Making Butter!

[slkinsey]

I've been thinking about doing this myself. Have also been wondering how it would turn out if I "soured" the cream first. Wouldn't that give me "cultured butter" and tangy-er buttermilk?

[annecros]

Tasted so much better, didn't it?

THAT is why we go through so much trouble.

[melkor]

I've been doing cultured butter by souring the cream for 24-48 hours before making butter. You can get similarly good results by just churning creme fraiche.

[Special K]

Slkinsey, I bet you're right. I'll have to try that next time. And oh, yes, Annecros, it tasted much better! And it wasn't any trouble at all - it was fun! Something about kneading that butter juuust to the right consistency . . .

I'm sure I got something much closer to "European" butter because I got more of the liquid out.

To be fair to my husband and friends, they really didn't get to taste the butter except as in the cake along with the buttermilk (an aside: the cake got raves - it was a chocolate cake recipe from a recent Barefoot Contessa episode; the secret ingredient was a cup of freshly brewed coffee). We had burgers for dinner, so I didn't make bread. I need to make some and have a "bought vs homemade" butter tasting.

[Lindacakes]

Can someone post the recipe for this? I would love to do it myself.

Is it possible to make a higher fat percentage butter?

I would assume the buttermilk is better than store bought (organic)?

I completely would do this if it meant fresher tasting butter and buttermilk, because I use oodles of both. Also, is hard to get buttermilk on a whim and if I was only ten minutes away from it, the pancakes I could make . . .

[paulraphael]

Any sense of how much butter you get from a quart of cream? I'm curious to figure out the cost of homemade butter vs. factory butter vs. farm butter.

[slkinsey]

Lindacakes, keep in mind that the buttermilk produced from home butter-making is real buttermilk, and not necessarily all that similar to the cultured "buttermilk" one finds in grocery stores.

[Luckylies]

this sounds expensive.

[melkor]

Can someone post the recipe for this?  I would love to do it myself.

Is it possible to make a higher fat percentage butter?

I would assume the buttermilk is better than store bought (organic)?

I completely would do this if it meant fresher tasting butter and buttermilk, because I use oodles of both.  Also, is hard to get buttermilk on a whim and if I was only ten minutes away from it, the pancakes I could make . . .

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Start with a pint of cream plus a tablespoon of buttermilk, leave them at 80*F for 24-48 hours (I put mine on top of my espresso machine with a towel under it). Chill in the fridge then whisk (or whip with a mixer) past the point where you get stiff peaks until it breaks apart. Drain the buttermilk and put it back somewhere warm until it thickens up (another 12-24 hrs). Take the butter curds and kneed them until they stop weeping liquid. Rinse with water, kneed again until dry, repeat until the liquid coming off the butter is clear rather than milky - leaving the buttermilk in the butter will apparently cause it to go rancid much faster. Salt the butter and you're done.

[Special K]

Can someone post the recipe for this?  I would love to do it myself.

Is it possible to make a higher fat percentage butter?

I would assume the buttermilk is better than store bought (organic)?

I completely would do this if it meant fresher tasting butter and buttermilk, because I use oodles of both.  Also, is hard to get buttermilk on a whim and if I was only ten minutes away from it, the pancakes I could make . . .

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Linda, the recipe is pretty much just what I said (in shorthand) in my original post - pour some heavy whipping cream into the mixer bowl fitted with the whip. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let 'er rip at medium high speed. First you'll get whipped cream, then pebbles, and then the liquid will separate out and splatter onto the plastic wrap. At that point you stop and strain the liquid, and then you start kneading the solids to get out the rest of the liquid and it softens and turns to butter. I think the more you knead it the more liquid you press out, and therefore the higher fat percentage of your butter. And yes! The buttermilk is much better! The real reason I tried this is that I noticed the cake I was making called for buttermilk.

K

[melkor]

Any sense of how much butter you get from a quart of cream? I'm curious to figure out the cost of homemade butter vs. factory butter vs. farm butter.

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Starting with 450 grams of cultured cream I get about 200g of butter and 250g of buttermilk. It all depends what the fat content of the cream you use is.

[melkor]

Lindacakes, keep in mind that the buttermilk produced from home butter-making is real buttermilk, and not necessarily all that similar to the cultured "buttermilk" one finds in grocery stores.

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They aren't as different as you'd think. Assuming you're using cultured cream and letting the buttermilk thicken anyway. If you're making butter with sweet cream, you'll have something more similar to whey than buttermilk.

[fiftydollars]

this sounds expensive.

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It is, unless you happen to have a really good source for milk fat. I use manufacturing cream from Berkeley Farms, which I can usually get for about $4-$5/half gallon. That's a lot more expensive than typical butter and close to the cost of the fancy-pants brands. But it gives me something to do, I guess.

Hobbies can be expensive.

[melkor]

this sounds expensive.

