Learning Challenge - Day 12

I'm officially over a week behind on my challenge and I've decided not to be so hard on myself. I do afterall, keep my plate pretty full. I am going to finish my challenge though, regardless of how long it takes me, I'll get 40 of these Lenten Learning posts up!

Today's post is about pasteurizing milk. Goat's milk to be exact.

Ivan has a sensitivity to cow's milk. My husband also had it when he was a child and grew out of it, so we are hoping the same goes for Ivan. In the meantime, we've been spending a small fortune on pastuerized goat's milk. We currently have a gallon of unpastuerized goats milk in the fridge. I read a little online, mostly from the following site: http://homesteaderbellesblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-pasteurize-milk-from-goats-cows.html

Purchased a few necessities including some cheese cloth, a candy thermometer (which has yet to arrive) and a metal spoon. Turns out I had not one metal cooking spoon. If you've ever been in my kitchen, you'd be as baffled as I was as I turned over the various draws and canisters looking...
So it looks like my process will be:

1. Wash the cheesecloth (dip in boiling water?), clean the milk containers and pot
2. Strain the milk into the pot
3. Heat the milk up to 165 degrees while stirring constantly
4. Cool the pot of milk in ice water (I may just use one side of my sink to do this)
5. Put the milk into jugs and put into freezer to cool further

Wish me luck. If it doesn't go well I'm going to dip into Ivan's college fund for one of these contraptions... Ok, well, probably not, but pastuerizing ourselves will save us close to $400 a year!

http://www.hoeggergoatsupply.com/xcart/product.php?productid=4691&cat=49&page=1