Homemade butter
Printed From: Foods of the World Forum
Category: Food Groups
Forum Name: Cheeses and other Dairy Products
Forum Discription: A place to discuss cheeses and other dairy products in general.
URL: http://foodsoftheworld.ActiveBoards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=1787
Printed Date: 26 March 2026 at 19:33
Topic: Homemade butter
Posted By: Marissa
Subject: Homemade butter
Date Posted: 28 February 2012 at 16:15
|
I'm new to the butter making world and certainly haven't settled on a 'best method' but I thought I would share my experience so far. We have dairy goats but goat milk is sometimes referred to as "naturally homogenized". What that means is, you need a cream separator to get any quantity of cream out...and they cost about $400. So, no goat cream around here. But recently we started buying raw cow milk too and seeing that thick cream sitting on top has me making butter! I poured half a gallon of raw, non-homogenized milk into a wide mouth jar and let it sit for about 24 hours (in the fridge). I probably could have gone longer, but I was a bit impatient. I don't really know how cow milk behaves, so I wasn't sure how long I needed to wait, but once I saw the cream line, I dove in. It's right about in the middle of the word "Ball".  I used a small ladle and just skimmed the surface of the milk until I could no longer see the cream line - it was starting to get mixed with the milk. I got just over a cup.  I'd planned on doing this in a jar and just shaking it since I don't have a butter churn or blender. But I saw online someone doing it with their upright mixer with whisk attachment so I gave that a shot. I definitely needed more cream to use such a big bowl and will keep that in mind next time. This took a really long time because of the small amount. After 10 or 15 minutes on medium speed, I finally had formed whipped cream. The instructions I read said this would happen and also included the comment "Don't get distracted, it's butter we are after." I didn't really get the comment until I saw the whipped cream...thought about the strawberries in the fridge...and drooled over how good that would be with my breakfast. But I resisted and let it keep going!  Another 15 or so minutes and it was decidedly more yellow in color and kinda 'gross' looking. I could tell the butter was separating out but it seemed like it was whipping it back in at the same time. I worried it would never make proper butter and wondered if I should strain it through cheese cloth.  I resisted the urge and sat down for breakfast (I had planned on using the butter to cook with, thinking it would only take 10 minutes, but couldn't wait). By the time I was done, it FINALLY separated out properly! Probably another 20 minutes.  I strained it (need to get a finer mesh strainer!) and then kneaded it in ice cold water to get the last of the buttermilk out (any left in there can cause a sour flavor...but I doubt our butter will last long enough for it to sour!). Just added a pinch of salt to the mix too.  Finally it was done and we had some toast and butter for breakfast dessert. Delicious!  I made a second batch this weekend. It was recommended to me to use the paddle attachment on the mixer so I tried that. I also used the cream from an entire gallon, meaning it was about 2.5 cups. Took TWO HOURS to make. So I'll either be using the whisk or something entirely different in the future. |
Replies:
Posted By: HistoricFoodie
Date Posted: 28 February 2012 at 19:01
| Can the cream be overbeaten? I dunno. But using a churn it typically takes only about 40 minutes to make butter. Two hours of whipping seems awfully excessive. |
Posted By: Marissa
Date Posted: 28 February 2012 at 19:04
| It was about 45 minutes with the whisk. And I didn't let it get to room temp before starting. I hadn't seen that recommendation for any of the stand mixer recipes, but it's always suggested for hand churning. So if I had done that, it probably would have taken less time. For the paddle though, I let the cream sit for 4 hours before making the butter and it still took 2 hours. I was determined to see if it would work though, so I let it keep going! |
Posted By: Margi Cintrano
Date Posted: 04 March 2012 at 07:59
|
Marissa,
I admire you for your efforts, passion and attempt to do this.
Thanx for posting and fotos.
Margi. ------------- Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina. |
Posted By: pitrow
Date Posted: 30 April 2012 at 09:22
|
I was planning on trying to make some cheese, so the other day I grabbed a 1/2 gallon of what I thought was whole milk, but I didn't look close enough. Turns out it was heavy cream. So rather than waste it, I figured I'd try to make butter out of it. I had read your post here Marissa, so I was dreading standing over the kitchenaid for 45 minutes, but much to my surprise I had butter in about 5 minutes. I had left the cream out of the counter to get warm and got side-tracked so it was out at room temp for about 3 hours when I got around to making the butter. Using the whisk attachment I slowly worked up through the speeds to not-quite top speed. Within about 3 minutes I had whipped cream and about the 5 minute mark it collapsed and turned to butter and buttermilk. I did have a heck of a time getting all the buttermilk out of the butter though. I read somewhere that it's easier to just pour off the buttermilk and add ice water to the mixer and let it mix the buttermilk out of the butter, repeating until the ice water doesn't get cloudy. But the butter kept sticking inside the whisk, and if I turned it up enough to keep it from doing that it made a huge mess. Next time I'll probably try the technique of kneading it in an ice water bath instead of in the mixer. Also, I'm not sure how you go about getting all the water out of the butter when you're done? I read to try kneading it on a clean towel, but it seems like the butter just melts and I can't get any water out without having the whole thing melt away. So I ended up making a ball out of it and wrapping it in paper towels and then sort of squishing and massaging it to get out what I could. I think there's still a fair amount of water left in it though. |
Posted By: Marissa
Date Posted: 30 April 2012 at 12:08
|
I've done this a couple times since this post. Letting the cream get to room temp and having ENOUGH to actually let the whisk do the work is the secret to butter in just a few minutes. But I can never go through the butter before it gets a sour taste and I always forgot to freeze it! So I've learned to just do the small amount and ignore the mixer for 30 minutes. To get all the liquid out, you just keep kneading and kneading the butter in a bowl of ice water. Seems counter intuitive, but it works. Get some butter paddles (I use wooden rice paddles) so you're hands don't warm up the butter. I've probably yet to get the butter really liquid free (that's why mine goes sour after about a week in the fridge) but I get enough that it behaves like commercial butter. Good luck with it! Are you going to try it again?
|
Posted By: pitrow
Date Posted: 30 April 2012 at 12:59
|
I think I got most of the buttermilk out eventually, but it sure was a pain in the you-know-where. I'm curious about the water in the butter though. I took some of it to grease my skillet to sear some steaks with last night and as it melted it sure seemed like there was an awful lot of water coming out as it melted. Do you find that also? I will definitely be doing it again, now that I know how easy it is. Probably try a couple different variations of compound butters. |
Posted By: Marissa
Date Posted: 30 April 2012 at 13:54
I do find mine to contain more liquid. I haven't really, REALLY tried to get it all out yet though. I've just read that you keep kneading and kneading and kneading. I usually use the butter for things that quantity or liquid content isn't critical so I just haven't had the motivation to work that hard.
 But I've been reading about people trying to use it for baking, where you really want to know how much butter is being used and that it has a 'normal' liquid content. When using butter the way I make it, people's cookies are runny, etc. But the only real suggestion is just to keep kneading with ice water - either by hand or back in the mixer like you tried. I haven't tried it back in the mixer mainly because it barely does the small batch and I doubt it would do much in the ice water! |
pitrow wrote:Posted By: Feather
Date Posted: 25 October 2012 at 11:22
|
Marissa--excellent post and I loved the pictures. When I made butter, I let the cream sit out at room temperature for at least 24 hours to give it some flavor and tang. Then, shaking it in a jar, it took less than an hour. Then we poured off the liquid and added some salt. I haven't found it to be cost saving but it sure is fun. Thank you for your excellent post w/pictures. ~Feather ------------- |