How To Make Butter

My maternal grandmother died when I was 10 years old.  Even though our time together was short, I have wonderful memories of her.  She and my grandfather lived on a farm, and she had cows, chickens, pigs, and a garden.  She was a “from scratch” cook.  One of the things I remember her making was butter from the huge amounts of pure, organic cream she got from the cows.  This week during a phone conversation with Mr. Right’s mother, she mentioned that my brother-in-law was making butter just for fun.  It sparked one of my memories of Grandma, and I decided to try my hand at it, too.  It is very easy, and I think you’ll agree.  Just think how impressed your family and friends would be if you served them homemade butter.

 

 

To make butter, you need one ingredient – heavy cream.  All you do is pour the cream (I used three cups) into a large jar.  If you want salted butter, add about 1/4 teaspoon at this time.

 

 

I wanted to be a traditionalist, and so, I decided to use the shaking method.  My grandmother had a glass butter churn that she used.  This would be the perfect activity for any teenager in your life.  They would get the opportunity to work off some energy because the only thing you do is shake the jar.  After half an hour of shaking, I only had whipped cream.  It took my brother-in-law an hour to get butter, but I decided to go to plan B.

 

I don’t have a teenager so I pulled out my Kitchenaid and poured the whipped cream into it.  I mixed it on medium speed for just a few minutes, and butter appeared.  This happens really fast.  You have whipped cream and then bam!  You have butter.  See the milk product there?  That’s butter milk.  I poured it into a cup to drink later.

 

Next, I put water into the mixer to wash the butter by mixing it on low speed for about 30 seconds.  This step is important so the butter will last longer.  Remember this is pure and has no preservatives.

 

Then I put a paper towel in a strainer and poured the butter/water mixture in.  This was a great time to have a sink in my pantry.  It really came in handy.  When the water drained out, I squeezed the paper towel around the butter to get the remaining water out.  I was surprised by how much there was.

 

It then looked like this until I formed it into a shape using a soup bowl as my mold.

 

It made a big chunk of butter.  Since we don’t use it all of the time, I will freeze half of it for later.  Sometimes the butter we buy in stores is more yellow because food coloring has been added.  Homemade butter is a creamy color.

 

It has come in handy already.  Mr. Right and I enjoyed a rare treat of buttered popcorn while we watched basketball games on television.  I loved adding a dollop of butter to the top.

 

After our big snow fall that same day, I walked to a new French bakery in our neighborhood and bought a loaf of eight-grain bread just so I could spread some of our butter on it.  Yum.  And by the way, that bakery makes me feel as if I’m in France.  I will definitely be blogging about it.

 

 

Take care and have a great week-end.