Question about making butter

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I've never made butter using cream from my goats milk. Used to make butter all the time years ago when we had Jerseys and a lot of cream, but obviously there is not the volume there with goats that there is with a cow. I need to know how long you can let the cream rise (to get the most cream possible) before you use it to make butter, without it going bad or tasting too strong. I do have Nubians and they produce a fair amount of cream (herd average is about 7 1/2 % butterfat) so if I let the milk set about a week, nearly half the jar is thick cream. Is this too old to make good butter? (The milk is still very good at this point.)

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), January 10, 2001

Answers

Lenette, somebody mentioned recently that if you put the goat milk in a pan and gently warm it for a few minutes, the cream will rise to the top and can be skimmed off. But I would say that if your milk is still good, try the cream for butter and see if you like the results. You won't be out much if you don't, after all. Let us know how it turns out.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), January 10, 2001.

Lenette,I have found that as long as the milk or cream doesn't smell or taste "off" that I end up with a good quality butter. I frequently use cream that has come to the top after a week in my butter and icecream. The older the cream the more vigilant you have to be to rinse all the butter milk out to have a product that will keep.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 10, 2001.

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