Here’s a little something about our homesteading journey with goats that I don’t think I’ve shared before. I love my goats, but there are just some things they aren’t really good for.
When we first decided to produce our own milk and dairy products here on our little homestead, we went with the obvious beginner’s choice. We purchased a couple of beautiful LaMancha dairy goats and (slowly) learned to milk them. From the beginning, we were impressed with both the quantity and quality of milk they produced.
Contrary to popular belief, goat milk tastes great. In fact, it tastes like . . .wait for it . . . MILK!
We began drinking the delicious raw goat milk in place of store-bought milk. We used it on our cereal and in our coffee. We made smoothies with it and I began to dabble with cheesemaking. Chevre and mozzarella were two of our particular favorites. We enjoyed our abundance of goat milk tremendously. There was just one thing missing.
Goat milk is naturally homogenized. Unlike cow’s milk, it takes many days for the cream to rise to the top. If you do manage to successfully skim a bit of cream off the top and process it into creamy butter, it will taste amazing, but it is very delicate to work with and the quantities are low.
I began looking into cream separators.
These devices range from moderately expensive, low-tech, crank-operated devices to exceedingly expensive motorized marvels. All, however, have the same goal of separating cream from milk quickly and efficiently. I finally bit the bullet and ordered the cheapest crank operated model *affiliate link* I could find.
(I’m thrifty, y’all.)
I waited impatiently for the cream separator to be shipped to me from Ukraine, but finally it arrived!
The reviews I had read said there were a lot of pieces, but somehow I was still unprepared for what I received.
I actually had to watch a YouTube video several times before I successfully assembled the drum portion of the unit. It has 16 pieces, y’all. SIXTEEN. And if you don’t put them all in the right way it won’t work. 16. Really.
Because I wasn’t willing to permanently attach the unit to my counters, I had to find a board to mount it to, and then clamp that down to my work surface.
Once it was all assembled and installed, I heated the milk to 100º Fahrenheit and then poured a gallon of the creamy white milk into a bowl that was basically suspended on a series of pop-together plastic pieces without tipping it over. (There’s no way that can go wrong, right?)
It was time for cranking!
After a few cranks, I said a little prayer and turned the knob that would allow the milk to begin moving from the bowl on top into the drum of the separator.
As I cranked, with considerable “help” from my three children, the small amount of thick white cream began to flow out one spout, while tons of skim milk poured out the other. I considered it a win if I ended up with less than a pint of the skim milk on the floor.
By the time I had the precious cream in my hands, I felt like I had run a marathon, but the fun wasn’t over yet!
The whole unit had to be disassembled, washed thoroughly and laid on a towel to dry. But because all of that sounds too simple, I’ll let you know that the drum that I mentioned before continues to tighten during the spinning process, and even with the special tool the company provided, I could never break it back open to take it apart, so it would have to sit on the counter getting stinky all day until my sweet, long-suffering, husband Eric came home from work and took it apart for me.
Did I mention the pieces rust really quickly?
But I was finally, I was able to make my own goat’s milk butter!!
Did you know that goat milk has no pigment in it at all? This is why the milk has such a beautiful, bright white color compared to cow’s milk. (Heck, this is why I photographed a pitcher of goat milk instead of cow milk for the cover of my cookbook, The Homestead Kitchen! It’s prettier!)
Anyway, without adding colorant, I will warn you, the spectacular butter that is the result of all your hard work will look like nothing more than a giant lump of Crisco vegetable shortening. This may or may not make you want to cry.
OK, it probably will.
Now, I haven’t told you all of this to try to persuade you not to get a goat or try a cream separator. I have some friends who cannot tolerate any dairy except that which comes from goats. A cream separator might be perfectly worth the effort for them to be able to enjoy butter again.
And of course, the chevre and feta I make from my goat milk still rock my socks, so much to Eric’s aggravation, I have no immediate plans to stop keeping goats.
There is, however, a much simpler way to produce your own creamy, delicious butter at home with less work than what I’ve described here.
If you want cream and butter, buy a cow.
Speaking of cows, Beulah would puffy heart love it if you signed up for her Mooooooosletter! You’ll get all the farm news from the cow’s point of view, plus Frugal Kitchen Tips, a free preview chapter of my book!
So, have you ever tried making goat butter or using a cream separator? If so, what did you think?
