Some of you probably read the title of this post…
…and furrowed your eyebrows, wondering “Why on earth does is she even writing about that? It’s so simple!”
But it’s funny how quickly something can become a lost art….”
Take rendering lard and clabbering milk, for example. Not so long ago, lard and clabber were staples of every kitchen. And now, I’m betting if you were to take a random poll of people walking down the sidewalk, the vast majority of folks would have no idea what they were, or how to use them.
The same goes for cream. It used to be common knowledge how to quickly skim the inches of cream from a ice-cold jar of fresh milk and turn it into homemade sour cream, stiff peaks of whipped cream, or bright yellow homemade butter.
But for those of us who grew up with homogenized milk, seeing a creamline for the first time can be a completely foreign, yet awe-inspiring experience. I know it was for me.
I’ve received a number of emails from folks who bring home their first jars of fresh, local milk, and discover they aren’t quite sure how to separate cream from milk.
So for the cream-newbies out there–take heart. You’re about to experience one of the most beautiful parts of homesteading (aka fresh cream), and I’ll show you exactly what to do with it.
(Remember: This will only work with non-homogenized milk-– if you’re waiting to see a creamline on your homogenized gallons, it ain’t gonna happen…)
How to Separate Cream from Milk
There’s more than one way to skin a cat (er… skim some cream), so I’ll highlight some four of the most popular methods for separating cream from milk:
1. A Old-Fashioned Ladle
This is my weapon of choice because it’s fool-proof, with no extra equipment required. Here’s how to do it:
a) If you are dealing with very fresh milk, let it sit for at least 24 hours, so the cream has plenty of time to rise to the top.

b) Identify the creamline, so you know what you’re working with. (You’ll be able to see it by looking at the sides of the jar)
c) Gently dip the ladle into the cream layer and allow it to fill. Make sure you aren’t dipping too deeply and getting into the milk. You’ll be able to see the difference– the cream is thick and yellowish-white, while the milk will appear much thinner and sometimes even blueish.
d) Pour the ladle of cream into a separate jar, and repeat until the majority of the cream layer is gone. (I like to leave about an inch of cream in the jar– it gives the milk a better texture, and also ensures I’m not swiping too much milk into my cream, which can upset the butter-making process.)
e) Use the resulting milk for drinking/cooking, and then turn the cream into a variety of beautiful projects (details below).
2. A Turkey Baster
If you have a smaller creamline, you can use a turkey baster to slurp it off the top (simply follow the same instructions as you would for the ladle). However, my turkey baster skills are rather clumsy, and I’ve ended up spewing stuff all over my kitchen more than once. Therefore, I tend to only trust myself with a ladle…
3. A Gallon-Sized Ice Tea/Lemonade Container
I haven’t personally used this method, but I know many homesteaders swear by it.
Simply pour the fresh milk into a glass ice tea/lemonade dispenser. (I’ve seen them for sale all over the place lately… In both one and two gallon sizes– like this one (aff link)).
Allow the milk to sit for at least 24 hours, then open the spigot at the bottom– the skimmed milk will come out, leaving the creamline floating at the top. Once you are nearing the end of the milk layer, you can capture the cream layer in a separate container.
I haven’t used this idea yet, mostly because my kitchen is tiny and I have limited room for extra “stuff.” But having a spigot of milk in your fridge does sound kinda handy, especially when it does double-duty as a cream separator.
4. A Cream Separator
And last but not least, we have the good ol’ fashioned cream separator.
I’ve seen more than one of these babies for sale on Craigslist, or hanging out in antique shops… Although I’m always tempted by them, I haven’t ever purchased one because:
- They aren’t exactly cheap…
- Some of the models are humongous– I don’t have anywhere to put it!
- I just haven’t found them necessary, especially when my ladle does such a good job.
Now– if you had gallons upon gallons of milk to skim each day, investing in a dedicated cream separator would make sense. Or, if you are trying to capture cream from goat’s milk, a separator is pretty much a necessity. However, for the average homesteader with one or two cows, I just don’t think a separator is a must-have.
So I have my cream… now what?
You lucky duck… Fresh cream is the queen of the homestead, in my opinion. There are so many things you can do with it.
SO. MANY. THINGS.
