# milk - how old can it be?



## megan (Nov 10, 2008)

Now that I have some milk to use for myself I want to try making cheese and butter someday. not sure what kind of cheese yet - something easy. I am still reading and trying to get supplies bought.

so, how fresh should the milk I use be? Does pasturizing the milk take out any off flavor that may be developing due to age?

And does it matter how fresh the milk is before you pasturize it? like if you pasturize it at a few days old do you get to start over on counting days of being good (start over at day one the day it is pasturized). does that make sense?

I am saving up some 1/2 gal jars full of milk so I can pasturize more at a time. but the oldest jar is already 48hrs old tonight. 

or should I just pasturize some each night (time allowing) in smaller batches instead of waiting and doing it every couple days in a big batch? 

I plan to pasturize all that I have saved up tomorrow (I hope!) and then I will try collecting some cream off the milk after it is pasturized to make butter with.


Thanks!


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

you need to collect the cream before pasturizing then I freeze everything and just add to it freezing each day till I have what I want. I don't pasturize for making either butter or cheese. Just thaw the milk out and then heat to what ever the cheese recipe calls for. So to answer your question the 48 hr milk you should now be able to skim off some cream then freeze each to keep fresh till your ready. Key is never put warm milk into yesterdays cold milk


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