Monday, May 28, 2012

Put Some Butter On It!!

     You might say I have a slight obsession with dairy products.  You might also say I look like Gisele Bundchen but you'd be wrong and maybe a little high.  It's not so much milk itself I'm obsessed with, but the things you can do with it.  I've been making my own yogurt for a while now.  I haven't bought a tub of whipped cream in years.  I gave you a peek into my foray into cheese making (I want to try cream cheese next.)  And I have been known on occasion to buy a pint of cream to make butter.  I seriously just need to suck it up and buy a couple of cows.  Cows won't scratch up my hardwood floor much, right?

     I can't even begin to tell you how simple it is to make butter.  Which is to say, I totally can tell you exactly how simple it is.  It's extremely simple.  All you need is two bowls, a mixer, a strainer, a spatula, and some salt which is optional.  Start with heavy cream.  This one looks lumpy, I know.  The brand I buy is a local one and almost always has a heavy plug of cream at the top of the bottle.  I know they don't homogenize their milk.  I don't know if the plug is a result of that or because it travels far enough to begin churning in the bottle on the way to the store.  At any rate, it doesn't effect the outcome at all.

     Start whipping your cream at the top speed of a mixer.  This stage is whipped cream.  You could stop here if you want.  I encourage you to actually...  Stop, taste it, wonder why anyone would ever buy store-bought whipped cream. Forge ahead.

A moment later it will cease to be whipped cream.  It's crazy how fast this happens, actually...

Almost done here at the "scrambled eggs" stage.  Notice how much yellower the cream has gotten.  I swear, there's nothing here but cream!

At this point, the milk begins to separate from the cream.  You're almost done! This process from pouring the cream to milk separation takes about 5 minutes.  Maybe less.

At this point, drain the buttermilk out of the butter.  Keep it!  It's great for cooking with!  I pressed mine a little with a wooden spatula not enough to mash the butter through the strainer, but enough to push out a good bit of milk.

     You can stop here if you like.  It tastes fantastic!  I find that butter at this stage will only keep for a few days.  Of course, it's so delicious you will probably eat it up before it goes bad anyway.  If you'd like to save yourself from needing to eat a half pound of butter by yourself in two days, that's where washing comes in.

 Pour cold water over your butter and push the butter with a wooden spatula, wooden spoon, or rubber spatula to squeeze out as much buttermilk as you can.  I actually bought this spatula specifically for butter making but you certainly don't have to.

 Drain and rinse again.

This is how the final rinse will look.  You can see the water is very clear and I'm not getting any more out when I squish it with my spatula.

     For a little more longevity insurance, I add 1/4 tsp sea salt.  The amount of salt you will want to use varies with the type of salt you have.  Try an 1/8th of a teaspoon first and then add more to your liking.  I store mine on my counter in a butter crock which keeps it soft without going bad for up to a week and sometimes a week and a half if it lasts that long.  You can also keep it in the freezer if you want to keep it for months at a time.  One pint of cream yielded 3/4 C buttermilk and 7 oz of butter this time, though yours may vary some.

 You just made butter, my friend!

Quit drooling and go make some already!

18 comments:

  1. how interesting! i love all the step-by-step photos! thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting. I know this doesn't really work for a vegan... It's too bad there's not more cream in soy milk... =)

      Delete
  2. Haha! Love the line about Gisele! The whole post kept me giggling, actually. This is neat! I've always wanted to try making my own yogurt too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you liked it! I'm thinking about doing a yogurt post soon if I can ever get to making yogurt before the sun goes down!

      Delete
  3. Loved this post and the pictures :) This'll be a great activity to do with my 4yo next rainy day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure your little one will love it. It really is amazing to see how quickly it comes together!

      Delete
  4. I vote for high. But can I take the bread and butter with me?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure it will come in handy for the munchies... =)

      Delete
  5. I get my milk delivered by a local farm, so this week I added heavy cream to the order, specifically to make butter. (Well, also whipped cream, because whipped cream is amazing and delicious on strawberries)
    It shocked me how quickly it went from curdly lookin' cream to butter and buttermilk.
    And OH MY GOD, it is so good. It is SO. GOOD.
    Especially on homemade sourdough bread. And homemade fluffy buns. And everything else.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am so glad you gave it a try! It really does go from cream to butter in no time. I imagine those old timey ladies who had to make butter in their churns shaking their fists at us from Heaven. "You could make this in 5 minutes! Why do you buy it from the store?!" And then, you know, going off to play harps with Elvis, because really, who wouldn't rather be doing that?

      Delete
  6. I want a cow, too...maybe someday! What a terrific post - I love your step-by-step process. Homemade butter is seriously delicious, as is whipped cream (I have no control around a bowl of whipped cream, especially with a little creme fraiche mixed in). And yes, I am drooling over your bread and butter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We aught to go in on one together, Hannah. I wonder if they have cow shares...

      Delete
  7. Hey Brook,
    You just totally brought me back. Curt and I never wanted to have cake at our wedding. (Were not really cake people) So my mother in law, maid of honor and I made about 10 different herbed butters by hand a few days before the wedding. We packed them in wax paper and decorated the tops with edible flowers. So our wedding desert consisted of a variety of hand made breads from our favorite bakery, about 20 different flavored jams from our farmers markets, and our hand made butter. It was epic. The best part of it was that we simply froz the left overs and had amazing butter to live on for the rest of the year...... Lord knows we needed that after paying for our wedding.. lol But honestly, I have no idea why the heck we went back to buying normal butter.... The buttermilk you pull off of your own butter is simply amazing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And now I want a time machine so I can go back and be your friend in time to be invited to your butter wedding! How awesome is that?!

      Delete
  8. First homemade cheese, now homemade butter! What's next? Are you going to sew your own shoes? Because if so, I'd like to put in an order :) That last pic, by the way, is to die for!! GORGEOUS, holy cow butter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not shoes. Unless one can eat shoes. Then I might try making shoes... Besides I understand you know someone who has that talent already! =)

      Delete
  9. I've just made butter with some cream that I didn't know what to do with it and OMG. I was about to cry when the cream turned into butter...it was a-ma-zing!!!!!! Thank you so much! I'm going to do it over and over again for the rest of my life. Oh yeeaaahhhh!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What better way to use up left over cream? I'm glad you liked it!

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...