# How do you strain your milk?



## andreab3 (Feb 4, 2010)

I recently started milking one goat. I have been using a coffee filter to strain the milk but it takes me forever and the filter has moved several times and I have had to strain the milk all over again. What do you use, and how well does it work?
Thanks


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## Roll farms (Feb 4, 2010)

For the kids, I use a jar-top metal mesh strainer from Hoeggers.

For our use, I use milk filters bought at TSC, they're the 4 9/16" size.  
I took a couple funnels and cut them to accomodate the filter so it can't move around between the two.  It gets all the 'ick' and hair out well, and they're not terribly expensive, either.  
I put the mesh strainer on top to get the majority of the dirt out, then it goes through the paper filter into a gallon jar....goes A LOT quicker through that than it does a coffee filter.

They also have different sizes available....


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## miron28 (Feb 4, 2010)

i use a cheese cloth works really well and if i run out of them i use a clean wash cloth work well to.


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## freemotion (Feb 4, 2010)

I use a coffee filter...the permanent kind that is made from a very fine gold colored wire mesh, the kind you wash and re-use.  Mine is the size that is meant to fit on a mug and make one cup.  I set it inside a funnel to fill milk bottles, and if I use a wide-mouth canning jar, I don't need the funnel.

I rinse it in LUKEWARM water after each use.  Hot water will cook milk proteins into the mesh, clogging it, and cold water will congeal the milk fats into the mesh.  I rinse it with a mild bleach solution and set it to dry before each milking, so it is pretty dry by the time I get in with the milk.  It works great.


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## MrsCountryChick (Feb 4, 2010)

I milk into 1 gallon glass jars with a fine mesh strainer on, so it stops any debris like a stray hair or piece of hay right from the start. Then I take my milk inside & I have a little larger fine mesh strainer I use along with a permanent coffee filter. So my milk gets strained 3 times you can say. But the reason for 2 filters inside is so the smaller in diameter permanent coffee filter can be used, otherwise it'd slip into my storing container when straining.  But I also wash my milk items well & use Clorox Anywhere bleach. It comes in a spray bottle, & after a good spray only needs 2 minutes to sterile any non porous surface (even cutting boards). A wonderful item!


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## cmjust0 (Feb 5, 2010)

We use a Hoegger mini strainer w/ real mini-strainer-sized milk straining filters on milk collected for our own consumption.

We've tried multiple layers of papertowel, paper coffee filters, permanent wire-mesh coffee filters, cheesecloth, other types of clean white cloth, you name it..  The real milk strainer whoops'em all, IMHO.  Once it comes through the filter, there's not a speck of anything in it.

Roll's spot on, too...milk filters not only get the milk cleaner than coffee filters, they're also much faster!  Rich milk that's high in butterfat, such as from a Nubian, will clog a coffee filter to the point that it barely drips..  Very frustrating..  Even through a teensy little 2" diameter filter, the process of straining milk goes WAY faster than with a coffee filter.

Personally, I just like using tools which were designed for the job at hand.  At almost every task, doing so just seems to make life much more tolerable.  


Kid milk?  Yeah, we just mesh coffee filter it.  Not nearly as clean, but nature would have them suckling a muddy teat anyway..  A speck of dirt or a stray hair doesn't seem to bother anybody, so long as the milk is collected and bottlefed or frozen _quickly_.


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