Milk can spoil quickly! So you’re left with two options: drinking it faster than normal or throwing it away. However, there’s a way you can preserve milk for use at our convenience, and that’s by freezing.
Freezing milk is a great way to save money and reduce waste.
Imagine going to the grocery store every week, buying a gallon of milk, using a little bit of it each day, and then having to throw out that last inch or so before you have another chance to get more! It’s wasteful and expensive.
But by being able to freeze milk, that whole gallon would be able to stay fresh and last a lot longer.
You can freeze either whole or low-fat milk for up to 6 months in an airtight container in the freezer. When thawed, the frozen milk may have a slightly different taste and appearance. it is, however, completely safe to drink as long as you have stored it in the freezer properly and consume it within 2-3 days of thawing.
If you have a lot of milk to freeze, it is great to use ice cube trays! Fill the trays with milk, place them in the freezer until frozen, and then store your cubes of milk in an airtight bag or container for up to 6 months.
Freezing milk has some benefits and drawbacks. The best thing about freezing milk is that it preserves the nutrients in the drink for a longer period of time rather than just ‘chillin’ it overnight in the fridge.
One downside of freezing milk is that it may change some of its natural properties. For example, milk can be frozen and defrosted with no problem, but the texture of frozen milk changes every time it thaws, and it’s not as creamy as before.
Will Frozen Milk Taste Good?
Milk contains many different substances that interact, creating what is known as colloidal suspensions. These include fat globules and dissolved compounds such as proteins and lactose sugars.
Frozen milk tastes different because its flavor compounds get muddled during the freezing process – the result is typically an off-tasting milk product.
However, this does not automatically imply that frozen milk tastes terrible – in fact, some people argue that it actually tastes better.
And it’s not like you can simply microwave your frozen milk and expect it to taste exactly like freshly-poured milk. Making frozen milk more appealing requires a bit of creativity!
Many people choose to throw their thawed out milk into smoothies or cereal for better taste.
Can Frozen Milk Make You Sick?
Frozen milk is perfectly safe to consume as long as you let it thaw correctly. Food poisoning from frozen milk is “very rare.” The problem occurs when bacteria overgrow in the thawed milk, causing it to go bad.
Milk has a relatively high acidic content which slows down bacterial growth, so freezing actually keeps your supply fresher for longer.
This also means that even if there are any harmful bacteria present prior to freezing, they won’t grow quickly enough once the temperature drops below 0° Fahrenheit.
Freezing preserves nutrients and vitamins better than refrigeration or other forms of storage, making nutrient-rich frozen milk an excellent option for pregnant or nursing mothers, children, and the elderly.
How Long Does Frozen Milk Last When Thawed?
Frozen milk doesn’t last for a long time when it’s thawed. It should be consumed within 2 to 3 days of thawing. Past that it’s unsafe and may pose health risks if ingested.
After thawing the frozen milk, it’s always good to inspect it for any changes in color or consistency. It should be a pale yellow color and smooth texture with no lumps or discolorations. If you notice anything weird with your thawed milk, you should throw it away.
How Should You Thaw Frozen Milk
There are several methods you can use to thaw your milk. Here are some ways of thawing milk:
- Thawing Milk in the Fridge
The easiest way to thaw milk is by moving it from the freezer to the refrigerator. A refrigerator produces warmer temperatures that allow milk to thaw to a liquid with time.
The milk thawing process may take some time, and this depends on the amount of your frozen milk, so you shouldn’t be alarmed if your milk stays for up to 3 days to thaw completely.
- Soak Milk in Cold Water For Thawing
If you need your frozen milk thawed as soon as possible, fill your sink or a large container with cold water, and submerge your frozen milk in it. Make sure you hold the milk under the water as it thaws.
Thawing milk by placing it in cold water is quicker than using a refrigerator, but it also takes up to a few hours.
Water thaws milk faster than a refrigerator since liquids transfer heat into the milk more effectively as compared to air, thus quicker thawing.
Since you’ve seen how you can thaw your frozen milk, there’s a method you shouldn’t use to thaw milk – don’t thaw milk with heat. You shouldn’t place milk in the sun, in hot water, or in your microwave to thaw.
The use of heat makes your milk thaw unevenly, and it ruins it. In some cases, the milk could get burned.
How Should You Freeze Milk?
Milk is delicious, but it can go bad very quickly. If milk is left unrefrigerated, it will turn sour and spoil in less than a week – so how do you store milk so that you can enjoy it for months?
The first thing to understand about storing milk is its composition: Milk mainly consists of water and fat. This means that the more fat your milk contains, the longer it will last without going bad.
Since whole cow’s milk typically has 3%–5% butterfat (more than half of which is saturated fat), it arguably lasts the longest before spoiling.
Skim or low-fat cow’s milk will contain less than 1% butterfat and won’t stay fresh as long as higher-fat kinds of milk; while various plant-based kinds of milk (such as soy milk) typically don’t contain any butterfat at all, which means that these type of milk spoils the quickest.
If you keep your milk in the refrigerator door where it’s likely to be opened frequently, the shelf life of the milk will be shorter than if you store it at the back of one of the lower shelves or in an external drawer, since exposure to frequent temperature fluxes speeds up spoilage.
Most dairy products are best stored unopened and can remain fresh for a longer time. But, once opened, they start spoiling quickly.
Freezing milk is simple: Put the milk in containers, ensuring there’s some room at the top of the vessel for your milk to expand. Once the milk is in the containers, stick it in the freezer.
Ensure that your container is completely dry before putting it in the freezer.
Condensation may cause any water vapor to freeze into ice when exposed to low temperatures – this will ruin any milk put into it because the frozen water droplets will start to break down the fat molecules and turn them rancid.
You might also consider freezing milk in ice cube trays as an alternative to freezing it while in a container.
Serving Frozen Milk
Shake your milk well before serving. After freezing, fat in milk can solidify, separating itself from the liquid. Shaking the milk during the thawing process redistributes the fat. You can either use your hands to shake the milk or place it in a blender.