How many of you have ever thought about making your own butter? That’s what I thought.

Homemade biscuits, homemade pancakes, homemade bread–these things are a bit of a stretch for some people, but homemade butter? Almost no one born in the last 40 years would think of doing such a thing, and yet it’s not hard at all.

Four sticks of butter cost about $2.00 at Wal-Mart.  For about $3–and 30 minutes of your time–you can get enough heavy whipping cream to make about 3-4 sticks of butter and a few cups of buttermilk.  So while you save some cash by getting butter and buttermilk out of the deal, it’s not like you’re going to save a fortune over time by making your own butter instead of buying it (unless you can buy your cream wholesale from a dairy or go out back and milk a cow yourself).  So why bother?  Well, it’s kind of like loading Linux on your old iPod Nano, and using it to run a web-server out of your home: You don’t do it because it makes sense.  You do it because you can!

Actually, it can make sense to make your own butter.  Heavy whipping cream will keep for a long time.  If you only use butter occasionally, you can make your own on an as-needed basis.  This will save you the trouble and money of buying very much butter at once, and will be less likely to spoil.

Also, there’s the added benefit of being able to control what goes into your butter–meaning that, provided the heavy whipping cream you use is chemical-free, you can make a more natural butter than some of the butters and imitation butters you may find at the store.

Ingredients

• Heavy whipping cream
• A large bowl
• A Mixer — like the this one from Black & Decker (You can use a whisk, but it’ll take more time. Use a mixer, if you can)
• A clean jar or bottle to hold the buttermilk
• A container for your finished butter

The Process

OK, so we’re going to make some butter, but without an old fashion butter churn.  That’s because the mixer is going to serve as our churn–meaning this is going to be waaay easier than whatever you remember reading in Little House on the Prairie or whatever. All set? OK, here we go:

1. First things first: Wash and rinse your hands thoroughly. You’re going to use them to handle some of the butter, and you want them to be clean.
2. Pour a couple of cups of heavy cream into the bowl; you can pour as much as you want, actually, but you might want to start with 2 cups or so–especially if you’re intimidated by the thought of making your own butter.
   
3. Begin whipping the cream with your mixer on medium – high speed.  Wait, did we just discover how whipped cream is made? Yes.  If you want some whipped cream, just follow these same steps up until the part where cream begins to turn buttery.
   
4. Eventually, you’re going to reach a point where you’re convinced that the mixing process isn’t doing anything.  Good.  That means that the cream is about to start doing something.  Keep mixing it.  In a minute, it will start to look foamy–like watery whipped cream (gasp!).
   
5. OK, now this stuff is going to get really foamy. It will begin to look like genuine whipped cream, and that’s because that’s exactly what it is.  Congratulations. You could stop right here, and have some perfectly good homemade whipped cream that would impress any of your friends.  But if you want butter, you have to keep going a little longer.
   
6. Whip it a little longer, and the whipped cream will begin to separate into yellowish chunks–almost like scrambled eggs.  Whip it a little more after that, and a milky-looking liquid will begin to flow out of the chunks.  That’s buttermilk.
   
7. As you whip it at this point, you’ll notice that the mixer encounters more resistance.  That’s because the butter and the buttermilk are separating, and the butter is becoming denser.  Now it’s just a matter of personal preference: Keep beating it to make a purer butter, or go ahead and finish up.  It’s up to you.
8. Scoop the butter out of the mixing bowl with your hands. Yes, your hands.  Remember how I told you to wash and rinse them well? Well, scoop the butter out with your hands, and wring it over the bowl.  You want to squeeze the remaining buttermilk out of the butter like a sponge.
9. The butter should now feel like a wet ball of clay.  Wring it out, and place it in a clean container for refrigeration.
   
10. Pour the buttermilk left behind into a clean bottle or jar, and store it in the refrigerator as well.
    

Butter is used widely for everything from greasing skillets and cooking sheets to making biscuits, rolls, pancakes, muffins, waffles, and…almost anything else.  Buttermilk is a tasty ingredient in buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk pancakes, and buttermilk-everything-else also.  You can buy it at the store, but making it at home lets you kill two birds (i.e. butter and buttermilk) with one stone (i.e. a container of heavy whipping cream).

If you want salt in your butter, simply add it to the heavy cream before you start mixing.

Another way to churn butter is to pour the heavy whipping cream into a jar, seal it tightly, and shake it while you watch TV.  It may take longer, but it works–and gives you a workout at the same time.

Butter doesn’t exactly rank high on the Health Nut’s List of Approved Ingredients, but it’s fine in moderation, and extremely handy when cooking on a shoestring budget.  Whether you make it yourself or buy it at the store, it never hurts to have a little butter on hand.

Filed under: Recipes

Related Posts

1. Homemade Cinnamon Biscuits (aka “Scones”)
2. In Honor of St. Patrick: Irish Soda Bread
3. Mix Butter and Oil for Better Flavor
4. In Honor of St. Patrick: The Twice Baked Potato
5. Homemade Strawberry Shortcake Recipe