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Ask Our Experts > Real Food
How do I pasteurize raw milk at home?
— Ashok Ambekar
Mumbai, India

It’s actually very easy to pasteurize your own milk on the stovetop. An added bonus is that your milk won’t need to stand up to long distance shipping and prolonged storage, so you can pasteurize it safely using lower heat and less time than many industrial milk producers use. All you need is a stainless steel pot and a simple kitchen thermometer. Just follow these simple steps for home pasteurization:

  1. Pour the raw milk into the stainless steel pot. If you have a double boiler, that will work even better to keep the milk from scalding. If you don’t have a double boiler, you can put one stainless steel pot inside a larger pot with a few inches of water at the bottom. If you can’t achieve this setup, then you’ll just need to be careful to heat the milk gently.

  2. Slowly heat the milk to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring occasionally. If you are not using a double boiler, stir frequently to avoid scalding the milk.

  3. Hold the temperature at 145 F for exactly 30 minutes. You may need to increase and decrease the heat to keep the temperature constant.

  4. Remove the pot of milk from the heat and place it in a sink or large bowl filled with ice water. Stir constantly until the temperature drops to 40 F.

  5. Store pasteurized milk in the refrigerator.

NOTE: This information is in accordance with numerous respected cookbooks, including the timeless Joy of Cooking (Simon & Schuster, 2007) and the cheesemaker’s trusty resource, Home Cheese Making (Storey, 2002).

— Tabitha Alterman, associate editor

5 Comments

  • magicdave 11/11/2008 4:13:23 PM

    Why would you want to pasteurize raw milk? It is much healthier to drink raw. Pasteurizing kills all of the beneficial bacteria present in raw milk. I was very surprised to your question. If you would like to know more about Raw Milk I would suggest visiting the Weston A. Price Foundation website and click on the Raw Milk link and get educated about Raw Milk.

  • Amanda 4/12/2008 11:20:32 PM

    My uncles own a dairy farm they bought/inherited from my
    grandparents. I also have cousins and an aunt and uncle who own and
    operate a dairy farm. They are very very careful to keep all of the
    important equipment and parts germ free. Cows are relatively messy
    creatures some of whom are too lazy to get up to poo. Dairy farmers
    are required to keep up to health standards. It is illegal where my
    relatives' farms are for them to mix milk from a cow on antibiotics
    with the rest of the milk. Dairy farmers must keep all the milkers
    and the udders the milkers attached to spic and span (they use
    colored iodine so they can keep track on the cows). A sick cow or
    "new" mother gets milked but the milk is put into a relatively
    small milk canister separate from the large tank and either fed to
    the new calf or dumped into the manure trough. Farmers are required
    to keep with health standards and a small sample is taken by the
    milk man collecting milk every visit. If the milk is not safe, the
    farmer has to buy the whole truck's load. The dairy farmers I know
    will take a pitcher out to the big tank, open a spigot, fill the
    pitcher directly from the tank of unpasteurized milk, bring it back
    to the house, and pour it directly on their cereal (or in a glass
    to drink). The Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland used to have
    their own dairy because of the milk scares that used to sweep the
    East coast before pasteurization became commonplace. They closed
    their dairy to save $0.25 a gallon in August 1998. I suppose the
    school administration rues that decision since milk prices went up,
    huh? ;)

  • Ben H. 4/6/2008 10:15:03 PM

    Are these cows happily munching on grass out in a sunlit field?
    Is the farmer one who maintains high standards of cleanliness and
    pride? Well then by all means, leave it be. Pasteurization is
    unncessary. If you don't buy into the whole enzyme thing, just do
    it for the taste- it's delicious. There's a lot of hoopla about raw
    versus pasteurized and what did people "traditionally" drink. In
    all honestly, up until the advent of refrigeration technology
    people didn't consistently drink any kind of sweet milk, and
    globally-speaking, Americans are somewhat exceptional in our
    consumption of milk as a standalone beverage well into adulthood.
    Additionally, many historical recipes call for boiled milk, and
    milk was frequently adulterated and watered down by unsavory
    venders. So a traditional basis for raw milk is difficult to
    establish. All that being said, I believe raw milk is healthier and
    wonderfully tasty and would choose a quality raw product over a
    quality pasteurized product any day. I've consumed who knows how
    many gallons of the stuff and it has the advantage of keeping fresh
    longer than heat treated milk.

  • jacobjulia 3/24/2008 11:26:43 AM

    I need to pasteurize milk for a school presentation. Is there
    any way I can make the milk edible in 5-6 minutes or
    less?

  • Peggy 3/20/2008 1:30:34 PM

    Really if you get your raw milk from a reputible farm you
    shouldn't need to pasturize it. Raw milk is a wonderful natural
    food that is beneficial to your immune system and your digestive
    system. Besides it tastes wonderful. I have been drinking raw milk
    for years. I also like to make my own kefir and butter, along with
    the buttermilk.

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