Why I learned how to freeze raw milk so it wouldn’t curdle:
I was dairy-free for almost three years. Processed and pasteurized dairy products make me really sick. I avoided them, and because I’m the cook in our house, our entire family effectively avoided all dairy products. I came up with many different ways to cook normal foods but eliminate the delicious part. (Just kidding, but not really. I love me some dairy.)
We went from no dairy for almost three years to owning a cow producing three gallons of milk per day. And it happened overnight. I really need to write about that adventure in full, but for now, I’ll share the short version: Many of my health issues seemed to disappear as soon as I was consuming raw dairy. It was so good for me, and we had such an abundance of it, that I was able to make healthy cheeses and yogurts and feed my family a ridiculous quantity of good food. I am so sold on having a dairy cow, I will probably never not have one again. My favorite part is that they are such perfect animals if you are looking for a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
We dried our cow off to give her a break before calving.
When we bought our cow Margot she was possibly pregnant, but we didn’t have a due date. We recently thought she was going to calve, but no calf appeared. I don’t know if she miscarried and the coyotes got to the remains before we could find them, or if she’s still pregnant. And we are more than clueless about all of this. So, who knows? Maybe she will calve, maybe she won’t.
In the meantime, we stopped milking her. It was very sad, mostly for me, because I loved being able to eat dairy again. I froze as much milk as I could to tide me over until she would calve, but it’s taken longer than we thought, and like I said, maybe she’s not pregnant at all.
There had to be a way to freeze raw milk so that it would not curdle. Because I love my cream for coffee, this was very important to me. I tried the three methods below, and the third method is by far my favorite, and I’m so happy I found it.
How to Freeze Raw Milk
There are three methods that I have heard of to freeze raw milk.
- Skim all the cream before freezing, then freeze and defrost as you would anything else.
- Very slowly defrost frozen raw whole milk in the coldest part of your fridge, then put it in a blender.
- Use baking soda to prevent the fat globules from curdling.
The first method works fine if you don’t need the cream. It’s hard to get it right, however, because it’s always hard to skim all the cream entirely.
My favorite method is the third method. I have way too much experience trying and failing at the second method to know that it at least never works for me.
Does raw whole milk curdle when frozen?
The short answer is yes. The fat in the cream coagulates and clumps together. It doesn’t sour, it just gets chunky.
Some people say that if you freeze and defrost milk properly, (the second method mentioned above) and then put it in a blender, the fat globules in the cream will settle and go back to their previous form. I have never been able to get milk to do this after I’ve frozen it. So I depend very faithfully on the third method.
What to do with curdled milk:
This happened to me all the time when our cow Margot was in milk. I would put the fresh-filtered still-warm milk in the freezer because our fridge doesn’t get very cold, and we don’t have room in our fridge for the milk anyway. Since we live off-grid, we can’t use a second fridge, so we put the milk in a cooler full of water and ice. But milk tastes best if it is cooled very quickly after being milked. So into the freezer the milk went for a quick cool-down.
The problem is I’m a very distracted busy mom. So I would often forget about the milk in the freezer and it would freeze solid.
Curdled milk is fine for making cheese or yogurt, but it’s not pleasant to drink.
How I would deal with curdled milk:
- pour the milk through a sieve. (it works great! and you can set aside the chunky fat from the sieve for one of the other options)
- use the milk for butter.
- make into yogurt or cheese.
The sieve method worked, but it meant I was losing the fat from the cream, (and I really love my cream) so I didn’t like to do that. I didn’t like to be accidentally freezing milk, but it just happens. I have come up with a way to keep milk cold without putting it in the freezer, but I’ll have to write another blog post about that.
Why do people tend to skim the cream when they freeze raw milk?
Because the fat from the cream is what curdles, not the milk itself. So if you can get all the cream off, you will have no problem freezing milk.
Why skimming the milk wasn’t my favorite option:
Mostly because I just love my cream, especially in coffee. The baking soda method has worked so well that I have even frozen cream (skimmed from the milk) in ice cube trays for coffee, and it worked great.
Will the nutritional value change when you freeze raw milk?
According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, the enzymes are not destroyed during the freezing process.
I’ve found different opinions about vitamin C levels diminishing in frozen raw milk over time, but I have only found studies on human milk, not cow’s milk, to back that up.
