Thursday, February 25, 2010

How to Make Butter

I love all the things you can do with raw cream! I started making butter about 3 years ago. It is like second nature to me now. I make it once a week. If it starts to build up, I use it to trade for eggs, babysitting, etc. If you don't have access to a lot of cream and you are getting raw milk. You can start a freezer jar of cream. Add a scoop of raw cream off the top of your milk into the jar and let it accumulate until you have a one or two quarts. Just keep adding it to the top of the cream jar you keep in the freezer. Eventually you'll have enough to make butter.

I've got a simplified process that really really works for me, so I thought I'd share it with you. I use raw cream (your body can digest it much easier when it is raw, leading to less fat storage in your body), but you can also use this same process with pasturized cream. The first thing I do is put no more than 2 quarts of cream at a time in my KitchenAid (I have a Professional 6), wrap the guard with a towel to prevent splattering, put it on the 6 speed setting, and beat it with the paddle you would use for making cookie dough. Depending on what the cow has been eating will determine how long it takes for the butter to separate. Sometimes it can take 45 minutes, other times 15 minutes. I always make sure the cream is at room temperature because it speeds up the separating process. When using a mixer to separate the butter from the buttermilk, really watch it at the end, because the buttermilk will splash all over the place. I ruined a radio that was sitting next to my KitchenAid. It got doused with buttermilk. Not good! Drain the buttermilk into a glass jar (I'll let you know what to do with that in a future post). Leaving the butter in the KitchenAid bowl, rinse and knead until the water is clear, then knead as much of the clear water out as possible. This prevents the butter from getting a sour taste over time. (Note: when cows are eating green grass, the butter is extremely soft.  I put the butter into the fridge for 10 or 15 minutes to get it hard enough to knead. When the cows are eating dry feed, the butter is firm even at room temperature). If you are going to salt the butter, add a tsp of sea salt to approximately a pound of butter (I use fine Celtic Sea Salt). Knead it in well.

Here is another tip I got from the comment section I got from Mrs. Yoder that I'm going to try: 
Thought I'd share a little tidbit that cuts down on butter washing time: after you drain off the buttermilk, put the butter in the blender with icy cold water (maybe a chunk or two of ice and some room temp water, or just cold water) and blend for about 30 seconds. Drain, add more water, repeat. Do this about 2-4 times and your butter is cleaner than anything else you can do to it and lasts forever since the buttermilk is all out. This method takes about 2 minutes versus 10-20 minutes of working if not longer. I sort of feel like I'm cheating, but then I see the results and I don't feel so bad!
You don't have to do this step, but I like to put my butter into a butter mold. It makes it easy to measure for recipes. My husband made me this one pound mold. It isn't fancy, but it works. I just pack the butter into the mold, smoothing down the top (my daughter eats any leftovers).On a piece of unbleached parchment paper big enough to wrap my 1 lb of butter, I flip the mold over and push the loose piece of wood out of the mold. The outside of the mold will be removed, so now all you need to do is slide a knife between the loose piece of wood and the butter to separate.Wrap your butter in the parchment paper, date and freeze if you aren't going to use it right away. Again, you don't need a mold, I just find it easier for measuring butter for recipes. You can shape butter anyway you'd like. I'll let you know what to do with the raw buttermilk soon, then we'll use that to make sour cream. So stay tuned...

If you have any questions, please leave a comment. Have a great day!

God Bless,
Jackie

26 comments:

Connie said...

My parents always waited until the cream was sour then made sour butter. I much prefer sweet butter.

Certainly brings back a lot of memories. Good for you!

Lisa said...

Very cool! I used to be part of a raw milk group, but haven't gotten milk from them in a long while. Once things get better financially, I'm going to try to get back to the raw milk and hopefully get some raw cream too, although it's very expensive. About $70 for a half gallon! :) I agree with you though. So much better for you. When I make the butter (speaking in faith here), I'll be sure and post about it and link to you. :)
Have a wonderful rest of the day!!

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Lisa,
Seriously $70???? That is OUTRAGEOUS! I wouldn't pay that either. I really appreciate it when local dairy farmers keep the price avordable to more people will want to buy raw milk. Currently, I'm paying $3 a gallon for milk. Luckily, there are some people on our drop that want skim milk, so I trade them milk for their cream. Everybody is happy that way. I also trade cheese for milk, which saves me a lot of money. I sure hope you can find a better deal on raw milk!

He & Me + 3 said...

Oh my word that looks so good and we love love love real butter. Remember making butter in the little baby jars. That was fun and so yummy

Anonymous said...

