how to make butter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oropJD0CUxI

Cool video, I can't wait until we get our dairy goat.

Growing up on a dairy we used to make butter all the time.Grandma had the old churn,, Mom had one too,, but she lacked the time so she used us for the manual labor,sitting on the floor while she continued to cook.., hehehe
For those who have children this is a great way to let your little ones help..My mom would have to separate our cream first  since we had raw milk,then she would use the top cream for butter putting it in a large canning jar..
  Except, instead of shaking it she would let us roll it back and forth between us kind of like playing ball.I used to do this with my boys when they were growing up as well.Using a heavier glass bottle.It is a great way for a parent to have some quality time as well as educational time..Perfect for fry bread night.. and butter milk pancakes in the morning,,
We also used to make ice cream this way with a couple of coffee cans fitted inside each other, ice and salt,, rolling them around..Awe the days of having kiddos around to help make this more fun,, LOL
Thanks for the memories,,
Hugs,Laughter,Light,Love
  M

Off to add cream to the shopping list for this week! Minion 2 actually did this in class this last year, so he will be a good help. Im interested in finding out how much I can get from the smallest cream package (pint I believe) and do the math vs the organic butter we've been buying.

Thanks for the share Paul

I've been buying raw milk from a local farmer for a few weeks and now I have enough cream to make butter (I've got about 1 L of cream).
I bought a pair of old butter paddles I found on the web and spent the last week cleaning them up. They turned out really lovely. I can't wait to make butter with the kids!

Someone that actually EXPLAINED the souring method and reason. We had to learn that the hard way. It makes a HUGE difference to the taste, yield, and shelf life of your butter.

I have made butter multiple times. fastest way to do it is put the cream in a blender. watch it close though because it turns to butter very fast. I realize its more mechanical to do with a blender but we had alot of cream to get through and didnt have the time or energy to churn it all.

Well we made our butter over Easter weekend. It was unfortunately a rushed affair, and I didn't let it ripen enough so the butter turned out rather bland.

The cream quickly whipped but never like I'm used to with commercial cream. The cream separated quickly and a whipped cream layer formed on top of what I presume was buttermilk.

After about 1/2 and hour with a hand blender, the whipped cream layer turned to butter.

The paddles worked awesome!

I realised why my whipping experience was different. When I received the milk from the farmer, I let it sit for a day in the fridge so the cream would separate. I took this off with a turkey baster and froze it as I need a few weeks supply to make butter making viable.

This week I separated the cream and let it sit for an additional 2 days in the fridge and the cream has further separated, reducing the volume by half. The cream is much thicker and more like what I envisaged.

Earlier on I was worried about spoilage but I doubt that's going to be an issue. The cream has been in the fridge now for almost a week. I'll freeze it now, add to it over the next couple of weeks and when I'm ready to make butter, I'll pull it out and leave it at room temperature to thaw and ripen.

So last weekend we made butter for the second time and this time is was way better than the first attempt. The butter was buttery instead of waxy. It even tasted like butter, but better

I did a few things differently. First, I let the cream seperate for longer before skimming it so the cream was thicker. I froze the cream as I collected it, and when I got 2 litres, I thawed it.

When it thaws, it separates again, and I skimmed the fat off. This left me with 1 litre of thick cream which whipped properly when I beat it unlike last time.

When the butter forms, it does so like little crumbs or golden nuggets. Instead of squeezing them together and rinsing, I poured it into a double sieve and rinsed them in cold cold water until the water ran clear.

I could sort of toss the granules periodically so they formed a loose ball and then repeat so every part was well rinsed.

I finally poured the granules into a bowl and scooped them up with my paddles, working them into actual butter. Finally some salt.

I'm very pleased with the result.

New Years day morning and nothing beats freshly churned cultured butter.

I put the left over buttermilk into a batter with some wild blueberries and had amazing pancakes smothered in fresh butter and Canadian maple syrup. Yum!