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It is, unless you happen to have a really good source for milk fat. I use manufacturing cream from Berkeley Farms, which I can usually get for about $4-$5/half gallon. That's a lot more expensive than typical butter and close to the cost of the fancy-pants brands. But it gives me something to do, I guess.

Hobbies can be expensive.

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Is the Berkeley farms manufacturing cream ultra-pasteurized? I started making butter because the milkman brings us milk and cream every week and it's easier to make butter, creme fraiche, and buttermilk when we get behind than it is to remember to call and change our order.

[djyee100]

Can someone post the recipe for this?  I would love to do it myself.

The original article, "Curd Mentality" by Daniel Patterson, was printed in the NY Times on July 1, 2007. Here is a link. However, you may have to pay a few dollars to view it in the NY Times archives. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/magazine...r=1&oref=slogin

A friend told me about the article, and suggested buying "manufacturer's cream" from Smart & Final to cut down on the cost. Perhaps other wholesale outlets sell this product too.

I haven't made the recipe yet, but I certainly want to.

[melkor]

That's a nice article but there's no way Andante butter is made with uncultured cream, nor does the article mention that the cream you use will have a significant effect on the flavor of the finished butter.

[paulraphael]

this sounds expensive.

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It is, unless you happen to have a really good source for milk fat. I use manufacturing cream from Berkeley Farms, which I can usually get for about $4-$5/half gallon. That's a lot more expensive than typical butter and close to the cost of the fancy-pants brands. But it gives me something to do, I guess.

Hobbies can be expensive.

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$5 a half gallon doesn't sound expensive to me. Supermarket butter costs $4-5 a pound where I am; how much do you get from a half gallon?

And how is the quality of manufacturing cream?

[melkor]

this sounds expensive.

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It is, unless you happen to have a really good source for milk fat. I use manufacturing cream from Berkeley Farms, which I can usually get for about $4-$5/half gallon. That's a lot more expensive than typical butter and close to the cost of the fancy-pants brands. But it gives me something to do, I guess.

Hobbies can be expensive.

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$5 a half gallon doesn't sound expensive to me. Supermarket butter costs $4-5 a pound where I am; how much do you get from a half gallon?

And how is the quality of manufacturing cream?

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Depends on the fat content of the cream. With Straus heavy cream you'd get about a pound and three quarters from half a gallon.

[fiftydollars]

this sounds expensive.

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It is, unless you happen to have a really good source for milk fat. I use manufacturing cream from Berkeley Farms, which I can usually get for about $4-$5/half gallon. That's a lot more expensive than typical butter and close to the cost of the fancy-pants brands. But it gives me something to do, I guess.

Hobbies can be expensive.

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Is the Berkeley farms manufacturing cream ultra-pasteurized? I started making butter because the milkman brings us milk and cream every week and it's easier to make butter, creme fraiche, and buttermilk when we get behind than it is to remember to call and change our order.

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Berkeley Farms' manufacturing cream is only pasteurized, not ultra-pasteurized.

I also make butter to get rid of excess cream.

I like the manufacturing cream because it is not ultra-pasteurized and thickens nicely when combined with Straus' Bavarian buttermilk.

[Lindacakes]

Oooooooooo. Thank you. What a concept: better than buttermilk. I'm dying here, because buttermilk is one of my all time favorite tastes on the flav-o-meter. I collect buttermilk recipes . . . I love buttermilk . . . . Oooooooooo.

[kiliki]

I was very anxious to make butter after reading this sunday's NYT, too, but as I did a little more reading it seems like cultured butter is the way to go. Following a link from Michael Ruhlman's blog I found this blog on culturing butter, and when I get home from work tonight I'll see how my cream/creme fraiche mixture is coming along. I used the best quality locally produced cream I could find from my local natural foods co-op, and I'll be interested to see how subsequent batches, that I'll make with raw cream from the farmer's market, turn out. (I do think it's odd that Patterson never mentions the quality of the cream-I have a hard time believing that butter made from regular grocery store cream would be very special).

Edited July 5, 2007 by kiliki (log)

[Kouign Aman]

Another possible source of material: Costco sells a quart of heavy cream for $1.99

[laniloa]

I'd love to give this a shot but can only get ultrpasteurized cream at local stores. Will that fly?

[kiliki]

Everything I read said ultrapasturized, or any sort of mass produced cream, will work, it just won't make great butter.

I've already stumbled-after sitting out overnight and all day, my cream/creme fraiche mixture is bubbly and fermented-smelling, and my directions say to toss it if that happens.

[melkor]

Everything I read said ultrapasturized, or any sort of mass produced cream, will work, it just won't make great butter.

I've already stumbled-after sitting out overnight and all day, my cream/creme fraiche mixture is bubbly and fermented-smelling, and my directions say to toss it if that happens.

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Before ya toss it, you should taste it - if it's delicious you might as well eat it. (I would, though I'd probably try and sucker my wife into tasting it for me first)