I am buying low temperature pasteurized non-homogenized milk for making cheese. It is Jersey milk, and it has a lot of cream in it. I need skim milk for some cheeses that I want to make. I can buy skim milk from the same source, but it costs exactly the same $7 per gallon as the full fat milk. It seems a waste to buy it pre-skimmed for the same price when I could use that cream for butter or Creme Fraiche or ice cream or coffee whenever its not needed for the cheese.
The milk comes in plastic milk jugs, so I can't just ladle the cream off the top. If I pour the milk into my vat, the cream gets mixed in and take too long to rise to the top. So, I thought perhaps I could just pour the milk into a gallon jar with a spigot, put it back in the fridge, let it separate, then drain off the milk from the bottom.
Any problems with that approach? Is there a better way to do it when the milk comes in standard milk jug with the small 1 inch opening? Finally, about how long should it take for the cream to separate from the milk again after pouring it from the milk jug to the glass jar?