Strictly a personal opinion,

I'd do skim milk (lease fat content). Also be aware that after 1 or 2 months the vitamin content depletes.

How to freeze depends on how you get your milk. We get ours in 1 liter (quart) bags. We place them in a bin in the freezer to freeze up (if they split, no messy clean up of the freezer). Once frozen, we just stack them on a shelf.

We also defrost in a large bowl just in case a bag broke.

Bill

We freeze both 1/2 gallon and gallon plastic jugs of 2% milk (that's all we use) and have done so for many years. Rarely a jug will crack at the neck but 95% of the time there are no problems. Once thawed just shake well as it does separate to a degree.

Dave

Like Bill, I get milk in bags (it's a Canadian thing), and I've sometimes frozen it, since it's MUCH cheaper if you buy it 4 litres at a time and we don't go through it very quickly. Now we buy the ultra-filtered kind, which lasts much longer, so I don't freeze it often, but if we're going to be away for a while I sometimes do.

I have occasionally found one that separated and/or tasted a bit "off" when defrosted, but usually it works fine. I did find the skim or 1 % had a bit of a better record than the 2 % after freezing, but not to a large extent.

I would think it could be frozen fine in a plastic jug or waxed carton, too --- whatever it comes in.

The hard part is defrosting it quickly if you need it in a hurry. It doesn't melt evenly --- often it seems the "milky" part melts first, leaving a thin, icy part to thaw more slowly (then, as Dave says, a bit of a shake combines everything again). So I have to wait for the whole bag, or most of it, to thaw. If the purpose is to have some ready in a hurry, you might prefer to freeze it in smaller containers.

I sometimes stock powdered milk for cooking. Though now our nearby grocery is open 24 hours so I worry less about running out.

Good luck!

Zabby

I freeze milk all the time! Any variety works.
The higher fat content will leave a "ring" in the jug, but as stated, a quick shake solves that!
When we had 4 teens in the house, we went through a gallon or more per day so I'd buy 5 at a time and freeze!
Opposite problem now, with just 2 of us, we don't use it as quickly so I freeze! And not just for cooking, it tastes fine to drink too!
I don't think ours has ever been in the freezer more than a month or so.

Deanna

I also freeze milk regularly, I usually freeze skim because that's what I drink, but any kind that's on sale will do.

I thaw it, shake it, and it's fine.

Annie

We don't drink milk - only use it for cooking and even then not often enough to buy a half gallon and expect it to not go bad before the next use. I freeze whole milk in pint jars, which is a bit more than enough for most of my recipes. Just be sure to leave enough head space for expansion and don't tighten the lids until it is frozen.
Kay.

This is so interesting...I didn't know Canadians bought milk in a bag! Just watched a video on YouTube showing it.

I am happy to hear you think freezing doesn't change the taste.
I have a milk cow, just over a year now and when I turned her dry recently, I was forced to drink milk from the store (which I actually drank very little of). Now I will just freeze milk in advance of drying her and enjoy her delicious milk whenever I want.

Thank you all.

When we lived in both Minnesota and Wisconsin I use to keep several days' supply of milk frozen during the winter for those days when we'd be snowed-in. I'd pour out an inch or two from each gallon so there would be expansion room. In those days it was whole milk. Today I will freeze the remainder milk if we are going away for more than a couple of days. I've never had a problem with the milk going bad or become unusable or unpalatable.

We use bagged milk here, too. I try to keep at least one bag in the freezer for that lean($)time at the end of the month. I had it thaw all over the counter one time, but now I have a container that the bag fits in well for thawing, and if there is a leak I can see it right away, remove the bag, and use the container as a pitcher without a big mess. I also keep evaporated milk in the pantry and buttermilk powder in the fridge for cooking.

Back when I grew up on the farm, we had dairy cattle & if we didn't keep our milk in a vat w/running water during the winter it would freeze in those old 10 gal. milk cans before the processor came by to pick it up (every other day). Of course, we had to keep it in the same running water during the summer to keep it cool. So, just saying that milk has been being frozen for many, many years!
My DH goes thru about a gal. a week and I shop at Sam's only once a month or less so I freeze 4-5 gals. after every visit. Now it is 2% but used to be whole...no difference.
There are a couple of other options for milk for cooking...
canned milk, dilute by 1/2 or powdered milk, they both work. I've used them both when I've run out over the years. Keep the powdered milk in the freezer to keep it fresher too.