Making Butter

[sherry]

This is my buttermaking process.



This cream has been cultured for about 12 hours using a buttermilk starter from the previous butter making. The cream is ready when it pulls away from the side of the jar in a solid mass, about the consistency of yogurt.




After churning, the butter is ready to rinse and work when it is about the size of small bits of rice.







The butter is poured into a strainer and the buttermilk is drained into a clean bowl below. After you have drained as much buttermilk as you can, remove the strainer and rinse the butter in cool water.





After the initial rinsing, the butter is ready to be worked in a bowl.





After adding cool water and working the butter, note that the water is still milky. Drain this water and add cool, clear water and continue working. Repeat this process until the water remains clear, usually about two or three times.





The butter has been worked and the water remains clear. Remove the butter and add salt, if desired. I use kosher salt, approx. one teaspoon per pound of butter.




In order to press out as much water as possible, I roll the butter out between two sheets of cling wrap. Remove the cling wrap and pat dry with a paper towel. Fill the butter mold with your fresh, sweet, creamy butter and you're ready to go!




A one pound block of butter.




You are also left with delicious thick, rich buttermilk. One gallon of cream will give you about 2 quarts of buttermilk plus a little starter for your next buttermaking.

[sherry]

When I cultured my very first batch of cream, I did not add any starter or culture. I just let it sit for about 3 days until it clabbered on its own. I must admit, that very first batch was a bit strong, I guess because it took so long to culture, but I used some of the buttermilk for a starter for my next batch and from then on the butter has been absolutely wonderful. I don't know if storebought buttermilk would produce the same culturing effect or not. It might be worth a shot.

[Joann]

What a fabulous series of pictues. Tell us again what you are using for a churn??

Some store bought buttermilk has active cultures, most does not.

[sherry]

I bought an old Sears Farm Master electric butter churn off ebay for about $100. It has a two gallon capacity but one gallon of cream meets the "fill to here" line. I guess it needs the rest of the room for sloshing around . As Bob Villa says, "the right tool for the right project." He is sooo right. I believe a good churn, a butter bowl and paddle are a must. I can make two pounds of butter, from plugging in the churn to popping the butter out of the mold, in less than 30 min.

[rrourk]

I did learn a new trick I thought I would share as well. After straining the butter milk off the butter, I put my butter back in my churn and used it to 'wash' the butter!! It worked!! Only took about 3 times of adding water and churning and it was clean! All I had to after draining the cleaning water was to get the rest of the water worked out, (will be trying your method on that too, now that I have plastic wrap!

Rena

[sherry]

Rena,
That's a terrific idea using the churn to wash the butter I will try that myself. Thanks.

[Laurieks]

OK could you explain the buttermilk culture part, why used, does it make better tasting butter. I have made butter but never used culture and never liked the butter. I am thinking it is the metal blades or the taste of our cream. I am bound and determined to make butter we like.

[Joann]

Whether or not to culture the cream for butter is a personal decision. Some like it, some don't

Laurie, I greatly doubt there is anything the matter with your cream unless you are holding it too long before making the butter. I find that more than three days gets iffy.

What sort of machine are you using? High speed metal blades are often the culprit. Let's work together and solve this problem. You deserve delicious butter!

[sherry]

Laurie,
I believe you will see a difference in your butter once you get a butter churn. Sweet cream butter is butter that has not been cultured. It is made with fresh cream. It should taste just fine. I culture my cream because I like using thick, cultured buttermilk in my cooking (biscuits, cornbread, etc). It also adds a bit more depth of flavor to the butter. My customers LOVE it. Buttermilk from sweet cream butter is thin like water but still usable. All the oldtimers around here say they cultured or "soured" their cream when they made butter long, long ago.

[Laurieks]

I made butter last night with the kitchen aid and it tasted great, I am still thinking it was the cream and maybe it was a weed that they were eating at that season. Because we didn't even like whipped cream. I had given up but glad I tried again. IF I end up with a bad taste again I will write and we are all going to figure it out. I am still going to look and save for a butter churn.

