I learned how to make homemade butter today.
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Well, technically I learned how to do it over a year ago but today was the first time I put my homemade butter-making knowledge to the test. I have no fancy equipment and no churn and that’s just the kind of kitchen work I like.
I’ve been wanting raw butter for its healthy properties. It’s so incredibly easy to make once you know what you’re doing. Which took me a minute. But I did it! Here’s what’s needed:
- Room Temperature Cream: Raw and organic is my favorite kind of dairy but any sort should work. Just about any amount will work. My half pint of cream made almost a half pound of butter along with a cup or more of buttermilk (I spilled it before I measured it so I’m not positive).
- Canning jars: Bigger is better or several is necessary. The cream shouldn’t take up more than 1/3 of the space in the jar.
- Colander or similar
- A bowl or two
- 1/2 Teaspoon of salt per pound of butter (optional)
- A knife and rubber spatula also come in handy
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Here’s how to make raw homemade butter:
I bought a (half pint? I don’t know) of raw cream, dumped it into a canning jar and tightly twisted on the cap.
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Then I started to shake the living bejeezus out of it. I did a variety of shakes; including but not limited to a hammering motion, a side-lying left/right shake, a Half-Circle Twist, the My-Arms-Are-Getting-Tired Whole Body Wiggle, and what can only be described as Neck Throttling. I’d suggest a similar variety of shakes to avoid muscle fatigue.
Around minute two I began to see that making butter on a day I had not attempted pushups would have been a better idea. This was also about the time the consistency changed from a liquidy sloshing, to a foamy sloshing. You’ll know it when you hear it.
Around minute TWENTY-FIVE I began to think I was doing something wrong. I was most certainly not suppose to be doing a cardio workout, was I? So I one-handedly splashed that jar around while I did a quick search through my books and web resources.
That’s when I discovered the action known as “butter concussion”. I’m not making this up. Without adequate room in the jar you cannot give your butter the concussion it needs to separate from the buttermilk. So I split the cream between two jars.
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No joke, within 60 seconds of continued shaking the sound changed from a slosh to a splash and the butter separated from the buttermilk and no longer coated the jar. I shook it up a bit more to produce a slightly firmer, but still pretty soft and spreadable butter. The more you shake after that moment of separation, the firmer it will be. (Too much shaking is supposed to produce a waxy butter, so be careful. I only shook for another 30-60 seconds out of fear of screwing this up.)
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Then it was time to strain the buttermilk from the butter. With the assistence of Zeb’s LEGO as a support, I used a colander over a cereal bowl to allow the buttermilk to drain.
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I rinsed my homemade butter under cold, running water for a minute or two, threw it in a bowl to mix it around while occasionally pouring off any excess water and added a bit less than 1/4 teaspoon of salt into the mix.
That was it! If it weren’t for my mistake in using a too-small jar, the entire process would’ve only taken about 15-20 minutes, much of which can be done doing anything that doesn’t require the use of your hands. (I read our Fact-of-the-Day calendar while I did most of my shaking.)
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Zeb, aka the Butter King, declared it “The Best Butter Ever” which is really something coming from his choosy taste buds. We ate it the only way homemade butter should be eaten: on freshly baked bread. Mmmm…
Just to recap: How to Make Homemade Butter in 5 Easy Steps
1. Throw your room temperature cream into a jar, filling it only 1/3 of the way.
2. Shake it until it goes from a foam sloshy sound to a definitive splash. At this point you’ll see buttermilk and a clumb of butter.
3. Drain the buttermilk and rinse the butter under running water, being sure to drain the water out.
4. If you prefer salt, mix it into the homemade butter at a ratio of 1/2 teaspoon per pound of butter.
5. Eat it fast before someone else does!
We love making our own butter. If you add a few marbles to the jar it goes faster and isn’t quite so much work, but tastes the same either way!
I made butter last year! I spared by arms, though, and used my stand mixer to “overwhip” the cream. It was lovely!
