After all the Christmas palavalava, I thought you might be ready for something simple and old fashioned. Nothing is simpler to make than butter. There is only one ingredient… CREAM! (And a touch of salt at the end if you want it to keep a bit longer.)
Butter – my favourite! My cream came straight from the cow. Yours can come from the supermarket. Try to avoid anything that says Ultra Pasteurised. You want Heavy cream, Whipping cream or Double cream or just plain CREAM. Depends which country you are living in.
Bring your cream up to room temperature first. This is important.
You can make butter in your Kitchen Aid or Food processor. I have done both with success, the only thing to watch for in the Mixer is that when the butter coagulates, the left over Buttermilk will fly all over your kitchen walls. So pay attention. The Food Processer works very well too, however do not overfill. Small amounts at a time. I will use my new Butter Churn. Here are the blades hanging to dry.
You can also make butter by half filling a jar with the cream. Put a tight lid on it and give it to someone else to shake. Some shakers add a marble to help beat it up! Kids in Kitchens love this!
You need to beat that cream until it begins to seperate, then beat a wee bit more. Here are the stages to watch out for. 
Whipped cream. Keep beating or shaking. Get your finger out of there!
Not quite.
There. You can see that the butter is very seperate from the buttermilk. Now, strain through a cheese cloth. Keep the buttermilk for pancakes. 
Wrap the butter in the cheese cloth and wring it out, then while it is still in your cheesecloth rinse it in icy cold water, wringing it out as you go. 
Empty the butter into a small bowl, add a little running ice cold water and work with a fork, then pour the liquid out. Do this a few times. You are separating the butter from the liquid. The water helps you wash it out. This is why the water needs to be icy cold. If you want the butter to keep for more than a few days make sure you wash all the whey out of the butter. Add a few pinches of salt or none if you choose. (Though the salt also increases it’s shelf life.) Refrigerate.
Make sure you have a little freshly baked, home made bread and Voila!
This is a great way to introduce kids to fresh food and fun in the kitchen. They do especially like the shaking method, they just pass the jar on when their arms get tired!
Simple is good.
I will wish you Happy New Year tomorrow! We are not quite finished with this year yet. One more 2011 Farmy Day! Daisy is writing her New Years Resolutions. Hmm.
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
95 responses to “Back to work you lot! How to make Butter at Home!”
Have a Great New Year!!!
We will thank you.. good luck for your new year! c
Yum 🙂 have a great new year! 🙂
I hope you have a wonderful new year too, Andy.. c
Fantastic!! I can’t wait to try this. Probably next week after Peder returns to work, and I have my normal routine back again. Thanks so much for posting this! I’m adding double cream to my grocery list … because you see, I live in a city where we’re not allowed a cow or two, or a chicken or three, and roosters are just flat out forbidden because they’re too noisy, which seems odd because the kid next door has a drum set that rattles my brain hour after hour.
Ms Misk, it behooves us to get you a rooster you can train it to sit in the boys bedroom window every morning!! I look forard to seeing how your butter works out. It was because of your comment the other day that I posted this you know!! c
Double cream is sitting in the fridge. This is going to be fun. Mr Misk is extremely dubious on this one. As Thomas Paine wishes he’d said, “These are the times that test a man’s butter…”
Poor Mr Misk.. he will come around we hope! c
Knock.knock. Hello? Okay, I’ve made my butter, it’s bloomin’ delish, just ate some on rolls fresh out of the oven. Question, if I may … Can I freeze some of it because I kinda made a lot. LOL!
Happy New Year, Celi! Your butter looks beautiful! We make ours in the electric mixer with a whisk attachment, and we find that slightly soured cream (a couple of weeks past its expiry date) gives the butter loads more flavour. Pete shapes ours with two wooden paddles normally used for gnocchi, and sigh..you’re right about it going everywhere, we usually end up with a fine slick of grease all over the kitchen.. 🙂
It is true. when I make it with the farm milk I just add to my container every few days and the notes change .. the other thing is to make butter from home made creme fraiche, Divine.. have you tried that?
You are going to tell us soon how you make your creme fraiche aren´t you?!
Ok darling! xx c
Oooh, I’m with Chica, I’d LOVE to know how you make creme fraiche at home! Thanks Celi!
You’re on! c
Brilliant and great to see the whole process 😉
Hi Mad, I make butter every week, but I think it could be fun for others to do if they are making a special cake or pastry! c
Great. We didn’t have mixers or processors during the war, and even the kids (me) get tired of the shaking after about 7 years of rationing. Your pictures are brilliant.
Mercy, SEVEN years of rationing.. NZ had a rough time too but almost every family had rural connections and chickens in the yards, a much smaller population and no BOMBS!. thanks Viv.. c
Yum! I remember the taste of home made butter. It is such a pity that our food is interfered with so much.
It is a lovely delicate taste plus the diet of the cow comes through, for example in the spring when there is lots of grass the butter is deep yellow, so much richer. There is no grass now so the butter is much paler and has that delicate taste. c
How awesome! Freshly made butter on freshly made bread. It just doesn’t get any better than that. One of my fondest memories when I was little was shaking a mason jar at school and then passing it on to my next classmate, until the cream turned to butter. What fun that was! Then we spread it on some bread. Yum!
That is the exciting bit, it can be eaten immediately! .. c
Enjoyed! Thank you Cecil…. (I did spread it around a bit as well for others to savor (and learn from). 🙂
OO.. thank you..I must pop over again and see what you all are up to! c
Wow, I didn’t know making butter was that easy…but of course you have to have the great cream to start. Thank you for the lesson and I’m still hoping for one on how to make Parmesan cheese next year! Happy New Year!
oh yeah.. ok,, you have called me out and i shall rise to the challenge.. stand by.. c
Wow – I love this! We only get nasty tetrapack cream but I have just checked the labels and the whipping cream doesn´t have anything added but I forgot to check “how pasteurised” it is. We are already working on a Heath Robinson type device which involves my granny´s old hand whisk which looks very much like your butter churner blades and a large jar and lid. Am very excited but hope I don´t end up in Malaga hospital with some horrible butter churning inflicted injury 😉 Brilliant post Celi!
I have made this with pasteurised cream.. just give it a crack.. Nothing Ventured nothing Gained.. If you get an injury let me know.. The Bad Baby (sopsta) hit Barcelona today so she will come out to the hospital and hold your hand and say .. Never mind Tanya, my mama always forgets the Downsides! then she will say .. any good Bars out here?.. like mother like daughter.. c
Love how you casually throw in…”Make sure you have a little freshly baked, home made bread.”
You said this was going to be simple!! 😀
Looks yummy. My banana bread would have loved it.
SO, do you have a recipe for that banana bread?.. And it is simple! Everything is! c
So lucky you can make butter with cream straight from the cow! I have to make do with the stuff that’s in the bottle, but I do love making some homemade butter… though the first time I did it I didn’t have an electric mixer or a food processor, and made it with a whisk… thought my arm was going to fall off! I like the idea of shaking it up in a jar, too, though. Hope you have a happy New Year!
Oh i know about the whisk. i used to whip cream with a whisk in the old days!, Awful.. welcome millie.. lovely to see you.. c
Mmmm, buttermilk too! This looks so tasty. I like that first photo too.
I love that little green bowl.. another garage sale purchase!! .. c
That looks alot easier than the big Butter churn my great-grandma used to make me manipulate.
oo i think i have one of those in the basement, i will get it up and send you a photo. BUT where is yours then?.. c