How To Make Butter

My first experience making butter was the first semester at BYU.  Janet, Jill, and I lived on the same floor and were among the few not going home for Thanksgiving.  We opted to cook our own feast, roasting the turkey and mashing potatoes and making rolls.  Of course, we had to make the butter, too.  As I recall, Janet just had us shake the carton of whipped cream and then add some salt to the solids.  Turns out, there’s a little more to it than that if you want the best butter.

I’ve been working my way through the gallons of raw milk Ellie brought to us last week.  Yesterday I pasteurized a gallon of milk and then made yogurt with it.  Then it was time to begin making butter for the first time for real—not just shaking the carton or messing up and overwhipping the cream, but a genuine effort to produce perfect butter. 

I began by pasteurizing the cream.  It’s the exact same process as for pasteurizing milk.  After the cream sat at 165°F for a minute (it only needed to be at 161°F for 15 seconds, but I decided to provide a little buffer for a margin of error), I plunged the pan into an ice water bath.  Fortunately, I had a lot to do in the kitchen yesterday, so stirring the cream every few minutes to reduce the temperature more quickly wasn’t difficult.  Once it reached 40°F, I put it in the food processor to whip it up.  And it didn’t really do anything after a few minutes.  Was the cream still not cold enough?  Or did I need more patience?  Not sure.

So I put the cream in the refrigerator and waited a few hours, until after dinner.  And then I chose to follow the directions explicitly. 

Use a hand mixer, stand mixer, food processor, or blender.  I went with my food processor.

Pour the cold cream in and blend on high speed.  After a few minutes, you’ll have whipped cream.  Then it becomes overwhipped and begins to deflate as it releases the watery buttercream.  Blend a little longer until you’ve got a nice pool of liquid.  This part of the process should take 5-10 minutes, depending on the speed of your appliance.

Pour off the buttermilk.  Note that this is not like cultured commercial buttermilk.  You’ll need to add an acid like vinegar or lemon juice if you want to use it to replace commercial buttermilk in baking. 

If you’re eating the butter right away, then you can stop here.  However, if you’d like it to last a little while before spoiling, the butter needs to be rinsed.

Scrape the butter into a bowl of very cold or ice water.  Release additional buttermilk by squeezing and kneading the butter, changing the water as necessary until the water is clear. 

Now it’s time to salt the butter.  A scant 1/8 teaspoon is about right if you started with 2 cups of cream.  But don’t add all of it.  Start with half that amount and then taste.  Add the remaining salt until the flavor suits you. 

Finally, wrap your butter into a cube or press it into molds.  Enjoy within one week or freeze it up to three months.

Note that while my homemade butter is a beautifully creamy yellow--just like store-bought, that color is due to being from a Jersey cow.  Most dairy cows yield cream that is a bit lighter and commercially sold butter often has food coloring added to it. 

Links to related posts:

Thick, Creamy Yogurt 

How To Pasteurize Milk