To Butter or Not To Butter

Yes, that is the question … I know, my play on Shakespeare is lame, BUT it does lead perfectly into today’s Blog topic. Have you ever wondered where butter comes from or ever wanted to make your own butter but had no clue where to start? Well, believe it or not, it is very easy to make your own butter.

I grew up on a farm and we often made butter from the cream of the milk from cows. If you’re not sure what the cream is, it’s the very fatty part of the milk that will float to the top when left to sit for a while. This cream is then scooped off and made into butter or you can use it to make whipped cream for your pies and/or other deserts … YUM! If you have your own cow or goat, you can check out The Prairie Homestead blog on separating the cream from the milk, if you don’t know already. OR, if you don’t have access to fresh milk, you can go to your local grocery store for some heavy whipping cream (don’t get the ultra-pasteurized as it takes much longer to get butter).

Alright, now that you have your heavy whipping cream, you can create butter one of two ways. The first is easiest to do if all you have is a mason jar and a lid. The second, which is super easy with a mixer, is much faster. I’ll discuss both.

The first way is to pour the heavy cream into a mason jar, cover tightly with a lid and begin to shake or rock the jar back and forth until a soft lump forms (roughly 15 – 20 minutes). Now this method takes longer, and when it turns into whipped cream, it feels as if no progress is being made, so don’t give up. Keep shaking. This method is great because you don’t need any fancy equipment and you can watch the fat solids begin to separate from the milk. AND if you have kids or grandkids, this method makes it easy to get them involved in making butter too. They can take turns shaking the jar (if they are old enough not to drop the jar). Don’t give up … I know it can seem to take forever, but when the fat solids begin to separate, it happens quickly and you will have a soft lump that is a nice soft yellow color. Keep shaking until buttermilk separates out of the lump and the jar contains a solid lump of butter and liquid buttermilk (see photo). I’ll get back to what to do with it soon.

The second method is to place the heavy cream in a mixer and whip the cream. A standing mixer or even food processor works great. Start on speed 1 though or you will have the cream splashing everywhere. Your cream will turn into a beautiful whipped cream and will get thicker and thicker. Don’t stop though, keep going. You find, depending on the speed and strength of your machine, you will see a sudden change when the milk fat solids separate out of the milk. Beware, if you are mixing at a high speed as you will suddenly have liquid splashing out of the bowl. If you are using a food processor, you will hear a “slap, slap, slap” as the butter suddenly forms up. This can take anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes depending on the machine.

Now, you have this fat solid/buttermilk mixture, what do you do? Here is the critical part. Regardless of which method you use, it is very important to drain away all of the buttermilk (very skim, watery milk). Have a linen lined colander ready in a bowl or sink (bowl if you want to use later; sink if you are going to discard) and pour the butter/buttermilk mixture into the prepared colander. Gather up the edges of the linen and squeeze as much of the milk out as you can. Once you have removed all you can in this manner, return the linen with the butter to the colander and run ice cold water over the butter fat, stirring until the water runs clear. Otherwise any leftover milk will cause your butter to go rancid within a few days.

Gather up the ends of the linen once again and squeeze any remaining water into the sink. If you like salted butter, this is the time to add the salt while it is still soft. For example, if you used ½ quart of heavy whipping cream, you would use ½ teaspoon at this point to mix in your butter (I like sea salt). Do this by placing the butter on parchment paper, making a well in the middle of the butter ball, and kneading in the salt until it is fully incorporated. Pack your butter into an airtight container, parchment paper, or wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate or freeze until needed.

In case you weren’t sure about how much cream to use, 2 quarts of cream makes roughly 1 pound of butter. If you want to experiment buy a ½ quart of heavy whipping cream. Enjoy the fruits of your