Week 4: Homemade Butter

Well, this has been an interesting experiment for me. I had heard how easy and good it was to make your own homemade butter. I did a little research online, to see how it was done. I am not a big direction reader, so I looked up a few sites and decided that I was just going to go for it! So lately I am loving powdered milk, despite the scare in China on powdered milk in the last few weeks, since I don’t seem to drink milk fast enough before it spoils, I can just make up a batch of powdered milk, refrigerate it and it is great in my morning coffee. So I started with my nonfat powdered milk and put it in a jar and started shaking, and shaking, and shaking... Well, about 15 to 20 minutes in, after trading off vigorous shaking of the jar with my boyfriend, we realized that we were trying to make butter with, yes, non-fat milk, kinda difficult since there is no FAT in it to make the butter. Okay, lesson learned I thought.

So I go out to the store and decide to buy a nice glass bottle of milk so I can use it for my powdered milk. I then picked up homogenized milk, since that was whole milk right?! So I put the milk in a jar again, and start shaking it, and shaking it, and shaking it... I was shaking that thing for over an hour. I even took the jar with me on my evening walk with my dog to see when this thing would finally turn into butter. Very hillbilly! I then decided this whole make butter thing was way over rated and I can see why we just buy it in the store and be done with it.

Well, then a few weeks later my boyfriend tells me about an article he read about homogenized milk and guess what, homogenized milk is a process they do to keep the fat and water particles in the milk from sticking together. What!?! That was a dirty trick. No wonder days of shaking was not going to create butter. So, now with my new knowledge of milk products, I buy the good stuff, heavy whipping cream! Oh yes. Loads of fat. So I start the process for the third time, milk in a container and shake. I swear, not but 5 minutes later I had butter, a miracle!! Third time was a charm. How ridiculous is that? Easy, fast, and it really makes butter and the liquid by-product is buttermilk! So this hillbilly chick finally learned how to make my own homemade butter. And let me tell you, it rocks! Light creamy taste! So long story short, here is the recipe:

Homemade Butter:

• Heavy whipping cream


• Salt to taste

Special items needed: a jar and a strong arm

Step 1: Measure whipping cream and put in a jar. 1 cup whipping cream will yield ½ cup butter and ½ cup buttermilk. I would recommend a glass container so you can see it working its magic. Don’t overfill the container, only about half full, since you need the milk to move around and bounce off the walls.

Step 2: Put the lid on the jar and shake your little heart out. I found it only took me about 5 minutes. Some sites I reviewed said 10 to 20 minutes, but you are going to shake and shake and shake. Your milk will basically turn from liquid to whipped cream, and then to butter which separates and makes buttermilk. It will be noisy for the first few minutes as you shake and then it will get silent and foamy looking. It doesn’t seem like anything is happening, and then all of a sudden the fat separates from the water and all the butter particles stick together in a clump and are now butter. The liquid remaining is the buttermilk. Pretty cool.

Step 3: Strain the buttermilk and butter. I saved my buttermilk for later when I plan to make some pancakes. Try and push out any remaining liquid with a paper towel from the butter. I think I even read to rinse the butter with water to help it keep longer. I added a little salt to taste and that was it! Refrigerate.

Yep, pretty easy and faster than I had expected. The key is to have heavy whipping cream around! The taste is really wonderful! It is worth a try being a little hillbilly! Enjoy.

Recipe credit to: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Butter-and-Buttermilk/