The stars must have aligned somehow, and the world over was swept with the urge to make butter at home. My inspiration came a few weeks ago, when I found myself in a momentary cash crisis. In my refrigerator, I had a large amount of heavy cream, but no butter. As I faced the very real, very terrible specter or using the last pat of butter on my toast, I remembered some long-ago read magazine feature on making butter with kids (why with kids? child labor, I suppose). The suggestion, I remembered, was simple: put cream in jar. Screw on lid. Shake, rattle, and roll until butter appears.
So we set to work. My babysitter. My three-year-old. My husband. And me.We shook until our arms hurt. All.... right. Let's be honest. The husband's and three-year-old's attention span being what they are, my babysitter and I shook, and shook, and shook. Everyone was skeptical, except the three-year-old, who will believe anything. My babysitter thought I should add something... what, she didn't know, but it seemed insufficient. To please her, I added a touch of salt. Only minutes after I added the salt, the butter came together, and it was magical. I knew what would happen; that the cream would start feeling heavier and then, suddenly, the butter would break from the milk. But it was still impossible, when it happened, like the farmwife version of watching coal turn into diamonds.
No one could quite believe it, in my house, and everyone wanted to do it again! So over the next few days, we made butter two more times, finally resorting to the Cuisinart when everyone got tired of shaking. That was inspired - no matter when we added the salt, we found that shaking took at least 20-30 minutes, versus only five or so minutes with the Cuisinart. Afterward, we'd use the soft, creamy stuff with abandon, smeared on cornbread muffins, slathered on toast.
The third batch I made was the biggest, and the day afterward I finally read Andrew's post on making butter (oddly, he'd posted it the day after my first magical churn). As I read through comments and followed links, I wondered about that "squeezing the buttermilk out" stuff. Should I have done that? I walked into the kitchen.
There was my butter, in all its fresh-churned glory. And I bent over and took a whiff. Ewwwyuck! Sour butter.
Lesson learned: it's easy to make butter. But don't forget to squeeze out the buttermilk if you make more than you can use in one day.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-17-2006 @ 5:52AM
Chris Hansen said...
I like your method over the shaking method because, well, I'm lazy. A couple of questions though - how much cream, how much salt, what speed on the mixer?
Thanks for the info...
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4-09-2006 @ 9:25AM
Tina said...
My daughter went to a school where they made the butter to go with muffins they baked for snack time. They added a couple of marbles to the jar, and it dramatically shortens shaking time.
It is magical, isn't it?
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6-12-2006 @ 6:38PM
shan wilson said...
please give me the recipe for making fresh churned butter and give to me as a nine yr old..lol from beginning to end and what ingredients and equipment to purchase...thks
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11-15-2006 @ 4:25AM
Alex said...
Please give me the recipe for making fresh churned butter.
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8-28-2007 @ 8:41PM
owen biglen said...
On ebay I see for sale new or reproduction dazy churns for sale by one guy, dose any one know wher one can be bought with out paying the ridicules sum of $50.00 or more. He is buying them some place.
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10-09-2007 @ 9:57PM
owen biglen said...
I make butter from heavy whipping cream, the butter milk is not sour, any one know why????
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4-23-2008 @ 1:49AM
Kirk McLoren said...
I put the milk container in the fridge for 12 hours as we milk twice a day. Since I need the container to fill calf bottles I ladel the cream into the mixing bowl for the eggbeater. I feed the skim milk to a pig I am raising for milk fed chops (cant buy pork like that) and after filling bottles put the full container in the fridge.
The cream I beat at a setting of 4 on the eggbeater. First it makes whip cream then that settles and becomes particulate. Stand by the machine at this time as it congeals very quickly and if you dont slow the eggbeater whey will go everywhere. Soon the butter clumps on the beater blades and you have it. I freeze mine since I dont pasteurize the milk.
Lovely stuff.
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4-23-2008 @ 2:00AM
Kirk McLoren said...
Real buttermilk is sweet whey with tiny bits of butter that didnt get stuck to the main mass of butter. It is a nice drink. I used to drink it as a treat after hand churning on the ranch. The first experience I had in the city was a container of "buttermilk" and you can imagine my disappointment and surprise when instead of real buttermilk I found they had sold me sour milk.
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