Homemade Butter

I learned how to make butter when I was in the third grade. The teacher passed out empty baby food jars, poured a little heavy cream inside, and we shook them and made our own butter. It was one of the first times that I knew that I wanted to be able to understand how to make food (and crafts) for myself. Even now, most people that I talk to are amazed that I can make my own butter because they don't know how easy it is to do.

Start with a large jar and some cold heavy whipping cream. The cream at the store is usually ultra-pasteurized, so the butter will last for at least a couple months or so in the fridge. (I actually tried making butter with raw whipping cream, fresh from the cow, but since I don't eat a cup of butter every week, it went rancid before I could use it up.) You'll need a big jar or any sort of big container with a tight lid, because you'll be shaking the cream and having a lot of empty space will help to aerate the cream and make it much easier to shake.

Shake the cream for about 15-20 minutes. It will thicken up, and if you have a smaller jar it will get so thick that it will be very hard to shake (your arms will get very tired, but hey, you're working off some calories before you enjoy this delicious butter). Once it gets to the point where it's whipped cream, you just have to shake it for a couple minutes more until the cream begins to separate into butter and buttermilk.

The buttermilk made in this process is not the same as the stuff that you buy in the store, which is cultured buttermilk. This is old-fashioned buttermilk, and you can use it anywhere you'd use the cultured stuff (pancakes, muffins, mashed potatoes, etc.). Just don't throw it out!

When the cream has separated into butter chunks, just shake it a couple times more to get the butter to stick together. Put a colander over a bowl and dump out the contents of the jar into the colander. Put the buttermilk into a container and refrigerate for later.

Now the important step: put the butter into a bowl, and just rinse it out until the water is clear. Work the butter a little with your hands to get out any extra buttermilk, because if you leave any in there the butter will become rancid more quickly. Your hands will get pretty buttery, so have some paper towels on standby.

You're all done! You can mix in some salt to the butter at this point, but you don't have to. I prefer to leave it creamy. About two cups of heavy cream yields about a cup of butter and a cup of buttermilk.

There is actually an easier way to make butter if you have a food processor, or you can also use a mixer and just blend the cream until it separates. I prefer the jar method because I don't have a nice food processor (yet) and it also works out my arms.

Andy and I bought a Butter Keeper just for the homemade butter (on sale at TJ Maxx of course). It's a neat little gadget that lets you keep your butter out of the fridge so it's always at perfect spreading consistency. Especially because the bread thrift store across the street always has a loaf of cinnamon raison bread and we hate waiting for the butter to melt before we can eat it.

I still buy regular butter from the store for cooking since it's easier to measure, but the homemade butter is a nice treat to spread on our baked goods.

And on an unrelated note: here is a picture of our kitties, Josie (left) and Sabrina. This was taken a few weeks ago after they got shaved for the spring, so that's why Josie's hair looks funny. They're in their favorite spot, in the cat basket at the front window. A wasp wandered in the house today, and while it was stunned on the floor, Josie went over and sniffed it and got stung close to her nose. Hopefully this incident won't curb her bug-eating skills.