How do you freeze and defrost frozen milk?
Step one: put milk in a safe container.
Step two: put the milk in a tray if it’s in a bag so it freezes evenly. Then put in the freezer.
Step three: pull out milk and either defrost on the counter or defrost in the fridge. I like to defrost it in the fridge just to preserve the shelf life of the milk.
How long can you keep it frozen?
Depending on the coldness of your freezer, milk keeps frozen for up to a year.
My hack for keeping the cream from curdling:
Add baking soda to your milk. I’ve played around with different proportions of baking soda, but I tend to throw in 1/4 tsp for every quart. I know people have success using even less, but I don’t want to risk it and I can’t taste the baking soda in such a small quantity.
NOTE: I did experiment with less baking soda and it definitely curdled. So I will be sticking with this proportion.
Can you taste the baking soda?
Nope! There’s barely any baking soda in the milk at all especially in proportion to the amount of milk. And in any case, I think I would prefer a slight soda-y taste to curdled milk. But I suppose that’s a personal preference.
Baking Soda Method Step One:
Measure milk and add baking soda. I use 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to every quart of milk. So if you are only freezing a pint of milk, you could use just 1/8th tsp baking soda. Although if it were me, I would probably just throw in the 1/4 teaspoon anyway.
Baking Soda Method Step Two:
Find the ideal container for freezing. Do you want milk for coffee or smoothies? Ice cubes would be perfect, so freeze in ice cube trays. Are you freezing an entire gallon or a quart? Do you care about your glass jars?
I only say that because I always accidentally freeze milk in glass jars, because that’s what we store our milk in. I have found that half gallon mason jars do not break even when filled up to one inch headspace, but quart jars will break even when only half full.
For me the best method that has worked is a Ziplock freezer bag. I have tried the vacuum seal bags and they broke in the freezer. But I’m currently biased against my vacuum sealer because it seems to constantly be disappointing me. (Ben bought it for me for butchering since it was cheaper than nice butcher paper and he thought it would be easier. I’ll go into those details in the butchering post).
Read below for how to use a vacuum sealer to store your frozen raw milk.
Baking Soda Method Step Three:
Pour the baking soda into the milk and mix really well, for maybe a full minute. Then immediately pour into the container. Put the container in the freezer.
Note: If you are putting milk in freezer bags or vacuum seal bags, you can put them in a casserole dish so they maintain their shape while they freeze. It also helps when you defrost them to have them fit properly into a casserole dish in case they leak.
Baking Soda Method Step Four:
Defrost. I’ve tried two ways to do this, and I definitely recommend the second, but I want to list them just in case you are an always-behind type person who decides they want milk right now but didn’t defrost in time.
- Defrost method step one: let the frozen raw milk thaw in the fridge.
- Defrost method step two: defrost frozen raw milk on the stovetop on low, ideally only an ice cube of frozen raw milk at a time.
You can let the milk defrost on the counter, but then it will be exposed to warmer temperatures while it defrosts and may sour faster.
Every morning until I ran out of raw milk ice cubes, I would realize I hadn’t defrosted any cream for my coffee the night before. So I would slowly defrost the milk on the lowest setting on the stovetop, just one ice cube’s worth for each cup of coffee. It was not ideal, especially because I always leave the stove and would end up pasteurizing the milk or partially burning it because I have a problem not watching food on the stovetop. But if I didn’t ruin it, I would get raw cream that wasn’t chunky straight from the freezer!
How to use the vacuum sealer to store raw milk in the freezer.
I haven’t found a way to vacuum seal raw unfrozen milk without sucking the milk into the sealer, so don’t do that! Pre-freeze the milk.
Step one: put the milk in the bag.
You will need a casserole dish to hold the milk, and you will need to prop up the bag so that enough plastic will be free to be sealed when the milk freezes.
Step two: freeze the milk in the open bag.
Make sure you put the milk somewhere level, so it doesn’t spill and is nice and even in the bag.
Step three: take your frozen milk out of the freezer and use the vacuum sealer to properly seal the bag shut.
Follow the vacuum sealer instructions for sealing food. Now you can put your block of frozen raw milk directly into the freezer without worrying about freezer burn and without a big jar taking up space.
There you have it! My favorite method for freezing raw milk! Tell me if you have ever tried the other methods and what has worked or not worked for you!
