowfat: yogurt, buttermilk, cottage cheese etc. So once we get our cream, we should still be able to culture the milk. I am going to try for day 3 maybe 4, and skim it and then culture the remaining milk, instead of morning milk is drinking milk, evening milk is yogurt or buttermilk, and the drinking milk is what I skim! What if I just skim it all, and then culture half?


----------

