Cream, that is churned turns into butter. It’s the fat component of milk which makes butter. Milk that hasn’t been processed or left to sit unagitated allows the butterfat or cream component to rise to the top and sit on the milk. As a child, we had milk delivered right to our front door and it was always capped with a thick layer of cream.
I was 7 years old when I first saw butter being made. My Mum skimmed the cream off a couple of milk bottles and put them into a mason jar. She sat on the steps leading to the back garden with me and my three sisters sitting around her eagerly awaiting the magic to happen. Mum commenced to shaking the heck out of the jar. In fact, we all took turns in ‘churning’ the butter and it wasn’t long before an opaque liquid started to collect inside the jar, along with yellowish lumps. Those lumps where the butter and the liquid was buttermilk.
Homemade Unsalted Butter
Homemade butter is easy to make and hands down superior to anything that you will purchase in a store. Using a high-quality heavy whipping cream, you can have butter that contains only the ingredients that you want it to have within minutes. Use your butter to make compound butters by mixing it with herbs, spices, and fruits. Or make your own ghee or clarified butter. The possibilities are endless.
Equipment
- Stand mixer with whisk Electric hand mixer with whisk, , food processor with, blender, immersion blend. Mason jar with lid and a marble.
- Mason jar with lid
- Kitchen paper or lint free kitchen towel or lint free kitchen towel
- Bowl
- Cling film or 8oz container with lid
Ingredients
- 16 oz heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups or more of ice-cold water
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt optional
Instructions
- Place the heavy whipping cream into the mixer bowl with whisk attachment. Whisk until the cream breaks and separates into butter and buttermilk. This process can take up to 15 minutes, depending on the type and amount of cream you are using.
- The cream will go through 3 distinct stages: soft peaks, stiff peaks and separation.
- Once separation has taken place, pour the buttermilk into a clean mason jar, seal it with the lid and store in the refrigerator for about a week. The buttermilk can be used in any recipe that calls for milk.
- Wash the butter by submerging it into a bowl of ice-cold water. Gently knead it to release any residual buttermilk. Do this several times until the water is clear and is not cloudy. Removing as much buttermilk as possible will prevent your butter from turning rancid within days.
- Drain the ice-cold water and gently squeeze the clean butter in the kitchen paper extracting as much moisture as possible. If using salt, add it at this stage.
- Flatten the butter into a disk, sprinkle with kosher salt and gently knead it in. Try to work as quickly as possible to prevent the butter from melting. The colder the ice water wash, the more time you will have to knead in the salt.
- Shape the butter and press it into a container with a tight-fitting lid and store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks maybe longer. Or put the butter into a butter crock and keep on your countertop for 2-4 weeks.
- Remember, depending on how much buttermilk was remove from the butter will dictate how long it stays good for. Keeping the butter in a crock allows it to stay soft enough to spread when you want it.
- Freeze the butter in a freezer safe container for approximately 3 months.
Video
Notes
Whether made in a factory or at home, butter is made by separating butterfat from the water present in cream.
To make homemade butter the heavy whipping cream has to be 36% or more butterfat and 64% or more milk solids and water. Better yet, if you can find manufacturing cream, which is 40% butterfat and 60% milk solids and water that would be the way to go.
It’s best to use cream that is low pasteurized and doesn’t have any stabilizers like carrageenan, locus bean gum, natural polysaccharides, agar agar etc. In fact, these are gelling agents that allow manufacturers to use cheap and inferior milk to create an illusion of a superior product.
While you can make butter from heavy whipping cream or double cream with stabilizers, you’ll get a far superior product for cream that hasn’t been stabilized using hydrocolloids.
Light cream, 1/2 & 1/2 etc. won’t work here. There isn’t enough butterfat. As long as the cream that you are using has 36% butterfat, you’ll be able to make butter.
Equipment
You can use anything from this list to make your butter. Electric hand mixer with whisk, food processor with, blender, immersion blend. Mason jar with lid and a marble.
Storage
How long your butter lasts will depend on how well you removed the buttermilk from the butter. Buttermilk in homemade butter isn’t your friend. It can cause your butter to turn rancid within days of making it.
Store butter in a container with tight-fitting lid in the refrigerator for approximately 2 weeks maybe longer.
Store butter on your countertop in a butter crock for 2-4 weeks. Follow manufacturer’s instructions.
Nutrition
Serving: 12ServingsCalories: 129kcalCarbohydrates: 1gProtein: 1gFat: 14gSaturated Fat: 9gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 43mgSodium: 61mgPotassium: 36mgSugar: 1gVitamin A: 556IUVitamin C: 0.2mgCalcium: 26mgIron: 0.04mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
