We’ve been intrigued with raw milk for a while but much like canning, have been hesitant to try it. After a little research, we decided to try raw milk. We tried two different raw milks from different farms and here are our thoughts on raw milk.
For conversational purposes we’ll call the farms Farm A and Farm B – both are local to our area and are licensed by the state to sell certified organic raw milk.
Raw Milk Taste
Surprisingly, at first swig, raw milk tastes just like… drumroll… milk. However, as we began to evaluate it like a fine wine (former wine bar owner, sorry) we discovered that there were distinct flavor differences. Farm A had notes of hay in the milk and the only reason I could pick up on that was from the years we’ve been around the horse barn – cutting hay, baling hay, stacking hay, feeding hay. It was subtle, comparable to meat being slightly gamey. I would happily drink it daily, but I will say, it wasn’t the flavor I was expecting exactly.
We tried Farm B and this is where I fell in love with raw milk. This one was creamy, delicious, and a light yellow color. This one also had notes of hay/barn, but I’d say this flavor was better received than milk from Farm A.
One theory that I will be testing over the course of the year, is if the milk flavor changes with the seasons. Seasonally, animals in colder climates have different diets. In the summer, they may be grazing in the pasture while in the winter they may be eating grain or hay that has been stored.
Cream in Raw Milk
Both milk containers identified the gallon as simply whole milk, unpasteurized. So while they were technically the same product, milk from farm B definitely seemed to have more cream content within it. I had wondered if Farm A skims the cream which would certainly make a difference. Personally, I loved the flavor of Farm B’s milk and some of that may be due to the fact that there’s cream within it. This would give it a thicker, more full mouth feel and perhaps that’s what I love – along the same lines as eggnog for reference.
Separating the Cream and Milk
With the notable cream in Farm B’s milk, I decided to try to separate it out and see just how much cream.
I took the whole gallon of milk, shook it up, and poured it into a 1 liter glass jar. Almost all of it fit, with enough left over for a single glass of milk.
I let it sit in the fridge overnight and woke to find a decent cream line (see photo below). I let it sit until the 24 hours mark and was both surprised and pleased to see just how much more cream had separated. I’d say I gained another 1/5 of the jar, with a cream line just above the half mark.
Using Raw Milk
Once the cream was separated, I took a ladle and scooped out all the cream into 2 large wide mouth mason jars .
Butter: One of the jars I made butter out of which I’ll talk more about later on.
Coffee Creamer: The second jar of cream we used in coffee. I’m I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of the raw cream in the coffee, it separated and by the end of the coffee had formed a couple globs. Not the coffee drinking experience you’d hoped for – not bad, just not ideal if say you offered your friends a cup of coffee.
Bread: After making butter, we had uncultured buttermilk left over. From what I’ve read, this form of buttermilk will spoil quicker so I opted to use it in to make 2 loaves of Homestead Daily Bread. I substituted buttermilk where it called for milk and the result was excellent. The loaf came out a bit darker than normal but the flavor and texture was identical. Check out the Homestead Daily Bread Recipe to try for yourself.
Drinking: Lastly, the remaining milk we used simply for drinking, bread making, and anything else that called for milk.
Making Butter from Raw Milk
To me, part of being a homesteader is utilizing all parts of a product (or animal) and stretching the dollars you spend to be more sustainable. For a while now, I’ve had a goal of making my own butter just to see how hard (or easy) it truly was. Another reason was simply because we have some really neat antique butter presses that I simply wanted to tryout. We couldn’t find those presses in storage for this round of butter making but they’ll be making an appearing in the future!
Making butter from raw milk was actually quite easy – easier than I anticipated.
I started with the hand shaking method and quickly realized that it’s a neat idea, but not a method I’ll likely try more than once.
I poured the cream into my Kitchenaid Mixer with the whisk attachment and it took about 5-7 minutes before I swapped out the whisk to a paddle. With the paddle on it only took about another minute to form the clump of butter. Once formed, I collected the ball of butter, pouring the remaining buttermilk back into the cream jar store for bread.
I gave the butter a quick wash in cold water until the water was clear, sprinkled some salt over the top and mixed it in, and then formed it into a really rough looking stick of butter. I covered it and into the fridge it went. Check out Making Butter for the full directions.
This butter was made from the Farm B’s milk and it carries that same hay/barn flavor that was initially found in the milk. Overall, I enjoy it! Not to mention the deep yellow color is incredible compared to a grocery store stick of butter.
Raw Milk Final Thoughts
Overall, I’m very pleased with raw milk. I enjoyed Farm B’s milk more but both were really good and I would happily switch between both based on availability. As a family, we feel very comfortable with our local raw milk options because both are certified organic and aren’t afraid to show all aspects of the farm and milking operation to potential customers through their website and social media. They put the time in to ensure a clean, safe product.
As we continue our raw milk journey, I’d love to try making homemade ice cream, yogurt, and cheese. Buying high quality raw milk was a homesteading compromise to having a dairy cow on our homestead. With two little kids at home, the time commitment a dairy cow would take just wasn’t feasible but we’re lucky to have great raw milk options locally so it was a win win for us.
Have you tried raw milk? I’d love to hear about your experience below in the comments and let me know what you made out of the milk!
