3 Easy Methods to Pasteurize Goat Milk at Home

This article was originally published by Jennifer Poindexter on www.morningchores.com

Congratulations! You did it! You invested in dairy goats, figured out how to milk them, and have delicious goat’s milk looking you in the face.

Now, what should you do with it? The next step is a hot topic. Should the milk be pasteurized, or should you drink it raw?

If you decide to pasteurize it, how do you do it? I’m going to give you the benefits of pasteurized and raw milk, and I’ll share multiple ways you can pasteurize your milk at home.

Let’s get busy discussing how to pasteurize goat’s milk:

To Pasteurize Goat’s Milk or Not – That is the Question

Whether to drink raw or pasteurized milk is a personal choice. We aren’t medical professionals and will only present both sides of the argument.

Make sure to do your research to the fullest extent before making your decision. The obvious downside to consuming raw milk is consuming bad bacteria which can seriously harm you.

However, if you choose to drink raw milk, you may choose this option for the following reasons:

1. Good Bacteria Equals a Happy Gut

When you pasteurize milk, you heat it up. By heating the milk, you’re killing off all the bacteria. This process doesn’t only kill bad bacteria, but it wipes out the good too.

If you’re concerned about getting enough good bacteria for your overall gut health, drinking raw milk can be a way of ingesting more of the bacteria you desire.

2. Easier Digestion

Some people struggle to digest milk. This is referred to as lactose-intolerance. Yet, some people who struggle with this have said they can digest raw milk.

How can this be? Raw milk contains an enzyme known as lactase. This helps break the milk down while in the stomach. It puts less of a strain on the body to do all the work, but this enzyme gets destroyed during the pasteurization process.

3. Allergies, What Allergies?

Some studies have found drinking raw milk helps with reducing allergies and asthma. It shows the greatest benefits when consumed earlier in life.

If you’re someone who struggles with allergies or asthma, be sure to do plenty of research and seek out medical advice before consuming raw milk in hopes of relief.

You now know why you may want to consider consuming raw milk, but there are benefits to drinking pasteurized milk too along with drawbacks.

The drawback to drinking pasteurized milk is it kills off some of the healthy ingredients during the pasteurization process, and it’s harder for some to digest.

Reasons to Pasteurize Goat’s Milk

Here’s why you may consider pasteurizing your milk:

1. The Milk Lasts Longer

We all know bad bacteria can make us sick because it can cause food to spoil at a rapid rate. This is why sterilization is of great importance when preserving food.

By pasteurizing your milk and killing off the bad bacteria, you increase the longevity of the milk. That means less waste in your kitchen.

2. Safer to Drink

Bad bacteria are no good. If you consume certain types of bad bacteria, they can make your body horribly ill.

Therefore, to lessen your chances of illness, people pasteurize their milk to kill off the unwanted bacteria. In turn, this makes your milk safer to consume.

3. Makes Bottle-Feeding Easier

Do you have a goat which has an on-going illness? Are you worried about her kids being contaminated because of this illness?

You can keep her kids healthy and safe by pasteurizing her milk. Milk the goat, pasteurize the milk to kill off any contaminants, and bottle feed her kids. It’s a win for everyone.

The Three Methods to Pasteurize Goat’s Milk

Pasteurizing milk is an easy process. It requires few materials and can be done as cheap or expensively as your budget allows.

Regardless of what method you use to pasteurize milk, it’s vital you start with filtered goat’s milk. This will remove any hair which may have made its way into your milk pail during the milking process.

Once your milk has been filtered, choose your pasteurization method and hop to it. Here are your options:

Method One: Home Pasteurizer

Full disclosure here, if you have the money to invest in a home pasteurizer, it’ll make this process a cakewalk.

The idea is to pour your filtered milk into the stainless-steel container. The container is placed inside the heating mechanism which works as a double boiler system.

It heats the milk to 165° Fahrenheit for 15 seconds. This is all the time and heat it takes to make milk safer for drinking.

When the process has ended, remove the container and place it in an ice bath to cool quickly. This gives the milk a fresher taste.

After the milk has cooled to approximately 55° Fahrenheit, you can bottle the milk in sterilized jars and store it in the fridge for consumption.

Method Two: Double Boiler

If you don’t have hundreds of dollars to invest in a home pasteurizer, you can purchase or make your own double boiler.

To make your own double boiler, place a stainless-steel bowl over a pot of boiling water. Add the milk to the bowl above the water and stir frequently to avoid scorching.

Again, heat the milk until it has reached 165° Fahrenheit for 15 seconds. It’s important to cool the milk off in an ice bath as mentioned in the previous method.

Be sure to use a thermometer to know the temperature of the milk. Be careful to avoid the thermometer touching the pan as this can cause an inaccurate reading.

Once cooled place in sterilized glass jars and store in your refrigerator for use.

Method Three: On the Stove

Pasteurizing milk on the stove is probably the easiest DIY method for milk pasteurization. Pour the filtered milk into a stainless-steel stockpot.

Place the pot on the stove over medium heat to avoid scorching the milk. Stir it frequently, and you must increase frequency as the temperature rises.

Use a thermometer to check the temperature of the milk. Be sure the thermometer doesn’t touch the bottom of the pot to avoid an inaccurate reading.

When the milk reaches a temperature of 165° Fahrenheit, begin timing the 15 seconds. Once the 15 seconds are over, place the stainless-steel pot in an ice bath. Your kitchen sink would be the easiest place to run the ice bath.

Leave the pot in the sink until the temperature decreases to approximately 55° Fahrenheit. Feel the temperature of the water to make sure it remains cool while the milk is chilling.

If it warms up, remove the pot of milk, add more ice, and place the pot back in the ice bath to continue dropping the temperature.

When the milk has chilled, pour it into sterilized jars for refrigeration.

You’ll be happy to know this is all it takes to pasteurize goat’s milk. If you’ve shied away from pasteurizing your milk due to the amount of work involved, you should be able to pasteurize quickly and with confidence moving forward.

This should remove all doubts about drinking milk from animals raised on your own homestead.