Separating cream from milk
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How to skim the cream from fresh non-homogenized milk with a ladle, a turkey baster, a spigot jar or a separator.
Ingredients
- Non-homogenized fresh milk (only this will form a creamline)
- Old-fashioned ladle
- Separate jar for the cream
- Optional: turkey baster (for a smaller creamline)
- Optional: glass ice tea/lemonade dispenser with spigot, in both one and two gallon sizes
- Optional: cream separator
Equipment
- mason jars
Directions
Ladle method
- If the milk is very fresh, leave it for at least 24 hours so the cream can rise.
- Look at the sides of the jar to find the creamline.
- Dip the ladle gently into the cream layer and let it fill, without going too deep into the milk (cream is thick and yellowish-white; milk is thinner, sometimes bluish).
- Pour each ladleful into the separate jar. Keep going until most of the cream is gone, leaving about an inch.
- Use the leftover milk for drinking or cooking, and the cream for butter, sour cream, whipped cream, or ice cream.
Dispenser method
- Pour the fresh milk into the dispenser.
- Leave it for at least 24 hours.
- Open the spigot and let the skimmed milk drain out, so the creamline stays floating at the top.
- When almost all the milk is gone, catch the cream in a separate container.
Notes
Safety: keep the milk refrigerated while the cream rises (no temperature given). Non-homogenized farm milk is often raw; raw milk carries a risk of harmful bacteria.