Just thought I'd share how I make the butter for my girls. We don't buy or use margarine in our home. I much prefer the texture and taste of real honest butter. I usually keep a few store bought sticks in the freezer for cooking or baking. But for toast and other delights I keep home-churned butter on hand. If you are as blessed and live close to a dairy you can purchase heavy whipping cream there but you can also use one from the store. I have learned that store bought whipping cream will churn faster than the one bought from the dairy. It probably has something to do with the fat content. If you plan on doing it for the first time I would recomend store bought cream and use the mixer. By using the mixer you can see the 3 stages the butter goes through and get a feel for whats happeneing. It takes about 3 of the small cartons to make a good ammount of butter. It also takes some time and paitence!
You can use a hand mixer, a stand mixer, a mason jar, basically anything that will agitate the cream. Obvisously they are easier ways than others! :) I have an old glass jar butter churn that is on it's 4th generation as you might be able to tell in the picture. :) The kids, and I take turns while we sit on the porch turning the crank on the churn. I would estimate it takes about 45minutes to an hour of fast churning to get butter and another 15-20 minutes of rinsing to finish it off. This is why I say you may want to try it in a mixer for the first time.
The cream will go through 3 stages as it makes butter. The first is the inital cream stage. Make sure you shake the container well to get all of the cream blended before pouring it in. After blending for a while you will notice the cream turn to whipped cream. You can stop at this stage and add a little sugar for natural homeade whipped cream but that's not what I'm making today :)
So blend on and after some time you will notice the cream start to get an almost grainey appearance...
Keep pluggin along and it will turn into butter and buttermilk.
From here you drain off the buttermilk and save it in a jar for baking. (Makes lovely biscuits!)
Once that is done you will need to continue pressing the buttermilk out of the butter. You can do this step by hand, using two wooden spoons soaked in ice water. Use the spoons to roll a small piece of the butter into a ball and press the milk out of it. Once that has been done you will need to rinse the butter balls in ice water to continue to remove the buttermilk. This is important as the more buttermilk you leave in the butter the faster it will spoil. If you plan on using it quickly you can leave some of the milk in it and continue to mix it which turns it into whipped butter and will make spreading easier. You can also add salt to the butter during this step or you can leave it unsalted. I hope you try it and I hope you enjoy it!!!
Blessings to you and yours!
