1. Place milk in glass milk bottles or canning jars. Fill only four-fifths full to allow for expansion of milk when heated.
2. Place the bottles or jars on a rack inside a large canner. Fill the canner with warm water until the water level is slightly above the milk level in the jars.
3. Start heating. Stir the milk in each container with a long-handled spoon to achieve uniform distribution of the heat. Monitor the temperature with an accurate, metal-stem thermometer. As the temperature approaches 145ºF, stop stirring, and loosely cover all jars but one with lids. Cover the remaining jar with aluminum foil. Punch a hole in the center of the foil and insert the
thermometer.
4. Continue heating until the temperature is 145ºF or slightly above. Adjust the heat to maintain the temperature at 145ºF for 30 minutes. If at any time the temperature drops below 145ºF, reheat and hold at 145ºF or above for 30 minutes.
5. After 30 minutes, gradually replace the hot water with cold water to cool the milk. If this is not done gradually, the bottles or jars may break.
6. Continue cooling the milk until the temperature is 80ºF or less. At this temperature, ice water can be used for cooling. Cool milk to 40ºF or colder. Tighten the covers and store in the refrigerator at 40ºF or colder until used.1
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- Ohio State University Extension Sheet. Archived. Preserving Beverages: Water, Juice, and Milk
The method of heating milk to 62-63ºC/145ºF and holding it there for 30 minutes is the Holder or Batch method of pasteurization, the standard for human and cow’s milk pasteurization. ↩︎