Denise, that’s an awesome idea! Do you have to dig the marbles out of the butter though? lol
Stacy, you’re a cheater.
I’d love to try this sometime soon. Would be fun for the kids too
Oh that looks delicious (says the mama abstaining from dairy for the sake of her nursling). I love me some raw butter.
Wonderful! We made homemade butter just last week, the kids loved the process. Ours was very yellow though, from Jersey cows.
Wish I could have tried a sample today! It looks divine, the butter and the bread!
Wow, your butter is so…pretty! I’m so excited because I wanted to learn to make butter and had no idea it was so easy! I’m gonna make me some butter soon! Yummy.
Fun!! This is the method we used when we made butter. It’s pretty exhausting but so rewarding!
I’ve seen butter being made a few times in blog land but for some reason the simplicity of how you’ve shown it might be my tipping point. I think I might pick up some cream at the store today…despite the fact that I already bought a pound of local butter yesterday. You can never have too much butter, right?
Once again, you’ve made my day. We buy unpasteurized milk from a local farm and remove the cream from the top. My husband was making ice cream with it, but not so much now. So we’ve been (eek) pouring it down the drain. I’d rather use that liquid gold and now I can. Thanks. Organic butter that is easy to spread. What could be better.
I’m a cheater too. I use the mixer all the time. LURVE homemade butter. I’ll probably do it this method when the girl-child is older – it’s such a fun thing for kids I think.
Oh, I love homemade butter! Mmmm…
I saw your article and thought I’d drop a comment reminding you not to put too much in the jar, because we did that and we shook and shook and shook and nothing happened until we poured some out to give it room … and then I realized I was too late to warn you! Too funny. I’m glad we weren’t the only ones.
yep, we dig them out. easy, though, since the butter goes on a board to paddle and rinse! we make butter every few weeks…just so much faster with them.
I love the technical term “shake the bejeezus out of it”
And what yummy buttery photos.
pure yumminess…i do this with my own kiddo’s and i do it in with my kindergarten kids too…but all we do is put cream in the jar, a marble, close it up and shake like hell…and it tastes so good on home-made bread! the marble is used to speed up the churning and well it is quite fun to hear it bouncing around the jar.
So, I just made some butter according to your instructions, and it only took about 3 minutes for the butter to form. I couldn’t believe how fast. I don’t know if it was the particular cream I bought or that I filled the jar only about a quarter instead of a third. Amazing. I may never buy butter again.
3 minutes?!?! I spent how many minutes!! haha Live and learn, right? Glad you enjoyed it!
The butter looks yummy! You may want to try a small butter churn or the daisy churn which remained popular on farms throughout the 1950’s. I believe Lehmnans Country store has them.
I leave my cream overnight for 12 hours at room temperature. The lactic acid from the bacterial action helps to break down the outer ’skin’ surrounding the tiny globules of butter-fat. This makes it a lot easier to burst the butter-bubbles when you slam them about.
I use a transparent water bottle with several ridges down the sides forming finger ’slots’ for a better grip – makes it harder to drop when shaking too!…continued
…When done I simply pour the butter-milk out of the drink bottle nozzle. Take the lid off & fill with cold water, shake to rinse then pour out through the nozzle again. Repeat rinsing until water runs clear. Remove the lid and pour out butter using a blunt knife to scrape out the excess.
The bottle’s easy to clean too – just add hot water and a little detergent then shake the beejeezuz out of it!
Split cream into 2 bottles and work out both arms – Then you eat the butter and blow it anyway! he he he…
You mention cream and buttermilk, but your recipe only calls for cream? What am I doing?
Is is either or ? or both?
How do you know your cream is truly organic, since anybody can put an organic label on food.
merissa, i know our cream is organic because i know the farmer.
also the cream will make butter and the leftover liquid is whey which can be used as and is sometimes referred to as buttermilk. sorry for the confusion there!
You just saved my homemade butter. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong… but my jar was way too full. For me, too, it was less than a minute after splitting up the cream! Thank you!