Homemade butter

[wightlady]

Has any body here made their own butter?? I've been searching the interweb for a way to make butter at home but the ways vary from the very basic 'shake cream in a jar until it seperates' to the seemingly over complicated'sour cream, leave for 2 days blah blah blah'
I'm going to experiment but just wondered if anyone else has tried it anf had any tips

[Odsox]

Yes I used to make butter on a regular basis but not for many years.
In a nutshell, the leaving cream for a few days produces 'ripened' butter ... one with a strong buttery flavour.
Butter made with fresh cream produces a milder butter similar to Lurpac.
Either way it's a case of agitating it until lumps of butter appear in the watery buttermilk, you can do small amounts with a electric whisk. Whip the cream as normal and when you get thick whipped cream where you normally stop just keep whipping past this stage and you should end up with a small lump of butter.
Then you have to pour off the buttermilk and add fresh water to wash it, you need to get as much buttermilk out as possible if you want to keep your butter or it will turn rancid in a few days ... if you are going to eat it straight away then don't bother about it too much.
If you want to keep it for a few days, wash the butter until the water stays clear, then add salt if you like and pat it with a spatula or big spoon to get the water out ... pat it, don't squash or smear it or you will end up with a greasy mess.

That's about it ... use the buttermilk to make the most delicious scones and then your butter to spread on them, maybe with homemade strawberry jam, it don't get much better then that !

[wightlady]

That's about it ... use the buttermilk to make the most delicious scones and then your butter to spread on them, maybe with homemade strawberry jam, it don't get much better then that !

Thanks Odsox I've got my cream and the KC prepped so I'm going to try some this afternoon..................................than make the scones and pick some strawberries to go with yumyum

[wightlady]

Well, I can report that homemade butter is absolutley gorgeous!!! I used a pint of double cream and half teaspoon salt at the end, which yielded 11.5 oz.
I'm not quite sure if I've done the washing bit right though. I drained off the buttermilk, using a plastic sieve then washed it through a few times, before putting it back into KC with a bit of salt and mixed it up for a minute or so. I suppose only time will tell if this has been done right but don't think it'll last too long with my lot anyway

[Odsox]

Well I'm pleased you got it all to work first time ... well done.
The washing business is only really important if you want to keep it for more than a few days.
Shame I live so far away, otherwise I'd be round for a cream tea !

[Brij]

When I make jam-jar butter, I add salt to the cream before I even start shaking, I just prefer how it tastes that way.

Then to get the buttermilk out I put the butter in a sandwich/freezer bag, twist the top closed with plenty of air trapped in around the butter, and squeeze it like that. You can actually see the buttermilk being expressed! Then that gets rinsed out with cold water and the process gets repeated until no more comes out.

[possum]

put it in the food processor for about 1 min on high speed., wash if you like. That is all there is to it.

[Odsox]

Putting salt in first is OK if you are sure of the butterfat content of your cream, early summer cream is totally different to mid-winter cream. Putting the salt in after churning you can add the wanted amount per ounce of butter.
That probably only applies if you have your own cow or get milk from a local farmer though.

[Brij]

Aah, I use shop-bought cream with a percentage on since I don't know any dairy farmers

[wightlady]

I just bought double cream from Morrisons!! It's still ok-well whats left of it It was really easy with the old kenwood, I'd recommend it to anyone to give it a try.

[mrsflibble]

I have done it in a mixer, with an electric whisk and in a jam jar. made butter that is, nothing else wierd lol!!

[Brij]

Yeah, yeah MrsF! I remember that rug thing you made!