Homemade butter. So easy.

I love good butter. Turns out it is so easy to make it's completely trivial. Seriously, it's harder to make Kraft mac&cheese.

1). Get some good heavy cream. Pasteurized is better than UltraPasteurized. (The ultra has a cooked flavor to my taste.)

2). Pour it in the food processor and whiz for about a minute. It will progress from whipped cream to way-too-thick whipped cream to butterfat separating out very quickly! I've read you can use a hand-held mixer, but it takes longer.

3). Pour into a strainer over a bowl (to catch the (REAL!) buttermilk.

4). Knead the butter into a ball, and pour ice water over it a few times and knead some more to get the last of the buttermilk out. It will spoil faster if you don't do this, supposedly, not that I've had it hanging around long enough to find out.

5). add some salt if you want

6) mmmmmmm, butter

I paid $3.50 for a quart of cream and it makes about a pound of butter, so it's about the same price as Land-O-Lakes. Plus a few cups of buttermilk which I used to make some challah bread.

I did it once with the cream right out of the bottle and it was very good. The next time I cultured the cream by leaving it on the counter overnight with a big spoonful of plain yoghurt stirred into it (it thickens and ferments a little into kind of creme fraiche), which makes "cultured" rather than "sweet" butter which is really good.

Seriously, yum.

I remember one time in elementary school we put cream in a shaker container, passed it around with all off us giving it a shake until we wound up with butter. Very nice when fresh.

DFrancis said:

I remember one time in elementary school we put cream in a shaker container, passed it around with all off us giving it a shake until we wound up with butter. Very nice when fresh.

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Yup, same here. Fun times.

DFrancis said:

I remember one time in elementary school we put cream in a shaker container, passed it around with all off us giving it a shake until we wound up with butter. Very nice when fresh.

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I was just going to write that - we did that too!

I will definitely try this making butter and it reminds me of how easy it is to make your own mayonnaise (or aioli, if mayo seems too pedestrian).

Roger

MAITRE D'HOTEL BUTTER:

Ingredients
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, left at room temperature until very soft
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves
• 2 tablespoons minced Italian (flat-leaf) parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1-1/2 teaspoons minced shallots
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Combine all ingredients together in a medium-size mixing bowl, whisking until well blended.

Serving Suggestion
Use immediately, or roll in waxed or parchment paper into a log that is about 5 inches long and 1-1/4 inches in diameter, then wrap the log snugly in plastic wrap. The butter will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or frozen for up to two months.

DFrancis said:

I remember one time in elementary school we put cream in a shaker container, passed it around with all off us giving it a shake until we wound up with butter. Very nice when fresh.

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yeah those were the days when teachers could actually do something like that and not have to worry about getting their @$$e$ sued off.

Shoot. And I just bought a few pounds from sams club!

I want to try this.

I've been making my butter this way for about 6 months. It's fun and in general about the same price as store bought butter. I get my heavy cream from a local dairy that's so thick it puts any other cream I've bought to shame.

I make my in my stand mixer with a whisk attachment. It takes about 10 minutes to get to butter. I have to be careful with the whisk attachment as I can go from butter to whipped butter really fast.

I made a little wood box that's the same size as a stick of butter. I weight out 4 oz. of butter and press it into the box, making a stick of butter. I do a lot of baking so it's nice to have butter in stick form for easy measuring.

I'll have to try rolling the butter to get out the buttermilk. I've tried pressing out with a screen or cheesecloth, but neither of them completely removes the buttermilk.

Blue58 said:

yeah those were the days when teachers could actually do something like that and not have to worry about getting their @$$e$ sued off.

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I used to have peanut butter sandwiches too.

Blue58 said:

yeah those were the days when teachers could actually do something like that and not have to worry about getting their @$$e$ sued off.

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I'm a fairly young guy and remember doing this as well. I'm also a lawyer and don't know why a butter making demonstration, even one where the kids participate, would result in anyone getting sued. In fact I suspect it's still used to show kids how butter is made in science classes and/or history classes in a lot of schools.

Kouros said:

MAITRE D'HOTEL BUTTER:

Ingredients
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, left at room temperature until very soft
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves
• 2 tablespoons minced Italian (flat-leaf) parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1-1/2 teaspoons minced shallots
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Combine all ingredients together in a medium-size mixing bowl, whisking until well blended.

Serving Suggestion
Use immediately, or roll in waxed or parchment paper into a log that is about 5 inches long and 1-1/4 inches in diameter, then wrap the log snugly in plastic wrap. The butter will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or frozen for up to two months.

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We make this when we grill T-bones and filets. (Can also add a little sour cream if you like) Pull it out of the freezer, slice off a quarter inch or so and put it on the hot steak. Delish.

I love making butter like this. We taught the kids how to do this a couple summers ago. I love drinking the butter milk after it is done. So yummy. Not like the buttermilk you buy in the store. That stuff tastes like watered down sour cream.

TheVez2 said:

I love making butter like this. We taught the kids how to do this a couple summers ago. I love drinking the butter milk after it is done. So yummy. Not like the buttermilk you buy in the store. That stuff tastes like watered down sour cream.

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That's because commercially sold buttermilk isn't really buttermilk at all. It's a fermented or cultured milk product, usually at 1-2% fat. So watered down sour cream is a very accurate description.