Canning goat milk

I canned excess goat milk with the idea of using it as emergency milk replacer for kids. Is there anything in the canning process (water bath) that would make it unsuitable for the kids & as a low acid food, does it need to be boiled before feeding?

Joyce Sherman
Hornell, New York

To be absolutely safe, you can re-waterbath your milk for 10 minutes before cooling it to feed to your kids (goat, I’m assuming?). But I’ve never heard of anyone having any trouble feeding after simply shaking the jars and feeding. — Jackie

Strawberry preserves

I canned 20 pints of Strawberry preserves yesterday and it did not set up, also most of the fruit went to the top. I used 4 cups strawberries, 4 cups sugar, and 1 cup water, boiled the sugar and water until it formed a soft ball stage, then added the strawberries and boiled for 15 min. I followed the recipe I had to the Tee. What can I do now besides use it for syrup?

Margaret
Social Circle, Georgia

Sorry, but you now have strawberry syrup. I’d recommend a new recipe; that one doesn’t sound like it would work at all. It has too much water and no pectin. Regular strawberry preserves have only a tiny bit of water to keep the strawberries that are cooking from sticking. You can use your syrup for pancakes, of course, but also as an ingredient in yogurt, with cream cheese as a spread, or mixed into a cheesecake filling. — Jackie

Using wax to preserve butter

I know you can use red wax to preserve cheese and wanted to know if it is possible to use the wax for other items like butter and would you remove the original wrapping before covering?

Claudine Norwood
Wagoner, Oklahoma

I wouldn’t use cheese wax to cover butter; it won’t keep it from getting rancid. Either freeze or can it for long term use. — Jackie

2 COMMENTS

  1. Several years ago when I had surplus goat milk, I pressure canned it. It’s hard to find directions these days for canning milk, but I canned it in quarts at 10 lb. pressure for 10 minutes. I actually found the method from an old timey canning book. It held up very well, but canned milk has an off color and doesn’t quite taste the same as fresh. However, it’s just fine for cooking needs or it could be fed to baby goats, etc.

    Thanks for all your great advice, Jackie!

  2. On canning that goat milk. I thought you had to treat milk like a meat type product and pressure can it, not water bath. I will hopefully have plenty of goat milk at some point to do this and figured the recipes I read that it needs to be pressure canned for absolute safety. Thank you in advance for clearing this up for me :-)

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