Here are just a few home dairy recipes:
- Easy Homemade Ice Cream
- How to Make Sour Cream
- How to Make Butter
- How to Make Snow Ice Cream
- How to Make Whipped Cream
For the first months after we began drinking raw milk (many,many years ago) I had no idea that I could skim the cream off the top. We just shook it up and drank it.
No one told me I was drinking my butter, whipped cream, buttermilk, ice-cream and sour cream!
Thanks to a sweet little girl, I learned to skim my milk and make wonderful things with all that cream.
Keep spreading the word, Jill – there are many folks out there like me who are drinking their cream. 🙂
Well, I have to say that drinking cream isn’t ALL bad, hehehe. 🙂 But still nice to have butter, etc.
It is very nice
Could u tell me how to make butter milk from raw milk u can text me 423/284/9306 thanks
Butter milk is the left over .
You put 16 ounces cream into a quart jar with a good lid.
Shake it till it turns to butter.
Pour the liquid out into a cold glass. Wonderful butter milk.
Does drinking the cream ( that I skim off ) making me gain weight? Because I’m a total cream piggie! I love drinking it ! I drink it daily ( at least a cup a day)
How do I get cream for my coffee? Is it the stuff I skim off the top? Or do I do something with it first?
I’m laughing as I read this because we are new to raw milk and we have been fro king our cream also!
Definitely need to start using these tips! Thanks Jill!
Let milk sit 24 hours before collecting cream, but should it be refrigerated or on the counter?
I put mine in the fridge.
After letting the milk sit for 24 hours, can we then boil and drink..?
I love the new look on your site! I’m not sure how long it’s been up as the birth of LittleMissH has kept me out of the loop for a few weeks…great article. I love to learn about things like this and file them away for future use! With baby 5 perhaps we should invest in that milk cow?! 😉
Yes– I think you guys would have no problem taking care of all the milk a cow could give! 😉
I love this tutorial! I wish we had a milk cow. There is nothing better than straight from the cow.
Well, I survived it straight from cows and goats, but there are risks with unpasteurized milk, including ‘undulant fever’ (I forget the technical term, oh, brucellosis)
We have goats. Goat milk is naturally homogenized. Doesn’t mean you can’t get some cream out of it but that would be way more work than I am willing to do. I wish I had a neighbor with a cow or two. I would love to barter for some cream to make my own butter.
@ On the Banks of Salt Creek
Our cream separators will work with goat’s milk. This one is on sale too!
http://www.slavicbeauty.net/cream-separator-80-l00-manual-model-07
When I am making any recipe that requires cream …. Is the skimming the fat off the milk it? I know that is the cream, but do I need to do anything else with it to prepare the cream? Sounds too easy! 🙂 I want to make fermented butter, and mottzarella cheese and with the cream being a huge part of this I want to make sure I have it right. Just scrap the fat off the top and whala I have my cream?
And then there’s the 5th way of separating cream from milk. Just boil unhomogenized milk in a container, let it cool, let it sit in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours in a covered container and then just take it out and pick up the cream from top with your hands! Its THAT easy. In India we still get unhomogenised milk everywhere (including commercially produced brands), since almost everyone is into home-made butter, ghee, cream etc. I’ve recently found out about homogenized milk after i started living abroad (never heard of it before!)
Oh, Jill, I just love your blog and all the homesteady goodness you share here!
After trying (and failing at) the ladle method, my now favorite way it to pour it off. To do this, you just need another gallon (or half-gallon) jar, and a quart jar for your cream. Also, one or 2 canning funnels are very helpful. After the milk is separated and cold, I just pour the cream veeeeeeeeeerrrry slowly into the quart jar. Because it’s so thick, you get through almost all the cream before you see the skim milk start to peek through. Then I switch over and pour out the milk very quickly into the half-gallon jar. Then back to the cream jar: at this point, you can either hold the rest of the cream over the jar for 20 minutes 😉 or take a very clean finger and swipe the cream line and it will all separate. My cream jar, after it has rested, will only have the tiniest amount of milk trapped in the bottom, and we just shake in any cream that rises to the top of the milk jar the second time.
I hope this helps someone else who is ladle-deficient (lol!)
Cool! I haven’t had much luck pouring it, but sounds like you’ve perfected it. 🙂
I get a 2 gallons of fresh raw cows milk every week. Should I let the milk sit in the refrigerator overnight to scoop the cream off or should it sit on the counter. Please advise
This is the first big question our herd share partners ask us. Now I have a link I can include in our farm newsletters! Thanks!
