# Dairy canning



## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

I have done these with much success. 
It is pretty short and sweet, and assumes you already know the canning process.


Canning milk:
I can in pint jars, sterile jars, process at 10 psi for 10 min.
I have canned store bought milk and fresh goat milk with success.

Canning butter:
Here is a link that has good info:
http://www.alpharubicon.com/primitive/canningbutterfkat.htm

What I have done is, melt the butter, stirring constantly and simmer for 5 min. - but not boil - and put into pint wide mouth jars, process for 30 min in a boiling water bath. (be sure your jar rims do not have any butter on them or it won't seal.
Do shake on occasion as it cools, to keep it from separating.
I stored mine on the shelf without any problem, for almost a year.
Canned butter does not "melt" again when opened, so it does not need to be refrigerated upon opening, provided it is used within a reasonable length of time.

Canning cheese:

* CANNING SOFT CHEESE*

Home canned "soft cheese" has better cooking properties than store bought bottled cheese meant for snack food. It contains no preservatives and is more economical than commercial products for cooking purposes. These instructions yield a product that is similar to "Cheese Whiz", yet better tasting for a recipe of macaroni and cheese. This simple to do recipe for home canned cheese will keep for 2 years plus.

Ingredients:

* 1 (5 oz.) can evaporated milk
* 1 T. vinegar
* Â½ tsp. salt 1 lb. Velveeta cheese or any processed cheese
* Â½ tsp. dry mustard 

Melt milk and cheese in double boiler. Add rest of ingredients and mix well. Fill pint jars about 3/4 full and seal. Place in Boiling Water bath for 10 minutes.


*Canning cheddar cheese*

Cut up cubes of cheese, sitting a wide-mouthed pint jar in a pan of water, on the stove.

Slowly cubes of cheese melt add more until the jar is full to within half an inch of the top. 

Then I put a hot, previously boiled lid on the jar, screwed down the ring firmly tight and added the cheese to a batch of jars in the boiling water bath canner to process. Pints 40 min.

To take the cheeses out of the jar, dip the jar in a pan of boiling water for a few minutes, then take a knife and go around the jar, gently prying the cheese out. 
Store it in a plastic zip lock bag. 




Canning pickled eggs:
Lots of folks pickle eggs, but don't can them.
After placing your eggs in wide mouth jars, adding your brine and spices,
place in boiling bath canner for 10 min. (basically like pickles)


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

Cool! I have wondered about canning milk and cheese! I will try these in the near future!


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## turtlehead (Jul 22, 2005)

AWESOME post, thank you!


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

Your very welcome

Glad it will be useful for someone else!


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## Calico Katie (Sep 12, 2003)

This is great! Thanks for posting this. Question, what would be the advantage of canning the Velveeta over storing jars of Cheez Whiz? Does the canned cheddar cheese also last 2 years plus?

It's hard to get my mind wrapped around the simplicity of canning milk like that. How long does it last? Does the canning make it change color or flavor?

I'm really happy about seeing that the cheddar cheese can be canned like that as my family would really miss cheese.

thanks again!


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

Well, I guess cost would be a factor for the soft cheese. I have never even bought Cheez Whiz. ((is that the stuff in the can?))
A lot of times at the local grocery I can get velveeta for $3.00 for the big block. So that is cost effective.

The longest I have had the cheddar last is 6 months. My family loves it, if they discover it something weird happens..... it disappears! lol!
The one thing about cheddar is, it gets sorta oily. Didn't bother me, and once you slide it out of the jar you can grate it, melt it, whatever. I even eat it that way, and you get nice little round slices if you slice it. It does have a little different texture, and one or two of my kids didn't like that, but the others didn't seem to mind. ((the texture of it once melted, say on a baked potato is the same as it is fresh from the store)) I have read it will last 5+ years. Cool dark storage is the best thing for any of these.

The milk is sorta like evaporated milk in a can. In fact, you can sub your home canned milk for the evaporated in a can stuff. It is a tad more condensed, and it does sorta separate, I just shake the jars every now and then. 
I do check on them every couple of months, I had one jar come unsealed and it was *nasty* when I found it. So, now I keep an eye on them.
I have jars in there right now that are 1+ years old, and I would not hesitate to use them if the need arose. But, I am sorta in storage mode right now.


What I like the best is the butter. Great for keeping butter on hand, without putting it in the freezer!
I will NOT use margarine, so it is the only way to go for me.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

I printed these out and am going to do try canning some butter this week-end. Thank you so much!


