How do you rinse butter?

[Rosendula]

I have made small amounts of butter before which has been used within a few days, so I haven't really been too bothered about rinsing the buttermilk out - just given it a really good squeeze. Now, I'd like to have a go at making larger amounts but have come up with a problem - I can't get my head around the whole 'rinsing the butter' process! After I've squeezed out as much buttermilk as I can, what do I do? Do I run it under the tap or something? Is it that simple? Or am I meant to put it back in the blender with water added?

[mrsflibble]

I think it needs to be in a sieve and have cold water over it, but I'm not sure.

[farmerdrea]

Very simply - I don't. We make all our own butter, and my son and I are seriously into baking, which uses a LOT of butter. We churn 2 litres of cream at a time, which yeilds about 600gms butter. From the churn, it just gets bunged into a colander over a large enough pot, drains for a few hours, then into the lined butter mould (I just use a bread pan lined with sandwich paper), into the fridge over night, then cut into chunks which fit our butter dish, wrapped in fresh sandwich paper, into a plastic bag and into the freezer.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

[Odsox]

I agree, life's too short to wash butter if you're going to eat it fairly soon.

The reason for washing butter is to get all the buttermilk out other wise the butter goes rancid after a time.
This is a bit of a 'hang up' from the past before we all had fridges and quite often butter was made to last for weeks at a time.
If you still really want to wash it, put the butter in a bowl, add really cold water and work with a spatula. Drain and repeat until the water stays clear and not cloudy. Don't cheat and put it back in a food processor or you will end up with a greasy mess as you will destroy the structure of the butter.
Then of course you have to work the butter some more to get the water out !
By 'work' I mean lightly press and turn motion, gently squash it.

Still want to wash it ?

[becks77]

If the butter is going to be used asap then no need to rinse, however if it s in the butter dish for more than a day or so its the butter milk that is left behind that gives it the rancid flavour.
To rinse I have put the butter in a muslin square squeeze like mad to get most of the excess out and then pop the mhole lot in a sieve and under a cold tap till the water runs clear , or sit the sieve in a bowl of cold water. Must be very cold water though.
Good luck