Yay! Hope it’s helpful to your partners!
As soon as I saw your gorgeous photographs of separating cream from milk I could taste the luscious cream.
Many years ago when I was young and we lived in the country as new migrants from Germany. Also we had no fridge for some time.
As milk was delivered daily, into a billy can which was hung over the gate, mother boiled the milk for longer keeping and then skimmed the cream off. That cream was THE best …had on bread with jam…mmmm!
Wonderful memories to look back to and to be thankful for a mother who taught us many wise and thrifty ways.
Love your blog ….which I haven’t visited for a while !
Alexa-asimplelife visiting from Sydney, Australia
Yum… love the bread/jam idea!
I get a 2 gallons of fresh raw cows milk every week. Should I let the milk sit in the refrigerator overnight to scoop the cream off or should it sit on the counter. Please advise
In the fridge
Is there any company that sells a mini separator? I would think with the movement toward raw/fresh milk there could be a good market for it but just don’t have knowledge of this. Thanks!
Many years ago, when we could actually get fresh milk, the idea of using a spigot came to me. It works like a charm. Where I live, it’s not legal to sell raw milk for human consumption so it can be hard to come by. I’m on the look-out though 🙂
Lots of farms are going with the Share idea. Customers sign a contract and pay a certain yearly amount for their ’share.’ This means you technically own a portion of that cow or its produce…therefore your own milk. I’m getting mine this way. It’s a win win!!!Look around for these types of set ups. Lots of farmers are doing it with fresh produce too.
Jill, the farm where I buy my raw milk sells it in regular gallon milk containers. I’ve read that the more you move the container, the more cream you loose. Is this true? I’ve been afraid to put the milk into a different container (for ease in getting the cream off) for fear I’d be loosing too much cream. Is my concern warranted?
Moving it will jostle the cream some, but it should settle back to the top. If you have the plastic containers, you can slice a whole in the bottom and drain the milk into a separate jar, stopping when you get to the cream line. 🙂
Oh my gosh, perfect!! Thanks ????
Hi Jill I am fairly new to my as I just started with our first Family cow at the first of the year. I knew there had to be a quick way to remove my cream from my milk quickly and with less error. I just had no luck or time to spend scooping my cream off and a spigot jar was difficult to see the cream line as I had to tip the jar and couldn’t get enough of the milk out.
I finally found it after searching and searching… I felt so silly for not thinking of it ourselves especially my husband! SIPHON it! I simply use tubing from the hardware store place one end in the jar all the way to the bottom of the jar that has the cream to be removed secure it with a clothes pen then place a empty jar at a lower level. I then help the milk along the tube with a little suction from me, once the milk starts down the tube place it in lower jar and watch your milk slowly drop under that wonderful cream line!!!
Its so quick and easy I have very little say 1/8″ of milk that separates back out of my quart of cream. I use 5/16 tubing and it goes very quickly I wouldn’t recommend any bigger than this as it will drain too fast!
Happy Milking 🙂
I grew up watching my mother do the same thing after milking the cow and letting the milk sit in a gallon jug and then siphoning it off with a section of rubber hose that she kept in a drawer in the kitchen. I also churned many jugs of cream into butter. So glad to have had my country experiences growing up.
How do you skim cream from a carton that has grass fed cows milk with cream on the top??
Love reading your emails. I am a frustrated homesteader living in town now but when my children were small I bought fresh milk from a lady that had 2 or 3 cows. I loved having all that wonderful raw milk and cream. My children often had farm eggs and raw milk in the form of custard for breakfast. My mouth still waters when I remember how wonderful that was. I also just used the ladle to remove the cream. I have looked for another person selling raw milk but it has become illegal in California for a private person to sell raw milk. I tried some of the organic farm stores but the raw milk had already been separated. It just wasn’t the same. Enjoy what you have to the fullest. It is a wonderful life that I miss dearly.
Growing up, we always had raw milk. My mom eventually got a wider clear hose that we would attach a pump to and stick it to the bottom of the jar and took the milk off the bottom. It left less cream in the milk and more cream to use.
I thought I was the last one on earth to say “lucky duck” and to choose the least technically advanced tool for a job! (Although I do look longingly at the ads …)
Thanks for posting this! And it’s at just the right time for me. We just decided to switch our family to raw milk and part of the decision for me was to get my hands on that cream without having to pay $3.50 a pint!
