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How to Make Butter

May 12, 2010 by Joy the Baker 202 Comments

How to Make Butter

We do have butter to talk about today, but first I hope you’ll indulge me in allowing me to write an open letter to my little sister Lauren.

Dear Lauren,

This afternoon I found a card that you wrote me on January 1, 2000.  That’s right.  I found a ten year old thank you note from you.

Here it is.

How to Make Butter

You open the letter by saying “Happy New Year!”  This seems sweet and appropriate.  Well played.

Your next sentence gets slightly strange.  You write “Would you be surprised to know that this card was painted by a kitten?… NO!… a very small kitten? …NO!… 10,000?  5,000?  10,000 kittens?”

To answer your question, dear sister… yes, I would be very surprised to find out that this card was paw painted by 10,00 small kittens.  Yes.  That would be weird.  Also, I appreciate you liberal use of punctuation.

How to Make Butter

I also found this picture with the card.  This is about the age you surpassed me in cuteness, as I seem to be rocking a girl mullet and no teeth.  So… that happened.

I just thought I’d take this opportunity to remind you of how awesomely strange you are.  And to let you know that you’re still way cuter than me too… but I have more teeth and less mullet now.

I love you sister.  Go make some butter.

Love,

Joy

How to Make Butter

We’re making butter?  Why on earth would we do that when it’s so neatly packaged in the grocery store?  Well… because we can, that’s why.  We’re taking a few cups of organic heavy whipping cream and turning it into gorgeous butter… because we can and we should.

You’ll need a stand mixer fit with a whisk attachment for this sort of adventure.  Ready?  Let’s make butter.

How to Make Butter

When we make butter we’re agitating the fat in cream so much that we force the fat globules in the cream to separate from their liquid neighbors, and clump together to form butter.  It’s like making whipped cream… times 10.

Start with two cups of organic heavy whipping cream in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a whisk attachment.  Turn the mixer on low and begin to work the cream.  As the cream thickens, turn the mixer up to medium.

How to Make Butter

You will most likely recognize this stage of cream.  Supe silky, stiff whipped cream.  Don’t get distracted… we want butter not whipped cream.  Keep mixing!

How to Make Butter

That is some gnarley looking whipped cream.  Here you can see the fat globules starting to clump together to form a curdled looking cream.  We’re halfway there.  Keep that mixer on medium and watch science turn cream into butter.

How to Make Butter

How to Make Butter

After about 9 minutes of serious mixer action you might wonder if somehow you’ve messed something up.  And then…  you see clumpy curds in milky liquid.  No no!  This is a good sign!  You might want to slow your mixer down a bit to prevent buttermilk from splashing all over everywhere.

How to Make Butter

Now is a great time to drain the butter curds from the liquid.  Use a strainer and a mixing bowl and gently press some of the excess water out of the butter.  Return the butter to the mixing bowl and whisk again on medium speed.  You want to get as much of the water out as possible.

How to Make Butter

Once returned to the bowl for the second mixing, the butter really starts to come together.  That’s some good lookin’ butter.  Return to the strainer and press as much water out as possible.

** Here’s a note from reader Natalie.  She seems to know what she’s talking about when it comes to this stage in butter making.  Give it a rinse.  I didn’t… but then again, I ate the whole thing in just a few days… Do. Not. Judge.**

     My mother grew up on a farm and a trick that she taught me was that after you got all the excess water out if you will rinse it in ice water (I am talking about water that is so cold you can hardly keep your hands in it) and kneed it a little the water will normally turn cloudy and you can change the water once or twice until as you kneed the water stays clear. This way your butter will last longer in the fridge and wont get that sour milk smell. After that you can as salt or what ever you wish.

Now that you have butter, you can add all sorts of things to it.  Start with 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt and add more to your taste.  You might also like to throw in some fresh herbs.  You’ll definitely need some fresh bread.  Right away.  Enjoy your butter.  It will last for a week well wrapped in your fridge.

