How to Make Butter

The other morning I stumbled out into the kitchen to find my precious half gallon of cream sitting on the counter - not in the fridge. The cream had been sitting out all nite. It was only half used so someone around here, who is not me, was In Trouble. Dang.

Arty butter making picture.

So instead of getting mad I just got busy and made butter. Can you make butter at home? Sure! It's so easy peasy you might never buy regular butter again.  Why go thru "all that trouble" to make butter? Um... it's no trouble, it's fun, and you get a superior product.

All you need to make butter at home. Or a jar. You could use just a jar and shake it.

Most instructions say to let the cream come up to room temperature and since that was already done I just dumped the whole thing into my mixer with the balloon whisk attachment. Then I just turned it on low and walked away. But don't go too far! You need to watch or listen for it to be done.

Pretty soon you'll get whipped cream... then you are getting closer to butter...

You are even closer still when it starts to get grainy....

Done!

And then finally it "breaks" - this is when the butter fat all clumps together and the liquid separates. You can hear this happen - when the mixer starts to slosh around - so run right over and turn the speed way down.

I let it mix a minute more just until the butter all formed up on the whisk.

Pour off the "butter milk" and put the butter into a sieve so you can "wash" it with cold water. You want the water to run clear. This sounds weird but it totally works. Use a spoon to kind of squish the butter around to make sure all the liquid releases.

You get butter and butter milk (not the cultured kind) that can be used for cooking.

Then the only thing to do is get some radishes and dig in.

See? Making your own butter is easy and fun. You don't need special equipment - you can even just shake it in a jar (or get the kids to do it).

One thing to be on the look out for - check the label on your cream. Is it JUST cream - or are there stabilizers in it? Check the label to make sure it just has cream in it.

If you think it's weird that the cream in your coffee isn't just cream - remember that some folks still want the FDA to allow aspartame and other weird stuff to be added to dairy products WITHOUT LABELING IT. That's right - your kid's chocolate milk could be chock full of who knows what if this passes. Maybe you should run right over and tell them what you think.

So there you have it - how to make butter at home. It's fun and easy!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Did you find your cream sitting on your counter? Don't get mad just make some butter.