Eat real food.

Yay! I found a new source for raw milk. Yesterday, I got my first two gallons, and that included a quart of rich cream. (There was more, but that was all I could easily ladle off. I got another pint of half-and-half, besides.) So, I decided to make butter.

What you need

• A half-hour (an hour if it’s your first time, and you’re nervous)
• A food processor or mixer (mixer will take longer, I hear
• Some fresh raw cream (…or store-bought cream; it’s better if it doesn’t have thickeners added.)
• Some salt, if you like
• A fine-mesh strainer
• A couple of pots or bowls to stain into

I wish I’d taken a picture of the milk as it comes in a half-gallon mason jar, and my small ladle I got for the purpose of scooping out the cream. Anyway, here’s I’ve discovered about handling the milk.

• Don’t jiggle the milk any more than necessary to get it home. Let the cream separate in the fridge, if you need to. But once it’s “homogenized,” or mixed-up, it can be hard to ever get it really separated again.
• Don’t try to pour the cream/milk. You need a ladle. If you pour it, you’ll mix it up.
• Ladle carefully, until you can’t get any more cream without getting a bunch of milk in with it. Toward the end, you can ladle the milky cream into a different jar, and use that as cream for coffee or for omelettes and other cooking.

Making the Butter

My two gallons of milk had a quart of rich cream. That made about a pound of butter.

These are pictures of my food processor. The first is the cream right after I poured it in. The second is after a couple of minutes, when it had become lovely “whipped cream.” The third is after a few more minutes, when the butter had separated and there were chunks of butter floating in buttermilk. Often, you can hear a change in pitch when it gets to that third stage.

Strain the “buttermilk” off. It won’t be tart like the buttermilk you buy at the store, because we aren’t “culturing” the cream before making butter. (Though I plan to try that soon.) Cultured butter is made using yogurt culture or similar critters. I’m told it makes a rich, wonderful butter, and tangy buttermilk. This buttermilk is pretty much just milk, though, and can be used for cooking or drinking.

Let all the milk drain off, and now you have butter. Easy, huh? But the butter won’t last long unless you “wash” it. That’s how you get the remaining milk out, so it doesn’t go bad so fast.

Add cold water. (If it’s not cold, the butter will soften and mix with the water.) Use a potato masher, a fork, or your kitchen tool of choice to smash and squish the butter. Then strain off the water and do it again. If the butter is nice and cold, you can sort of roll it around in the strainer and it will make big clumps. You can even grab it with your bare hand and squeeze water out.

Repeat until the water is clear. This last picture shows the second or third washing. Note that doesn’t count as clear. Keep going until it’s really clear, if you want your butter to last.

Once you’ve strained it for the last time, take your lump of butter and put it into a dish. Viola!

Use caution in storing this butter. The industrial-food butter you get at the store seems to be able to sit on the counter for a long time without going bad, but this stuff, if you make it from raw milk, actually has the ability to… ta-daa… spoil! That’s cuz it’s real food.

I am very fond of French butter crocks. (The link will take you to Amazon where you can see a picture and read about how it works.) However, I change the water daily, instead of every 2-3 days like folks recommend. And I’m also cautious in warm weather. Your mileage may vary.

Coming soon, I hope, cultured butter, using yogurt culture.