The process of pasteurizing milk is to treat it with heat to kill microorganisms such as Brucella, Campylobacter, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, Mycobacterium bovis, Salmonella, and Yersinia that may or may not be in the milk. This is a precautionary step that is taken when you are not 100% sure whether your source of milk is disease free.
Pasteurization can occur at different temperature for a different amount of time but the easiest temperature to pasteurize milk in the microwave is to bring it to 161 F for at least 15 seconds.
Pasteurizing the milk in the microwave is a bit tricky because overheating it make cause it to boil over and it also heats the milk very unevenly. In the worse case scenario it can curdle if you overheat it. You will need to buy a thermometer for this method.
- You first want to microwave the milk for a minute.
- Then you want to stir the milk and take a temperature reading from the stirred milk.
- Now you want to continue to put the milk in the microwave in short 15-30 second intervals(decreasing as it gets closer to 161 F) and stirring and taking the temperature reading each time.
- When it has finally reach 161 F, you want to heat it for 15 extra seconds in the microwave and at that point it should be pasteurized.
Another thing you can do is to just pasteurize it at home using your usual stove method and store the milk for later use. Once it has been pasteurized, as long as you refrigerate the milk, it will be good for a while. Just remember to quickly chill the milk(using a ice water bath) after you pasteurize it before you put it into the refrigerator.