I Just Made Butter!!!!

[psychgirl]

It turned out great!! I saew a recipe in our paper called: Jar Butter" and had to try. All you do is:

1. Get heavy cream, however much you want
2. salt to taste
3. some kind of plastic container with a lid
4. A marble (what you're supposed to use )

Pour the cream into the container, add salt, and the marble. (I didn't have any marbles and wasn't about to buy them, so I found a round rock in the yard and washed it well...ya make do, right?)

Then put the lid on and shake for 15 minutes until the mixture starts to pull away from the insides of the container. You'll be able to tel this part easily. The shaking does take it out of you though.

Then, open, pour off the liquid and "voila!"...BUTTER!! I put the butter ball in my hands to shape it, then into a small deli container before the last step which is to put it into the refrigeratot to finish firming up...

IT WORKED! .... tastes good, so my idea is to make some for Christmas gifts with different seasonings like chives or garlic, or maybe cinnamon and sugar.

Try it!

[Faroe]

Works in a glass mason jar without the marble, too.
I have had two failures. Maybe the cream was ultra pasturized? maybe it was the hot weather?

Tasty stuff.

[Warm Wisconsin]

What was your cost, and how much did you end up with? Is it cheaper than buying butter?

It seems really simple to do. I appreciate you posting this.

[psychgirl]

I don't usually have cream around, so I just bought the smallest size available, whatever that is. It was $2.19. It didn't make much but I was experimenting, to be honest, so... Hmm...maybe the equivalent to one stick?

[Faroe]

Yeah, WW. Don't stress about it. Just get some and try it. Results in 2/3rd's to 3/4er's butter. You can drink the butter milk left over, or give it to the pets.

[Summerthyme]

I hope you rinsed it well.

If you don't rinse out ALL the buttermilk, it will turn into some of the worst stuff you've EVER imagined in about 3-4 days. Heating it smells unimaginably bad.

You need to press and "work" the new butter under cold running water (or in a bowl of cold water) until the water no longer shows any cloudiness. Or else use it up in 1-2 days.

Congratulations for trying a new skill, though! I just hate for you to find out the hard way what happens if it's not thoroughly rinsed!

And no, it's definitely NOT cheaper than buying butter! Heavy cream is around 35% butterfat. Which means you get around 1/3 of a pound from a pint of heavy cream. You do the math...

Summerthyme

[Faroe]

Thanks for the heads up. Good to know.

Back when I could still eat my own sourdough, I don't think that butter ever lasted past dinner.

Summerthyme, do you ever feel here like you still have a house full of kids? ...next post, we'll all probably be enthusing about picking wild mushrooms.

[Warm Wisconsin]

Well now I know what to do with extra butter milk we do not use!

This is great - Thanks everyone for sharing.

[Snow Angle]

I remember as a child my Grandmother used to put the cream in an electric mixer and made butter that way too. It worked.

[Disastercat]

And, while it may not be cheaper than buying butter, it is a fun skill to have and a nice change to have good, fresh butter. We've finally got a real, honest to goodness, local organic dairy that is doing butter too. I just got some and butter is so high in cost right now that buying the organic (old fashioned style) is not much more expensive that regular butter. I can't afford it for everything, but for putting directly on bread or potatoes it is wonderful!

We are thinking of getting extra around Yule to make shortbread, I'll probably use some of that for gifts.

If you get the rinsing part down (I haven't really made much butter myself, just helped in demos); for gifts you might consider mixing the butter with honey, or herbs and giving people small blocks of each (plain, honey-butter and herb-butter). For close friends and family add some home made rolls (or even store bought crackers) and you would have a lovely gift basket (for really close family/friends I might add some cheese as well, store bought or home-made).