Greetings! Today we’ll take a look at how to use this Ukrainian cream separator. If you’re dealing with goats and decide you want to make cream or butter you’ll find this common model of cream separator on Amazon. It’s good quality and a great price, around $130. The only problem? All my directions came in Ukrainian! It comes with a whole lot of pieces to assemble and it took me awhile to figure out, so I’ll share it here in hopes that it may speed up the process for some of you.
NOTE: Please watch the above video tutorial. Text alone will not make much sense, as most of the assembly instructions rely on visual instructions.
First off, you’ll need to put oil in via the spout on the base of the separator. I used 3-in-1 oil, about half a bottle. This is not something you’ll have to do each time; I’ll probably check on the oil again in about a year. Then there’s a part with two silver things and lots of cone-shaped discs, which is probably the most expensive and the most important part of the machine: the centrifuge. There are about twelve of cones and they all slide onto the centrifuge. Then I close it up again. You can see that there’s a rubber seal inside and it also came with a rubber seal for the outside, but I found that that actually hinders my process, so I took that off. I still have it in the bag, but I do not use it. So once you stack the twelve cones you set the top piece back down. Reassemble to centrifuge according to instructions in video above.
Place milk and cream spouts on top of the centrifuge. They have are designed to fit together flush. So, we’ve put our oil in, then we put together the centrifuge on top, and lastly we have put our two little spouts.
Place red funnel-shaped piece on top with white disc inside (see video). Place clear plastic milk funnel on top (note how the hole has a notch. You will have to line up the hole in the plunger with this notch to allow milk to pass through). Make sure hole is closed initially, keeping track of how much you will have to turn it to open once the milk has been added. You do not want the milk to go down the hole until the centrifuge is spinning at 1 revolution/second (60 revs/minute). Finally, attach the handle.
I have screwed the cream separator onto a board. This way someone can help to hold the board down while I’m busy cranking. Another option is to screw it directly onto a table, if there is a place you could permanently keep your cream separator.
Place receptacles under the skim milk and cream spouts. If you are using cold milk, heat it to about 90′ F before pouring it into the cream separator. Now begin to crank! It’ll take a bit until you work up to one revolution per second. Once you’re there you can turn the plunger to open up the hole and allow milk into the centrifuge. Skim milk will begin to come out of one spout and shortly after, cream from the other.
Once you finish make sure the clean the machine well. You’ll find foam and cream in the different parts of it. Check out the video to see where to expect a lot. So clean everything well, set the pieces out a towel to dry for an hour or two, and then put your cream separator away.
Now you too can use your Ukrainian cream separator. Go for it and separate cream!
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