[Deleted]

About how much buttermilk do you save from the butter making for the next culture and can you freeze it?

[sherry]

I save a half-pint of buttermilk from each buttermaking and use it the next time I make butter. I am not sure about freezing the buttermilk. As a matter of fact, I have just put some in the freezer because I have dried Camelia off as she is due to calve Oct. 28. I was going to see if it would still be good to culture my cream in a couple of months. We'll see

[Joann]

Cultures freeze astonishingly well. I was recently able to rebuild a meso starter I bought 7 years ago from Ricki Carroll!!!

[Deleted]

Hi Sherry, I am new to this forum and new to owning a cow (we've had our Matilda for almost a month now...she's a great teacher). I just made butter with cultured cream for the first time, and it tasted to me, well, rancid. Is it just me, that I am used to the sweet cream butter from the store, or did my culture go too far? My kitchen is very cold at night, so I put a heating pad in my oven, a towel on top of it, and then I put my cream in a stoneware bowl on top for about 8 hours (I use a heating pad in an insulated lunchbox for my yogurt). The top layer was yellow and crinkled, and the rest like soft yogurt. It had a sour, though not unpleasant taste. Still, as butter I didn't care for the after-taste. And without a butter-maker nearby to taste it, I don't know what it ought to taste like!

[Liz]

How much milk do you gals seperate and how long does it take?
I have a ss bowl in the fridge with 2 gallons, should it be seperated by morning, or should I put it out on the counter overnight?
Thanks!
Liz

[BasleeBackwoodsFarm]

I only make butter when I have extra milk and then I skim it all and give the skim milk to the chickens and cats. I just skim it into my 1 gallon jars that my electric butter churn fits and stick it in the fridge until I'm ready to make the butter. I just get the jar out of the fridge and let it sit from 4-6 hours to bring it up to room temperature and then churn away.

I don't like to leave it set out overnight. I would go ahead and skim, put back in the fridge and then set the cream out when your ready to make butter. You will still need to make the butter within a few days or so as the cream will sour in the fridge too and you will have a sour cream butter instead of a sweet cream butter. This is just a good way to save enough cream for churning or if you don't have the time right then.

[sherry]

After I skim the cream from my milk, I put it in the fridge until I have 1 gal of cream to churn. I pour the cream into the glass butter churn and add about half a pint of butter milk (saved from previous buttermaking). In the winter, I place the churn in a warm location to help speed the culturing process. However, the cream must be about 68 degrees to churn well. Butter made from cream that is too warm will be soft and taste cheesy, even if you rinse it with cool water to firm it up. The cream at churning time must be a little on the cool side.

My first batch of cultured butter didn't taste good at all. It had a rancid taste, also. However, I saved some buttermilk from that buttermaking and used it on my next batch of butter. It turned out much better and by the third batch, it was delicious!

I have found buttermaking to be an art. I thought you just sloshed some cream around and that was it.

I would not have continued trying to make the cultured butter after the first couple of tries, but my father kept saying, "This just doesn't taste right. Keep trying. I want THICK buttermilk." Thanks to him, I finally got it right.

[sherry]

Congratulations!!

[Liz]

Ok, not to beat a dead butter bowl....lol...but, I am missing something!

How long and how fast (what speed) do you gals churn your butter? I am using my mixer and when it looks like little pieces of rice, well it goes right thru the strainer, and it won't go thru cheesecloth very well at all!

I ended up skimming the frothiness off and working that, it did make butter just seems like I could have churned it longer maybe? Also by doing it this way I don't get to rinse it in the strainer, just have to rinse in the bowl frequently. Lastly this yields almost no buttermilk!

Help! I am churn-challenged!
Liz

[Deleted]

Thanks for all the tips--my last batch of butter was very nice indeed! I also used the churn to do the washing, and using ice-cold rinse water firmed up the butter and made it very pleasant to work.