We just made butter!!!

[Milims]

Just wanted to share. We made butter today - out of reduced to clear cream and lots of shaking in a jar (good aerobic exercise)!! It goes wonderfully on the fresh bread that Chris made. Boy do we feel wholesome!!! Yeah ok so its cheating to buy the cream but its the closest we can get!!!

[Muddypause]

I'm dead impressed with that.

How long were you shaking for?

[Wombat]

Well done!

Nev

[funkypixie]

That's very cool.

Well done you

Anna x

[manxminx]

Just wanted to share. We made butter today - out of reduced to clear cream and lots of shaking in a jar (good aerobic exercise)!! It goes wonderfully on the fresh bread that Chris made. Boy do we feel wholesome!!! Yeah ok so its cheating to buy the cream but its the closest we can get!!!

sounds great i've got to give this a go any tips

[red]

great - is this following advice from HFW - family cookbook? - when I tried it... as a home ed exercise no less - we made whipped cream!!

it was very nice but I had to spend alot of time explaining to my son that the experiment went wrong......

[Millymollymandy]

Well done! I remembering doing that once with my grandma when I was very young. I was so impressed!

[TheLancsLass]

Excellent! Did you just put the cream into a container and shake it for ages or was there other things you had to do to it? Well done you!

[Chickpea]

I've done this. You just put it in a jar and shake it for ages. It needs to be old cream - apparently really fresh cream doesn't work. And it has to be double cream. Then once it goes (it happens really quickly) - it goes slosh-slosh-slosh-slosh....shlosh-slosh-THUNK. And that's when you've got a lump of butter in a lot of buttermilk. You pour off the buttermilk but there is still lots of buttermilk trapped in little bubbles inside the butter, so you need to squodge the butter a lot to get it all out. This stage is a pain, but if you leave any buttermilk behind the butter will go rancid quickly. Once you've done that you can add salt to the butter if you want and eat it.

It's great fun and so easy I can't believe everyone doesn't do it at school. It's that kind of thing, like growing a bean in a jam jar, it's soooo easy and also so amazing and instructive at the same time. Try it and you'll see what I mean!

[TheLancsLass]

Brill! Thanks chickpea!! Going to give it a go this week then!

p.s. I have added your blog link to my blog, hope that is ok?

[Chickpea]

Of course, Sal. I always welcome inbound links. It's great for the GPR. I've linked back to you as well.

[Milims]

It was so easy to do - just pour the cream into the jar with a wee bit of milk and shake until - as Chick Pea says it goes thunk!!! We also used the butter milk to make bread afterwards - so nothing has been wasted. We are making it a rule now that if ever we see any reduced to clear cream going cheap we're going to buy it and turn it into butter so its good to know that it works best with older cream!! Waste not want not!!!

[Annpan]

I'd really love to try this - I've ordered HFW family cook book but I have some additional questions

So can you do it with cream that is past its BB? or is it best to get it the day before (ie when it gets reduced in the shops)

I ask because I have a bit of a fear about BB dates on dairy products, was once very sick after drinking milk that I thought was ok and once made my 2 year old nephew sick by cooking pancakes with eggs that were on their BB date

Also I want to ask how long does it last? or is it one of those 'tastes so good only lasts an hour' (before it has all been eaten )


Ann

[Chickpea]

Annpan, are you sure those were the things that made you sick, and you weren't just sick coincidentally after eating those things?

Milk that's off smells and tastes off. If it smells and tatses OK it won't do you any harm Eggs are the same. you really know about it when eggs are off. And in both those things, their "best before" dates are hopelessly cautious - eggs and milk will still be fine for a long while after their BB dates (as long as you store them properly, e.g. keep the milk in a fridge, don't let the eggs get cracked). I don't even think you do get sick from eating turned milk, it's just not very nice.

I'm always fighting with my hubby about this. He thinks that food magically turns into poison at midnight on the BB date. I think that's a load of tosh. As we're vegetarians (actually I'm not but I hardly ever eat meat) I think all the food we have in the house is edible as long as it's not actually green and furry (except kiwifruit which are supposed to look like that, but we don't buy those anyway because of the food miles, also I'm the only one who actually likes them and even then I don't like them that much I just think they look really pretty sliced in a fruit salad, but I digress). I'd be careful about eating e.g. a pork chop after its BB date, but milk and eggs are no problem.

Make butter with cream that is past its BB date. Especially if it has never been opened and has been kept refrigerated, and it's not like weeks past the date. If it's sealed and chilled and just a few days over - open it, have a sniff, have a taste, if it seems OK then it is OK, and just perfect for butter.

[Annpan]

Thanks Chickpea

I am fine with fruit and veg after its BB as usually the supermarkets sell it way before its ripe. The Milk I had was one of those Banana flavour ones, it was the day past its BB it smelled fine (as banana milk ought to smell - y'know fake and sickly sweet ) So I drank the whole lot, about 1 hour later I was violently sick (TMI) It was definaetly the milk. However it might have been because it was flavoured (but you would think there would be more preservatives in it then ) The eggs were used to make pancakes for 4 of us and the rest of us were fine, but my nephew was only 2 and I took it that his insides couldn't cope with eggs on the turn.

I have since become abit paranoid about dairy products, and all the eggs floating or sinking in water just confuses me. Meat dosen't even worry me that much as you say it always smells really bad if its off. - Oh and I never buy any flavoured milk anymore, only make milkshakes myself at home with fresh fruit now.

Anyway thanks for setting my mind at ease, the next time I see cheap cream I'll be trying it.

Ann