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## Guest (Mar 29, 2008)

I do not believe that method of canning butter as outlined on the Alpha Rubicon site is safe. Butter is a low-acid food and any process that leaves free water in the butter such as what they describe carries with it a risk of botulism contamination. 

Although there are no USDA approved guidelines for canning dairy products I believe that butter can be safely canned IF you drive off the water first. Once all of the water is gone there is nothing remaining but the butterfat and the solids (if you leave them) so bacteria such as _C. botulinum_ cannot grow for lack of moisture. A trip through the boiling water bath canner will eliminate risk of mold growth.

This is the method that I gave in my book:
================================================== ===
Canned Butter:

It must be made clear that the procedure for canning butter discussed below is not approved by the USDA or any state cooperative extension service that I know of. There are no USDA approved methods for canning dairy products that I've been able to find. Nevertheless, it has been used by many people and there have been no problems reported, IF you correctly follow the directions. I've used it myself, but you do so at your own risk.

If you have an Asian market or a health food store you may find a product called "ghee" which is basically clarified butter. It's been in use in India for centuries. You can make your own ghee if you like.

To make it you must start with unsalted sweet cream butter. It's important to not use the salted kind because the finished product will be excessively salty if you do. It takes roughly three and a half sticks of ordinary unsalted butter to fill a pint jar after clarifying and a bit more than one and a half sticks for a half-pint jar. Without refrigeration, I recommend processing your butter in the half-pints to have less exposed to the air at one time. Since you're melting it, you obviously would not want to use whipped butter as it will just about melt away to nothing. Nor do I recommend the near or almost butter products to be found. This procedure can be used with unsalted, solid (not whipped) margarine, but you should add about 10-20% more to achieve equivalent finished volume. Naturally, reduced fat "spreads" will not work well here either.

Place the butter in a heavy bottomed pan over low heat and melt it. Continue heating it until all of the water has been driven off and the butter solids begin to fry. At this point you can take it off the heat if you want a paler, more subtle flavored product or you can continue to gently brown the butter solids until they've taken on a golden-brown color. This will impart a nice color to the finished product and a pronounced flavor. You must use a low heat so as not to burn the butter when the moisture content drops. Margarine should not be browned, just make sure the water content has been boiled off. If the butter gets hot enough to smoke, it's ruined and you should toss it, wash the pan and start over. Burned fat is oxidized fat and oxidized fats are bad news for long term health.

Once the moisture content of the butter has been driven off and it's at the color you want, remove from the heat and strain through a clean coffee filter into dry, hot, sterilized canning jars. When full to a half-inch from the top screw on a hot sterilized canning lid and ring. Put the jars in some cool, dark place where they won't banged around and allow to cool. There should be a noticeable amount of vacuum in the jar from after the contents cool.

For those concerned with possible botulism risks, the Clostridium botulinum bacterium requires a moisture content of at least 35% in order to break out of its spore form and produce its lethal toxins. If you've followed the above directions properly the moisture of the clarified butter will be far too low to support it or any other bacteria. The only concern here that I can see is possible mold growth and each jar should be closely examined before opening. If packed hot in sterilized jars with sound, sterilized lids this should not be a problem.

Naturally, like any culinary fat, canned butter will oxidize over time and become rancid. If you have the ability, vacuum sealing the jar will remove most of the oxygen and prolong storage life. That butter is going to be quite hot (hotter than boiling water) so be careful in doing this. Store the jars in the ubiquitous cool, dark place. At a reasonable storage temperature you should be able to get several years storage life, possibly more.

"The Prudent Pantry: Your Guide to Building a Food Insurance Program." Copyright 1999, Alan T. Hagan

The only change I have made from that time is to boiling water bath the sealed jars for ten minutes which eliminates the mold risk. It's not required, but I prefer to use it. In a properly sealed glass canning jar in a cool, dark place the ghee should remain quite usable for many years.

Canning fluid milk can be done safely I believe though again there are no USDA guidelines for doing so. It would have to be pressure canned, 10lbs for at least ten minutes, to be safe. Fluid milk is a low-acid food so boiling water bath will not do. The end product is definitely going to have a cooked flavor and probably a slight tan color and be perhaps a bit thicker in consistency. But it will be fluid milk that you can cook with.

.....Alan.


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## mowarren (Mar 2, 2003)

any tips on canning milk like sweetened condensed milk?would like to make from our fresh milk.