I am new to the raw milk blessings.
So I have perhaps a silly question but do you still pasteurize your milk at home? Or do you use as one would assume when someone says “raw” as straight from cow with no further process then screening it before chilling?
Thanks
If you get your milk in plastic jugs, this method is INGENIOUS! Poke a hole in the bottom corner of the jug that is underneath the handle and let the skim milk start flowing into a bowl. Take off the cap of the jug to increase flow. You will see the cream line slowly go down as the skim milk flows out. The flow will change noticeably when the cream starts to go through the hole. At this point, flip the jug over and pour the cream into another jar. (I do this in the sink because it can get messy.) Here is a video of how it is done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiobdoXwyVs
Thanks for the post and easy to follow video. Just what I needed.
Check out these affordable cream separators. they are small, so they are more like a kitchen appliance rather than an industrial item. Easy to clean and fun to use. http://www.slavicbeauty.net/cream-separator-80lh-120v-usa-canada-plug
Okay this is probably a silly question, but if you skim the cream off is it then “skim” milk or is it still whole milk? Lol
Technically skim milk. BUT, home-skimmed milk is still much, much richer than store-bought skim!
Hi– beautiful site! I came in search of an image of milk with cream on top for a nostalgic facebook post (personal, non-commercial) I want to do. Might I be able to use your “creamline” image if I link back to this post? Thanks for considering this.
Hi Sally, that’s fine, as long as you include a credit on the photo and a link back. Thanks for asking!
You could probably use a fat/broth separator (typically used with chicken or beef broths).
Hmmm… yes, I imagine that’d work.
Sometimes there is no cream line, if the milk was drawn from the bottom of the storage tank to fill my jug and there is therefore no cream. We too get raw in plastic jugs and have a glass gallon pickle jar we store the “skim” in after washing the jugs and punching a hole in the bottom with a medium awl. Just hold the jug up in the air above the sink, and drop the jug gently onto the rising awl. WHAM! Instant stream of milk into waiting jar in sink. Watch the cream line evenly descend and do what you like with the jug. SCrew the cap back on and flip it and pour into a container, or toss it. We pay $5/gallon for grass fed. Sometimes there is no cream line, if the milk tank mixer (separator) was not operated near to jug filling time and the cream and milk were not mixed.
Hey! Very very new to this! We get freshilk from the cows delivered to us everyday (though I suspect some water is added). Mom usually strains to get rid of hairs and boils the milk a loooong time. So how do you suggest I get the cream to settle? After straining and boiling or before? In the fridge or counter? Covered or uncovered? And for how long? Oh and btw, from chennai India here – the hottest part of the world, its summer now so temperatures are almost 40 degree Celsius or more! Telling this coz ive heard weather affects it too?!
I’ve never boiled my milk, so I can’t say for certain. However, I’d think it’ll settle either before or after boiling– I would leave it in the fridge for 24 hours.
So glad I saw this answer. I just got three gallons of milk from a farmer. I used a gallon to make yogurt. But I wanted cream from the rest. I wasn’t too sure if I should leave it in the fridge or at room temp. I live in Jamaica near sea level
Yay, I just used a turkey baster to separate the cream from the milk and now I have my first bottle of fresh cream! Now I have the first step to making my own sour cream or butter. This is my first time doing this and I’m not embarassed to say that I am giddy as a school girl about this lol. Have a wonderful rest of your week Jill!
Heck yes– I’d be giddy too! Congrats on your first fresh cream!
Thank you. Been considering getting a milk cow, or goat. This sounds wonderful. Thank you for all the great wisdom.
Lots of luck trying to skim goats milk!!!!
Thank you! I wasn’t sure the best way to do this 🙂
Dumb question. Do you just allow the milk to sit outside of the fridge? Doesn’t it spoil?
I am looking at your cream line and trying to pick my jaw up off the floor and quell my jealousy! I have goats, so I count myself amidst the very blessed if I get maybe a quarter inch off a quart of milk that has set in the back of my fridge for three days! I skim with a blunt nosed teaspoon.
My grandmother called the blue skimmed milk “blue John.”