I just love 'raw' butter. The taste is so different from season to season. Lucky you. Ahhh, I miss it so.

with love,
Olivia

christy rose said...

That is so cool!!! I have just creamed whipping cream and added salt before to make some butter but nothing as cool as this. Thanks for showing this. I am inspired!

alexis said...

Hi Jackie! I just made 4 lbs. of fresh, raw butter on Monday...love it, nothing compares!

Kim @ Homesteader's Heart said...

This was just fascinating to me my friend. I wish I knew where I could buy raw cream!
Thanks for the tutorial!
Hugs
Kim

Lori said...

I grew up on a small mixed farm and we had a few dairy cow. We would take turns shaking the quart jar of cream. I like your method better.

Catherine said...

This brings back lots of memories for me too, Jackie. We always just took the cream off a gallon of Jersey cow's milk into a quart jar and shook it slowly while listening to the radio on Saturday night. And then we had fresh butter for our waffles on Sunday morning. We didn't use butter for much else, but we had desserts only on Sunday too.

Jen said...

Awesome Jackie, thanks for sharing.

Blessings,
JEN

Mich said...

Can I just say I am in awe of you...

I learn so much.

Anonymous said...

Yes! I like making butter too! I just don't have a mold.

Unknown said...

I HAVE got to find a way to get some raw milk! We have made butter with whipping cream before. But I would love to make my own! Thanks for inspiring me!

Haddock said...

Like that mould

Camille said...

SO COOL!!! I am going to bookmark this one Jackie! Thanks for taking the time to teach. OH...how I wish I was near enough to barter with you! :)

On another note...where do you find your unbleached parchment paper?

Have a lovely day my friend!
Love,
Camille

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Camille,
I get unbleached parchment paper from The Pampered Chef. They sell a good sized roll for a decent prices. Love it!

RaD said...

Sounds good. Again I say, I don't think I have the patience to do this but I like reading your posts about it.

Sarah said...

Wow...what a great 'How-To' post, Jackie! That seems very easy! We would love to make our own butter!

The only thing here in Ireland, is that the Irish government have made it illegal for any farmer to supply the 'public' with raw milk. They state that its for health and safety reasons; but it is only for financial gain for the Department of Agriculture! Some specialist 'state approved' raw milk cheese companies can use it but thats all! Its so unreasonable not let the public have the choice; and all our milk (even my organic brand) is pasturised and homogenised so there is no cream to skim off! *sigh* Lol!

However I appreciate you sharing your homemaking help and tips Jackie! Thank you

Camille said...

Thanks Jackie! I will have to check it out! :) And my mouth is still watering over your butter...how yummy it must be!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Camille

Patty said...

I would love to try this. I dropped over from "Flowers in His Garden" and I am so glad I did. I enjoyed my visit.

Anonymous said...

I would love to try this with goat milk!

Mrs Yoder said...

That is a wonderful butter mold! I keep looking at these molds that Lehman's has but they aren't big enough for me. 2 gallons of milk usually give enough cream for 1# of butter and I like to make it into bricks.

BTW, thought I'd share a little tidbit that cuts down on butter washing time: after you drain off the buttermilk, put the butter in the blender with icy cold water (maybe a chunk or two of ice and some room temp water, or just cold water) and blend for about 30 seconds. Drain, add more water, repeat. Do this about 2-4 times and your butter is cleaner than anything else you can do to it and lasts forever since the buttermilk is all out. This method takes about 2 minutes versus 10-20 minutes of working if not longer. I sort of feel like I'm cheating, but then I see the results and I don't feel so bad!

All the best,
Mrs. Yoder

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Mrs. Yoder,
That is an awesome butter making tip!
Thank you! Also, thanks for becoming a follower of my blog.

God Bless,
Jackie

Laura Bickmore said...

Hey jackie - I love your post, and I was wondering if you could help me? I separated some cream from my raw milk and put it in a jar in the fridge... and have procrastinated doing anything with it for two weeks! Now, said cream has turned SUPER thick! Maybe it is just part of it, but I dipped my finger in and felt like I was touching a thin-sour cream, not liquid. Is it still good? Any ideas on what to do with it? You can e-mail me at laura.of.music@gmail.com. :) Thank you for your help!!!

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Hi Laura. Well, it sounds like you just made sour cream  You can use it like you would for sour cream or you can turn it into butter. The butter will be sour, but that is how they used to do it in the old days, and of course it is better for you if it is soured. I like it, but my kids have a hard time eating butter made from soured cream. It would work great in certain recipes, though, like for mashed potatoes and such. Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Jackie

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