Freezing and Defrosting Milk: This Is How It Works

Freezing milk can be useful to prevent unused draining. However, there are a few points to bear in mind. We explain what to look out for when preserving milk and the best way to go about it.

Freezing milk – not always useful

Freezing milk is only profitable in some cases.

• First you have to differentiate between fresh milk and UHT milk.
• The former can usually only be kept for just under a week because it was not heated as much as UHT milk during production. This longer-lasting alternative is ultra-high temperature treated, making it significantly more resistant to mold growth. Permanent cooling of this milk is also not absolutely necessary.
• At the same time, there is also fresh milk with the addition “longer shelf life”. Although this is not heated as much as UHT milk, it has been heated more than classic fresh milk.
• Milk substitutes such as soy, almond or oat milk can be categorized in a similar way to UHT milk. The same is true of coconut milk. Storage in the refrigerator is not absolutely necessary, but advisable in the interest of a longer shelf life.
• So before you freeze your milk, you should think about what kind of milk it is. Because: Freezing ensures that the milk loses some of its taste and may become more watery. Long-term storage in the refrigerator is the better alternative to freezing, especially for milk that has a longer shelf life.
• Another, but probably manageable problem when freezing milk can be the separation of fat and protein. Milk consists of both components. Freezing causes the fat in the container to sink and stay at the bottom. This creates a water-like, but milk-colored consistency.
• This observation is particularly interesting with regard to the composition of milk, because the well-known, slightly creamy consistency is only due to the fat it contains. The same applies to buttermilk.
• Before freezing, you should also make sure that you would still consume the milk without it being frozen. If mold has already formed in the tetra pack or if the milk smells sour, freezing will not save it either. After all, freezing only preserves the milk while it’s frozen, but it doesn’t improve it.
• For freezing, it makes sense not to use a glass bottle or the existing tetrapack. The first can shatter when it freezes or thaws. The latter is too thin and not strong enough, so that there is a risk of spilling when defrosting at the latest. Plastic cans, which are ideally suited for freezing, are best suited .
• Another little insider tip is to put the milk open in the freezer and only close it when it is frozen. This prevents the risk of bursting when expanding and separating the milk components.

This is how frozen milk is thawed again

Milk is also thawed a little differently than other foods.

• First of all, you should consider that milk cannot be frozen forever. You should therefore not exceed the guideline value of around three months. Otherwise, this can potentially have a negative impact on the consistency and flavor of the dairy product.
• It is also advisable to consume the milk within a few days after defrosting.
• When defrosting, it is particularly important that you do not do this under excessive heat. As a result, there is a risk that the milk will be damaged by thawing and will become inedible. Freezing would have been in vain in that case. Defrosting at room temperature is therefore only recommended to a limited extent.
• Instead, thawing in the refrigerator makes the most sense. This process takes a few hours, but the milk slowly gets used to the higher temperature compared to the freezer compartment.
• The thawing process can also be accelerated by a cold water bath. To do this, run cold water into the sink and place the container with the frozen milk in it.
• After thawing, it is advisable to stir or shake the milk thoroughly. This is how the individual ingredients are mixed together again. This process gives the milk a consistency similar to that before it was frozen.
• However, the taste of your thawed product is only suitable to a limited extent for drinking pure milk. A new acquisition is more suitable for this. However, you can still use the formerly frozen milk for cooking, baking or in coffee without any problems.