May 1st - Shake, shake, shake...shake, shake, shake...shake your butter! Homemade butter is SO easy to make if you have a source for good milk. Utilizing the low-tech method, I poured a pint of cream into a quart mason jar and shook it until it turned to butter. It's a pretty amazing process. You don't even have to shake hard or fast, just a gentle back and forth motion does the trick. While watching a movie, I shook my jar for about 35 minutes, and just when I thought nothing was going to happen, the cream started to feel like it was sloshing softer. That was the first stage...basically whipped cream that clings to the sides of the jar. Keep shaking and you begin to get a cottage cheese consistency as the milk fat separates from the "buttermilk" and starts pulling away from the sides of the jar. Keep going and the fat globules start sticking together and turning yellow (I read that the natural yellow color is from the chlorophyll the happy, grass-fed cows ingested). Once you see those yellow globs sloshing around in milky clear liquid, you can stop shaking! Strain off the buttermilk and save it for another use. Put the butter in a bowl, run cold water over it while pressing it against the side of the bowl. This washing removes the rest of the milk and helps prolong the life of the butter. Once you squeeze all the water out of the butter, you can salt it to taste and refrigerate it! Yum!
Things I know now, and will try next time: My butter may have taken longer because my cream was fresh-out-of-the-refrigerator cold. It can be made in a blender or with a mixer in much less time. I've also read that the butter has more flavor if the cream sits out at room temperature for 8-12 hours to culture. Guess we'll see next time!
Props to Brown Family Dairy for supplying my milk and cream. They don't pay me, but I love their products and will continue to pay them!
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