Wednesday 23 September 2020

How To Make Butter.

 Making butter is a very simple task to do.  I remember making butter in primary school by passing around a glass jar with cream and a marble inside.  Every child got a turn in shaking the jar to turn it's contents into butter.  We then spread a little butter on a dry biscuit and enjoyed our hard work.

Fast forward 40 + years and I'm now making butter once or twice a week thanks to an abundance of free cream I had access to recently. Due to it's very short use by date I've had to freeze the cream to prevent wastage.

 If you don't have access to free cream then you'll need to buy thickened ( pouring ) cream at a heavily reduced price to make it worth your while - money wise. During the butter making process you'll loose about 60% of the cream weight when it separates into buttermilk and butter.

I've been using 3 x 300 ml bottles of cream totaling 900 mls. Out of the 900 mls  of cream I get 365 grams of butter which is 40% of the total weight.  The rest of the weight is buttermilk.

Here's how I make butter -

* Pour 3 x 300 ml bottles of cream into a stand mixer bowl.  Scrape the bottles clean. If you don't have a stand mixer then use a hand held electric beater and a large bowl.  

*  Add 5 level teaspoons of salt to the cream for flavour.  This is optional and you can add or delete to taste.

*  Beat the cream until it turns yellow and separates into small clumps of butter.  The texture looks like scrambled eggs.  You'll notice liquid down the bottom of the bowl.  This is buttermilk and can be used in baking and cooking. This process can take 10 - 15 minutes depending on your beaters and longer if the cream was frozen ( and defrosted ).

*  Place a clean chux cloth,  cheesecloth or muslin over a large bowl and spoon in 1/3 of the butter .  

*  Gather up all sides of the material,  twist then squeeze out all the remaining liquid. 

*  Place the butter in a clean container.

*  Repeat the process until all the butter has been squeezed and drained.

*  Store in the fridge until needed.  I keep two containers in the fridge as a stockpile and one in the pantry for use.

*  Pour the buttermilk into a jug,  cover and store in the fridge until needed.  I've use it to make mashed potato.  Others use it in cake and muffin baking.

The finished product

When the cream separates into butter and buttermilk

Draining the butter

Unwrapping the cloth

Have you made butter before ?

7 comments:

  1. I would really like to try this, Wendy. I will keep an eye out for cream at reduced prices.
    MegXx

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  2. I have made butter many times. Have gone into my children's school and made bread and butter.

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  3. Thanks Wendy, I was curious as to how you made this. I'll keep an eye out for specials!
    Ree

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  4. Never tried to make butter,it will be on my to do list for sure :)
    Melzzs

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  5. Thanks very much for this post Wendy. I’ve always wanted to know how to make butter, and your description and photos are very simple to follow, great use of cheap cream as butter is so expensive. I cook a lot and nothing beats the taste of butter.

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  6. years ago when i lived with my best friend on her farm, she had a milking cow, we used to make the butter out of the 'leftover' cream (that wasn't used for other things & was several days old) but she had this wonderful old butter churner we used to take turns on; i must admit i do miss that ... butter always tasted great
    lovely post
    thanx for sharing

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  7. Wendy ...... seriously? You made butter? Oh how I love you. Nothing beats fresh butter on homemade bread!

    P.S. When are you going to write a book??

    Vicky

    ReplyDelete

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