Do you purchase butter or oleo? If you purchase butter do you purchase organic, Amish, name brand, or some other type? Do you purchase salted or unsalted? Have you ever tried to make your own? It’s easy. You just need whipping cream and either a stand mixer or blender. (I used my stand mixer). Are you ready? Here’s my 1/2 gall on of whipping cream from a local dairy about 100 miles from our house. (You can use just a 1/2 pint or pint of cream if you’d prefer)
Pour your cream into your stand mixer (or blender)…no more than 1 quart at a time. Start mixing or blending on a low speed and as the cream thickens increase the speed.
After a while (5-10 minutes) it will go from being a thick cream consistency and will begin to look chunky.
Now look, it now has chunky yellow “beads” floating in liquid. This is your butter floating in buttermilk.
Now, pour off the buttermilk (save this..it tastes good and is good for cooking). Then, add some COLD water to your bowl and stir on low. Look how the mixing in the cold water has helped the butter clump together.
Now, it is any buttermilk that is left behind in the butter that will cause it to go bad in about a week. If you would like to save it and have it last longer you need to rinse it more. Just take a clump and knead it under cold running water.
I then took a cookie sheet and lined it with waxed paper. Then I measured the butter into 1/4 cup “balls”.
I placed this cookie sheet into the freezer. I then placed the 1/4 cup butter balls into a freezer safe container so I can either use these for baking purposes or just defrost one ball at a time for other cooking use. (My 1/2 gallon of whipping cream made 3 1/4 cups of butter and 2 3/4 cups buttermilk).
UPDATE 2/19/2013: I found that using a food processor to churn your butter works very well. It is quick and since there is a lid, there is little mess.
4you
Amy Osterhout
Wow! I am impressed, I never realized that was all there was to making butter!
Amy @ http://yellowhouseon3rd.blogspot.com/
The Better Baker
Very cool! I’m impressed too.
Inspired By Felicity
Wow, this is much simpler than I would have thought. It would be fun to do this with my daughter when she gets a bit bigger.
-Pamela
Anne @ Domesblissity
You know, I’ve never tried this Marilyn. My Nanna made it all the time when they had their dairy farm. No choice but to really. I’d love to give it a try. Tell me, are you going to do a tutorial on ricotta? I’d love to have a go at making this as I eat a lot of it. (PS Love all your linky parties at the bottom of your blog. Might have to copy that idea, if that’s okay?)
Anne xx
Kari
We usually just buy a big think of butter sticks at Costco but I may be trying this soon-it seems like it would save money (which is something we love to do!). Thanks so much for sharing this Marilyn!
Kari
Newlyweds on a Budget
Terry
I must try this. We don’t eat a lot of butter anymore (trying to lose more than a few pounds) so when we do , it would be great if it really counted. I bet this tastes amazing compared to what we’re used to. Thanks for the tutorial and for sharing at our party this week.
Angie Ouellette-Tower
How totally cool!! – I can’t wait to try this!
I am your newest follower through “Inspired by Felicity” Link Party.
Thanks
Angie
http://www.godsgrowinggarden.blogspot.com
Happier Than a Pig in Mud
Sounds like a fun project, might just give it a try:@)