Monday, December 13, 2010

HOMEMADE BUTTER

So since I don't have any baby rabbits to go ga-ga over, I made butter. I left a gallon of milk out on the counter. (ok this part is wrong...you are supposed to suck out the cream from the top of the milk and let THAT set out on the counter).



Then because I wanted to experiment I started the food processor and a jar of milk to see which one formed butter first.





Well duh!! This was really cool though because my grand mother never let me help with the last part. Only the churning.

After about 5 minutes, I stopped the processor and what was floating at the top was "foamy chunks". I know that this time of year the butter is going to be more white than yellow due to cows eating more hay than grass.



I took a slotted spoon and dipped out the butter and using the round side of a metal teaspoon I started pressing on it and the buttermilk poured out of it. I kept pouring it off back into the processor.

After I could get no more out I poured very cold water in to the bowl. I kept working it and pouring out the water, adding fresh for 3 times until the water stayed clear. This was very fun.

You can expect to get about 1 stick of butter from 1.5 quarts of cream. This milk probably only had 1/2 quart of cream per gallon. So until summer I won't get much butter. I may order straight cream this weekend just to have fun with the grand boys and show them how to make butter. We will freeze it for Christmas day dinner.

The second way to make butter is cultured butter. I bought plain raw organic yogurt. Into the second half gallon I place about 1/3 cup of yogurt. I let it sit (where it is now) and before bed I will process the same way to see the difference in texture, color and flavor.

I will try to update the comments section when I am done.

3 comments:

Jackie said...

I'll be back to see how it turned out. I am a recently retired elem. teacher. Making butter was something my students loved to do!I confess, I did too!(We put cream in baby food jars..shaking til the butter happened!)

Jackie said...

I have viewed your blog back to July. My, you are one busy lady! I don't know how you do all that you do!I'm following you. I love your chatty way of talking about your day!

Tracy Bruring said...

Thank you very much Jackie! Welcome to my world!