Saving raw cream

[blessedwithboys]

I just started buying raw milk and of course my kids think it's disgusting.  LOL  I'm slowly winning them over by serving it flavored with dark chocolate stevia.  (Side note:  reminding them that they drank raw human milk for several years has done nothing to convince them to drink raw cow milk!  haha)

Other than the taste, the thing they hate about it is seeing little bits of cream beginning to separate in their glass.  I know the fat is good for them, but to avoid wasting milk, I've been spooning out the cream first thing when we get home and just serving them the skimmed milk. 

My questions are:

How long will the cream last in a jar in the back of the fridge?  The farmer said his milk should last 2 wks in the back of the fridge, but it starts to smell weird around day 9 or 10.  Does the cream by itself last any shorter or longer?

Can I freeze the cream, adding more to the jar as I go over the span of a few weeks?

If I freeze it, what is it good for when thawed?  Can it be whipped after having been frozen?

How many fluid ounces does it take to make a pound of butter?  I have found that I can get about 8 oz of cream from the 2 half gallons I buy each week.  The butter is $10/lb so I'd love to save $ by just using the cream I already have to make some.

TIA!!!

[wardeh]

I hope that over time your family will adjust! Just this morning, I purposely poured the cream top on my oatmeal and wow, was it good! I can't see myself enjoying that so much 5 years ago. To answer your questions:

Depending on the cleanliness of the containers and the cleanliness at milking, cream can last a few weeks in the fridge. Every time you open the jar, you lose some of that untouched freshness. What is more likely is that the cream will spontaneously sour, slowly. Even in the fridge the raw milk organisms will proliferate and grow. This isn't spoiling, it is souring. :)

I have frozen cream, and I notice that it changes a bit in texture after freezing. The only thing I've done with previously frozen cream is make ice cream and that worked fine. I'm not sure whether it would work for butter or whipped cream. You can try!

You can get almost a pound of butter from a quart of heavy cream, give or take. The lighter weight cream has trouble "breaking" into butter.

What alot of people do when they're accumulating cream for butter is skim it off and put it in a jar in the fridge. Then they add to that as time goes by. The cream will sour gently (which is great actually and makes wonderful cultured butter) over time. When they get enough, they make butter. Or first they bring it out and let it sour more at room temp for about 24 hours to develop more probiotics and sour flavor.

And also, any cream that has soured is .... sour cream! If you leave it out at room temp for a day to a couple of days, it will thicken appreciably. You can also add buttermilk or sour cream with active cultures to it while it is sitting out to give it a boost toward developing that sour cream flavor we all know and love.