So…I’m trying sour cream for the first time. I got 5 liters of raw milk. I saved a gallon for mozzarella (I’ve made it successfully before) and wanted to use the rest of the milk (about 2 quarts) for sour cream. I read somewhere you can use low-fat milk for a low fat sour cream (this was in a cheese making book). I added the starter to 4 cups of the raw milk and let it sit 15 hours. It’s pretty runny and doesn’t smell sour at all. I’ve seen other recipes that use a mix of cream and milk, so I’m a little confused.
Obviously the milk is not as thick as pure cream…but those recipes saying you can use (or call for a mix of milk and cream) have confused me.
I don’t want to use all the cream from my whole gallon of milk to get sour cream because I also wanted to make mozzarella…
Can mozarella be made with milk that has the cream removed?
I would like to suggest that you never drink or use raw (unpasteurized milk), from cows you don’t personally know.
TB is making a comeback, i don’t know if many people know actually what TB is. Imagine your lungs slowly dissolving, you cough your lungs out, literally!
Anti biotics are loosing ground against this terrible disease. Please don’t use raw milk. Pasteurizeing is simple can be done at home.
Peoplw talk of some loss of taste with pasteurised milk. But better little loss of taste than loss of lungs.
Don’t eat much cream, it can raise your cholesterol quite a bit. For reference, I just won a marathon, race mountain bikes at pro level, low BMI, had to cut whole milk consumption quite a bit as it was THE factor in my “borderline” high cholesterol, now normal again.
When you use a cream seperator should the milk be warm ?
Does separating some of the cream make the remaining milk-low fat? I know that whole milk is supposed to be healthier, but we prefer the taste and consistency of 1% or 2% milk. Thank you!
I am curious about homesteading and am wondering, can I pasteurize the milk before I let it sit for 24 hours? How and when does pasteurization come in to play here?
Hi Laure! If you were to decide that pasteurizing your fresh milk was a better option for you then drinking raw milk, you would most likely separate the cream from the milk then pasteurize the milk after, depending on the cream content of your milk.
Can you pasteurize raw milk once is has been refrigerated? We can get raw milk from a friend, but they milk at 6pm everyday…not very convenient to pick up at that time…morning would be better…don’t know if that’s doable…don’t want to compromise the milk/cream. Any advice would be appreciated!
Hello.. do I let the milk sit out on the counter or keep it in the fridge while it’s separating? thank you! Also for pasturized milk, how long do I let it sit?
Allow the milk to sit in the fridge to separate. It should be separated overnight!
I just want to make sure I understand this haha. If you were to stir in all the cream, that would be whole milk? And skimming it all off is skim milk? So you can find the fat content you like best by skimming correct (like 2% milk)?
Basically. Whole milk isn’t always going to be exactly the amount of cream you have on top, because cows give different amounts of cream based on tons of different factors, including breed of cow, gestational timeline, time of year and weather, diet, and so on. Figuring out how much cream you like in your milk is a personal thing, as even in my personal family we all have preferences on how much cream we like left in our milk.
And then there’s the 5th way of separating cream from milk. Just boil unhomogenized milk in a container, let it cool, let it sit in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours in a covered container and then just take it out and pick up the cream from top with your hands! Its THAT easy. In India we still get unhomogenised milk everywhere (including commercially produced brands), since almost everyone is into home-made butter, ghee, cream etc. I’ve recently found out about homogenized milk after i started living abroad (never heard of it before!)
I have started getting our milk from farmer and it has a real like cream line that I want to use to make products. However the opening of the glass jar is very small that even a spoon won’t go in. If I pour the milk into a regular wide mouth 1/2 gallon mason jar when we get home will the milk be able to settle again at the top so that I can ladle it off? Also once you ladle off the cream how long does it last in the fridge?
The cream should still rise back up. That’s why commercially they homogenize milk to keep the cream mixed in, or else it would continue to rise to the top over and over.
Hello there! I had a question about the first step. When you say leave it for 24 hours does it need to be room temperature or refrigerated? Thank you so much!!
Leave it in the fridge! You want the milk to initially cool down as quickly as possible, then the cream will rise after that.
Maybe one of you can help. I am currently revising a translation German into English created by AI, and I found the German word “Milchsatte”, meaning an earthenware or glass vessel into which raw milk was poured so the cream could rise to the top and be skimmed off. This was the method before there were centrifugal separators. AI gave an unsatisfactory translation. Has anyone of you an idea of the English term used for those vessels. Your help would be very much appreciated.
Kind regards from Northern Germany and thanks in advance, Angelika