Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Making Butter

I have always wanted to make my own butter...always.  But for some reason, in my industrialized mind I thought it took special equipment...even if it was an old fashioned churn.  I don't have many kitchen gadgets, not even a food processor, which is what I thought you had to have.  Thanks to some wisdom from my awesome friend Kim we found out all it takes is a jar and a willing helper!!  (duh, Chris!)

We started with a quart size jar and 2 cups of cream.  Whatever size jar you use just be sure to leave enough air space for the skake-shake-shaking!
Ben was the official shaker...he has dubbed himself the Butter Boy!  Love that kid!
 After about 5 minutes of continuous shaking it started to thicken...very neat to watch this happen!
 About 10 more minutes of shaking and you could see the complete separation.
 15 minutes total shaking and it's ready!
 We poured it into a glass jar covered with a cotton t-shirt to strain the liquid out.
Then I had Ben hold it up for a few minutes to be sure all the liquid was run out.  He probably didn't have to do this, we could've just left it sitting, but I wanted him to be actively participating in this part of the process...he's one of those boys who learns better by doing!
 Voila!!  We have butter! I'm sure you could use store bought cream, but we used raw cream from our milkman.  I would encourage you all to seek out raw dairy products.  Here in SC it's legal to buy so we have easy access to it.  It's so much better for you than store bought!!!
 2 cups of cream gave us 1/2 cup of butter and 1 1/2 cups of liquid...I hesitate to call it buttermilk because it didn't have that sour smell.  It tasted to me like skim milk, honestly.  Need to do more reasearch on that part!
Give it a try...it was so easy and super fun!!  And thanks, Kim!!

1 comment:

  1. So neat! I had no idea you could make butter without a churn. :)

    ReplyDelete