# cow milk and cheesemaking - how much cream to leave in?



## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

anyone have basic, easy guidelines for how much cream you leave in the milk when making whole milk cheeses? I'm can't quite figure out what 'basic milk' should be - in terms of a cream line.

Our family cow produces close to 40% cream in each gallon of milk - I know this is too much and should be skimmed a bit - but how much of a bit? 

Anyone know where the cream line normally is in a 'normal' gallon of milk?

thanks,
Cathy


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## rscheiderer (Dec 30, 2009)

Lucky you to have such a creamline! I'm at about 25% right now, closer to 35% in the summer. I don't usually leave any cream at all when I make cheeses but I skim the milk off the top; I don't use a seperater. I'm sure there's some cream left in the milk. It has approximate consistency of 2% from the store. Isn't whole milk in the store something like 4% milkfat? Maybe even less.
I have a Jersey cow, and her cream is kind of yellowish, especially during the summer. I skim off as much of it as I can because it separates out anyway as the cheese sets up. When I make cheese with whole milk I end up with a skin of yellow on top. 
For drinking milk, I let the cream come to the top and skim off all but about 1/2 inch from a 2-quart jar. We shake it up before we drink it. For coffee cream I take a 2-quart jar of milk with cream and pour off the cream and enough milk to fill a quart jar...it's about 1/3 cream and 2/3 milk right now, closer to 1/2 and 1/2 during the summer.


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

I only make mozzarella and leave all the cream in the milk. I've started using the milk to make the soft cheese as soon as I milk it in the evening. It heats up to the point of adding the rennet and citric acid faster that way and hasn't had time to separate.


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## melwynnd (Dec 25, 2004)

It depends on the type of cheese you are making. My cow has a similar creamline to yours. I make cheddar and mozzerella with the milk warm right from the cow, so it has all that cream and I've never had a problem. You do have to be carefull when you first start pressing the cheddar to only put five pounds on to begin with and slowly increase it to 50 pounds so you don't lose all that lovely cream.

I use skimmed milk for small curd cottage cheese because it gets slimey as it sits.

I use skimmed milk to make kefier for the same reason as cottage cheese, BUT if I make hard kefir cheese I add whole milk and sometimes extra cream if I'm making soft kefir cheese spread.

Hope this helps.

Sherry


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