How to Make Butter

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kristin

    November 23, 2013 at 7:38 pm

    I just made this and it turned out great! If you are mixing and mixing and mixing for a long time and nothing seems to be happening, don’t fret, just turn the mixer up to a little higher speed. It will do it’s magic eventually. :)

    Reply
  2. Jonathan Mizrahi

    August 4, 2013 at 6:32 pm

    We made today Smoked Paprika and flur de cel butter and a Himilyan salted butter. Great recipe…

    Reply
  3. Norm Waldheger

    July 28, 2013 at 9:05 am

    Hello everyone!
    Baby, our goat here in NM is producing half a gallon of sweet milk per day. Did you know that as long as you keep your milk goat away from any rams in rut, the milk will be as yummy as any organic goat milk? Its true. No GOATY taste at all.
    So, now we are making butter. Thats for showing us how. For those of you who really want to save money, do the math. half gallon of organic milk per day, butter, cheese yogurt, all delicious and easy. One $14 bale of hay per month.

    Reply
  4. Chellee

    July 17, 2013 at 4:08 pm

    Reading the argument on organic vs. not. I am a certified food inspector in the US and a past organic farm hand. I buy everything organic as what makes for example eggs organic is the hens are never given growth hormones and are free reign, as in not caged up. Not even fenced however they are aloud to be closed in a well vented chicken coop at night to protect them from fox and such on. Cows are aloud any antibiotics or medication needed. No growth hormones an “fake food” which means not growth hormones for the consumer as well! If you have not heard it before, “when diet is wrong medication is on no use, when diet is correct medication is of no need.” Organic animals suffer less from abuse as well as illness as they build antibodies from a heathy diet!

    Reply
  5. Janet W

    July 9, 2013 at 8:51 am

    I just made this, and it is AWESOME! My kids can’t get enough!

    Reply
  6. Alyssa

    June 6, 2013 at 9:05 pm

    I just tried this and IT WORKED!!!

    I used what we call “whipping cream” here in Canada, which is 35%. I also added the salt at the start. IT’S GREAT!
    Why/how does it turn yellow like that?
    So cool – thanks!

    Reply
  7. Kathleen

    May 27, 2013 at 4:32 pm

    What uses can be made of the by-product of making butter, that is, true “buttermilk”? I use it for making pancakes, but are there other uses you would suggest. I have bought a very large quantity of raw cream this month to take advantage of the especially high nutrient value of spring butter, so I have a very large quantity of real buttermilk. Thank you very much.

    Reply
  8. saffy

    May 3, 2013 at 8:35 am

    omg, i made this today, i used double cream which i had bought reduced in the supermarket for 30p and now i have gorgeous homemade butter for 30p…….i’ll never buy butter again!!

    Reply
  9. Fionavar

    January 30, 2013 at 4:26 pm

    I want to try making butter but I don’t have a fancy stand mixer like most people… could I do this with just a hand immersion blender, or a whisk?

    Reply
    • joythebaker

      April 3, 2013 at 11:57 am

      You can put it into a mason jar and shake it vigorously. That would probably be better than a whisk.

      Reply
  10. Greg mcculley

    December 28, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    This works pretty well with a mason jar as well. Takes some effort, about 7 mins. Just when you are about to give up, keep at it and suddenly ” bam!” Curds of butter appear floating in whey. Very neat experience. We mixed ours with honey.

    Reply
  11. Jonathan G

    December 8, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    For the past month or so I have been making butter from raw cream. I think I am doing everything right…. it’s definitely all cream. I skim the milk and put the cream into another jar. I let the jar sit for several days and re-skim. I them let the cream warm up to room temperature before mixing. Anyway, it has been taking an average of an hour in my KitchenAid stand mixer, at full speed the whole time. Any idea what might be going wrong?

    Reply
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Trackbacks

  1. links i love » Brown Sugar Toast says:
    March 21, 2014 at 6:15 am

    […] make your own butter? I don’t really know, but I want to find out. Because it sounds […]

    Reply
  2. » Homemade cream products says:
    July 31, 2013 at 12:47 pm

    […] If you Google “homemade butter” you’ll find all sorts of recipes, ideas, and tips.  I primarily used the one from Joy the Baker. […]

    Reply
  3. Homemade Butter | Kimmy's Bake Shop says:
    April 27, 2013 at 3:29 pm

    […] Homemade Butter (makes 8 oz of butter) Followed the directions from Joy the Baker […]

    Reply
  4. Did I make butter, or something else? | MQ says:
    November 17, 2012 at 8:57 am

    […] the contents of each jar into a mixing bowl, and used an electric mixer, per the instructions here, but it made no real difference, except to move the stuff around, so I finished off the batch by […]

    Reply

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