Here are a few goat milk resources you might enjoy!
How to Keep Raw Goat’s Milk Fresh and Delicious from Weed ’em & Reap
Safely Handling Raw Milk from The Elliot Homestead
Goat’s Milk is Gross . . . Or is it? from The Prairie Homestead
Making Goat Milk Butter (With a KitchenAid Mixer) from Better Hens and Gardens
Top 10 Reasons to Keep a Dairy Goat from, well, me!
***This post contains affiliate links. A small percentage of the purchase price of items bought through these links goes toward keeping this blog up and running and food in Beulah’s bucket, so thanks!***
Heather, your cheeses sound wonderful…I often cut rounds of goat cheese, dip in egg wash then bread crumbs and “fry” , then top a pear/ green salad…or just eat a few!
Oh my yum! That sounds amazing Marigene! I’ve had something similar in a fancy restaurant, but for some reason I’ve never thought to make it myself. I must remedy that! 🙂
My grandmother lent me her electric cream separator from the 60’s. It works like a dream. They made them different then, the disks can go in any order, not special way to do it. It tightens up a bit after use, but was still easy to get apart. All metal and super easy to wash, and it looks amazing up on top of my cabinets in between use. You should shop ebay or antique stores and see if you can find one of these older models. Love it! I have the Vega brand.
Oh! A vintage one would be super-cool! I’ll keep my eyes open when I’m thrifting! Thanks!
What brand is your grandmother’s ? Ours from about that time do need to go in a certain way. Thanks!
I have goats and a cream separator. We make butter quite often with our goat milk. I will say that using the cream separator gets easier and faster with practice. I am able to put it together and take it apart fairly quickly now. I like it. We use it for cow’s milk as well.
Hi Elizabeth! I’m so glad to hear the separator works for you! Maybe it’s just mine. I have never used it for the cow’s milk, but I bet it wastes less cream. Maybe I’ll have to try it some time. Thanks for reading!
When I first started getting goat milk I tried to make butter….notice the word “tried”. I let the milk sit in the fridge for several days and was surprised that there was hardly any cream on the top. (I didn’t know it was naturally homogenized) With the little bit of cream, about 1/2 cup, and that probably had plain milk in it: I proceeded to shake the “cream” in a quart jar with marbles. (That process had worked for cow’s milk). Well, after about 45 minutes of shaking, I had a few lumps of “white substance” that I concluded was butter. What an epic failure. This blog makes me feel better knowing that it wasn’t quite the failure that I had thought. I will probably not make butter again with goat’s milk….I think the cow is a better idea. ha
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Did you know that you can color your butter by adding the juice from grated carrots to it? I first read about it in The Little House on the Prairie books. It really works.
Cream separates best when you have just finished milking. Turning your handle at faster/slower speeds will make a difference in how well separated your cream is and how much is wasted.
Thanks for the tips! I remember the part about the carrots from Little House, but I’ve never tried it. Maybe I will in the future! Thanks for reminding me!
Yeah, the butter may look like crisco. You have to rinse it in cold water to drain the whey, then plop that into the fridge and give it a couple hours. It will get harder than cows butter!
Also, yeild depends on the amount of butterfat in milk. My nigerians have lots of cream, a pint for one half a gallon of goat milk. For 1 1/2 cups of whipping cream I get 1/4 of a cup of butter. The buttermilk is saved for baking.
Very interesting post. thank you. Check out the cream separator. It is on sale and the quality is great! Easy to assemble as all the discs are the same. 11 of them. Works great with goat’s milk: http://www.slavicbeauty.net/cream-separator-80-l00-manual-model-07
We also have plastic , affordable electric models to make the whole process easier
I read a hint a long time ago that if you add just a little cow’s milk to your goat’s milk, the enzymes in it will help the cream rise. Worth a try.
please let me know if you ever tried and if this works. very interesting
I milk 4 Nubian does daily…I have a little electric cream seperator that sits nicely bt the kitchen sink..I make a lb of butter daily..plus whipping cream..cheese and soap…Butter is so easy to make using a blender..put a cup of cold water in blender first then your cream…Not necessary to heat up day old milk before seperating you can add some hot water to the milk…if not using skim milk for food purposes.also lots of people do not know ..there is a little screw on the disk cover that adjusts the thickness of the cream ..turn to right thicker..left is thinner