Freezing eggs,milk and canning cheese and milk :answers(hopefulheart)

hopefulheart wrote a comment: Your blog is fascinating. Could you please tell me how to freeze eggs? I am buying fresh eggs from my friends now but as you now the chickens can be fickle And how long do they last in the freezer? What is the best way to freeze milk? How do you can cheese and milk? Do you use a water bath or pressure canner? Thanks for the help.

Freezing eggs: You crack say 2- 3 eggs into a bowl, 1/4 tsp of sugar or salt(use sugar or salt-depending on what the eggs will be used for), just pop the yoke , and pour into a freezer bag. Label your bag sugar or salt. Check your most used recipes to find the number of eggs you use most. I use 6 eggs in ice cream- 6 eggs with 1/2 tsp sugar. Eggs to eat, I pack in 3 eggs with 1/4 tsp. salt. Eggs for cake mixes, add sugar to eggs. We have eaten the eggs I froze with sugar in them and they were good. The only thing you can’t do with these eggs, is have them fried. I have found they last 6-12 months. The older they get, its best to use them in recipes than to eat plain. A lot of people don’t know you can freeze eggs. After the first year here of home grown eggs, store bought didn’t look so good any more. So I found a way to keep us in eggs when the hens slowed down. This does work with store eggs ,too. Date your bags and use oldest first.

Freezing Milk: I have found that best way to freeze milk is to use juice bottles or 2 liter bottles, WHY? the jugs that milk comes in is very thin and weak. And more times than not, when the milk thaws the jug leaks. In a 2 liter bottle put a 1/2 gallon of milk, this will leave room for it to freeze. Always date your bottles. And it will thaw over night in ice box. I have found it will last 6- 12 months in freezer, I know that is not what is said, but that’s what works here. Just always use the oldest first. We have done this for over 6 years now, and same with eggs.

Canning Cheese sauce and Milk and Butter: These are listed in the recipes tab at the top. http://jordansfarm.wordpress.com/recipes/

Canning hard cheeses: We love sharp cheddar cheese but don’t like it frozen. You can, can any hard cheese this way. So I found a way to can it. In jelly/ or pint jars, in a pan of water (put jars in water), put cheese in jars(slice into small pieces) , allow to melt down to 1 in. from top, then put lids on and hot water bath 40 min. for both pints and jelly jars.The longer it sit on shelf the sharp it gets. We just got plans to build a cheese press, so as I can make my own cheddar cheese. We have had to wait to make it because I had no way or place to allow cheese to ripen. So now I’ll make it and can it. The can cheese will last 2 plus years in a cool dark place.

I will also copy this post into the recipes tab, so as it will be easier to find. Hope you all have a great day. My other blog has the recipes tab at:

http://jordansfarm.wordpress.com/ : main blog

http://jordansfarm.wordpress.com/recipes/ : recipes page

Technorati Tags: canning,freezing,milk,cheese,eggs,stocking up,storing food

Comments:

1. My husband grew up on a ranch with laying hens. I freeze eggs by cracking them out of the shell and poking the yolk, beating a few times and freezing in an ice cube tray. When frozen pop them out and place in freezer bags. Take out what you need and defrost in the fridge over night. Comment by CJ July 1, 2008

2. I have been trying to can my excess goat milk. One site said 10#’s for 25 minutes and the other said 15# ’s for 10 minutes. Both of these times curdled my milk in the jar. I have previously canned milk in the 80’s without a problem, but I do not remember the directions I used then. Can you help me? Comment by Hope Gaines July 11, 2008

3. Hope,
   I’m not really sure about goats milk. Does goat’s milk have cream like cow’s milk? If it does, I think the “curdled part “is the cream turning into like a butter. This happens on cow’s milk, and is fine to cook with. One of my books says you can water bath for 60 minutes. It’s in with the cow and goat part, extra milk. But does not say, goat milk. Have you tried cooking with the milk you have canned? My canned cows milk is not really drinkable due to taste, but is great to cook with. I know you can freeze the extra goats milk, but again I’m not sure about canning it. I’m sorry I could not help you. Have a great day. Becky Comment by jordansfarm July 12, 2008

4. 
   I have a homemade pizza sauce that I make, and when I make it I have alot so I have had to put it in the freezer and take up alot of freezer space,the pizza sause has parmasian cheese in it. I am wanting to can the sauce but I cant find any information on how to can a pizza sauce the has cheese in it. Do you know what the time and presser on that would be? Comment by Robin Lee February 10, 2009

5. Robin,The best I can tell is what I’d do: make a big batch of your sauce without the cheese, and add the cheese when you use the sauce, this would be the safest way. The cheese usually has a long shelf life. Hope this helps. Becky Comment by Becky February 15, 2009