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## Guest (Mar 30, 2008)

That's going to be difficult because condensed milk (and evaporated as well) is made by a vacuum distillation process that removes a great deal of the water without overcooking the milk. There isn't a good way to do that in the home setting with fresh, fluid milk that I am aware of. With dry milk you can approximately replicate by simply reconstituting the milk with only a little water and added sugar.

.....Alan.


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## mowarren (Mar 2, 2003)

thats ok will just work with keeping a supply of fresh milk and adapt recipes for that. thx


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## FUNKY PIONEER (Sep 20, 2005)

I'll just add that I tried the first method listed for the butter and it spoiled very badly with icky black stuff in it. Remember a water bath canning is not enough to kill botulism and I have seen how commercial cows are milked and lets just say its not all that clean, they just stand in their manure all day and are taken in twice a day hosed off and milked. I would never try this method again, how dangerous. Could you imagine getting botulism in a SHTF situation where you can't get medical care. Not very smart IMHO. I think the Ghee Allen mentioned is a good alternative. OR try REd Feather Canned butter, its super yummy.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

I boiled my butter which is well beyond what botulism can survive. I poured it into dishwasher washed and 250 degree hot sterilized jars and covered with sterilized lids.I didnt water bath it at 212 degrees which is well below the dry pack method.

It is fine butter. Because someone else did it wrong and contaminated/didnt sterilize theirs completely doesnt mean you cant do it right.Which is true with any canning.

Its the age old canning argument,cant have a post about it if it isnt pressure canned for an hour at 15 PSI.Anything short of that will have someone telling you it cant be done,its dangerous.Always.Never changes.

All I can say is Ive done it,I kept it sterile and it works.I fear it no more than anything else Ive canned.

This is how I did mine successfully....
http://eastcherokee.proboards58.com...gdehydrating&action=display&thread=1203223180


Here is another thread on the subject.....
http://www.curevents.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27897

Let your own risk level be your guide.Since the last stat I could find was a few years old and there was a whopping 8 cases of food borne botulism in the USA in a YEAR I would say the risk is low IMO.You are about 5000 TIMES more likely to die in a traffic accident.


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## auctioneer (Sep 11, 2006)

mightybooboo said:


> I
> 
> Here is another thread on the subject.....
> http://www.curevents.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27897


Interesting link. Thanks.


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

mightybooboo said:


> All I can say is Ive done it,I kept it sterile and it works.I fear it no more than anything else Ive canned.


I agree with you here. I was thinking about the lady that taught me to can (many, many years ago) The very FIRST thing she impressed on me was to keep stuff extremely clean. Sterile. No mistakes. I have never had any problems with my canning. So, that is why I tend to try more stuff I guess.
Just like fixing a wound, you need to keep stuff extremely clean when dealing with food.


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## goosifer (Mar 2, 2008)

Has anyone tried and/or had success PRESSURE canning butter? I'd like to try this if it works.


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## goosifer (Mar 2, 2008)

A.T. Hagan said:


> . . . .
> 
> This is the method that I gave in my book:
> ================================================== ===
> ...


Would it be OK to let the butter cool and solidify first, and then vacuum seal the canning jar with a foodsaver attachment?


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## Turtle Bean (May 25, 2008)

I'm probably going to get flamed for this but:

PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME

The methods listed above may have worked for some, but they are not considered safe. Do the research before you feed these items to your children.

There are plenty of safe, commercial alternatives to home canned dairy products. Try them.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I have some of the Red Feather canned butter in stock, and I've also canned my own. I did it like Alan said, by cooking off the water, and using sterile jars. I didn't process it by either water or pressure, I just shook it a few times as it cooled and then the seal pinged. I have probably 12 pint jars, each holding approx. 2 pounds of butter, cooked down. I've opened and used two of my pints, just to try it out, and it's wonderful - a little more grainy and solid than regular butter but great buttery taste and it doesn't spoil at room temperature.

Also I use the dishwasher to sterilize my jars, and then heat them in the microwave for two minutes right before using. I've never had a lid unseal yet....


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2008)

goosifer said:


> Would it be OK to let the butter cool and solidify first, and then vacuum seal the canning jar with a foodsaver attachment?


 Personally I'd prefer to vac-seal it while it was still quite hot to cut down on the chance of losing any to mold, but one could wait until the butter was cool.

Getting ALL of the moisture out is vital though.

.....Alan.


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