Homemade butter tastes much better than store-bought butter, and it only takes about 20 minutes to make. For flavors that are no longer commonly available in many areas, add certain bacteria to make the cream taste sourer.
Ingredients
- Solid cream
- Curd, yogurt, or mesophilic bacteria (optional)
- Salt (optional)
- Chopped herbs, garlic, or honey (optional)
Step
Part 1 of 2: Preparing the cream
Step 1. Start with fresh, heavy cream ingredients
Heavy cream has the highest percentage of fat, making it easier and more productive to turn into butter. For a more unique and off-the-shelf taste, buy raw cream from a local dairy producer. If this is not available, pasteurizing cream with a vat will give the best taste, followed by plain pasteurized cream, with ultra-pasteurization (UHT) as an option.
- Avoid creams that contain sugar
- The fat percentage listed on the cream tells you how much cream will turn into butter. A minimum of 35% is recommended.
- In the US, you can go to the Real Milk Finder link to find the source of whole milk.
Step 2. Aerate the large bowl and container of water
A cold bowl of water will prevent the butter from melting. Aerating a second container of water can also be useful at this stage, especially if your tap water tends to be warm.
Step 3. Pour the cream into a bowl
Don't fill it all the way up, as the cream will expand with the air before turning into butter.
Step 4. Add bacteria for a stronger, easier-to-mix flavor (optional)
If you skip this step, you'll be making a sweet buttercream, a flavor that includes nearly all commercial butters sold in the United States and the United Kingdom. If you want a more complex taste, similar to the butter sold in continental Europe, add a little bit of fermentation, to make a sour "butter culture" instead. This acid also accelerates the breakdown of fats and liquids, shortening the stirring time.
- One easy option is to add either curd or plain yogurt with added bacteria. Use one tablespoon (15 ml) of sour cream for each cup (240 ml) of cream.
- Or, buy mesophilic bacterial cheese cultures online. Mix in tsp (0.6 ml) for each quart (liter) of cream.
Step 5. Allow the bacterial culture for the cream to be at room temperature
If you added a bacterial culture, leave the cream for 12 to 72 hours, checking every few hours. Bacterial cultures are bacteria that become slightly thick, frothy, and have a strong sour smell.
For sweet butter cream without the addition of culture, just leave the cream at about 50-60ºF (10-16ºC). This will make the cream easier to stir, but still cool enough for a butter that needs to be worked at a later stage
Part 2 of 2: Turning Cream Into Butter
Step 1. Stir or beat the cream
If you have an electric mixer, use it to knead the dough starting on a low speed to prevent splashing. If not, put the cream in a Mason jar and shake. Mixing usually takes 3 to 10 minutes, while shaking takes about 10 to 20 minutes.
- To speed up the shaking, drop a small, clean glass marble into the bottle before starting to shake.
- If the mixer has only one speed setting, cover the bowl with plastic wrap to protect it from splashing.
Step 2. Watch the consistency of the cream change
This cream will go through several stages after you mix it::
- Cream is slightly thick or foamy.
- Soft peak. Increasing the speed of the mixer will leave a trail like the shape of a peak that stands with the melted tip. Now you can increase the mixer speed.
- Beat the cream, forming a kind of dense peak.
- The cream will start to look wrinkled or wrinkled, and become very pale yellowish. Reduce speed again before the liquid appears, to prevent it from splattering.
- Solution: Eventually, the cream will separate itself into butter and curd.
Step 3. Pour out the liquid and keep spinning
Pour the curd into a separate container, and save it for use in another recipe. Continue to mix the butter and pour in as more liquid appears. Stop stirring when it looks solid and tastes like butter, or when almost no more liquid comes out.
Step 4. Wash the butter in cold water
If the curd blends with the butter, it will spoil very quickly, so this is necessary unless you are going to eat the butter within 24 hours.
- Pour ice water or cold water into the butter.
- Knead with clean hands, or use a wooden spoon to press down the butter.
- Pour ice water through a sieve.
- Repeat until the water is mostly clean. This takes at least three washes, and sometimes several more.
Step 5. Press out the remaining liquid
Use your hands and the back of a spoon to squeeze out any remaining water in the butter. Strain this water out of the butter.
Step 6. Mix the salt and other ingredients (optional)
Add sea salt to taste if you prefer salted butter; try tsp (1.25 ml) salt per cup (120 ml) butter. Homemade butter will taste delicious on its own, but you can try all sorts of additions to try. Consider dried herbs or finely chopped garlic. You can even make it sweeter by mixing it with honey until smooth.
Be aware that the added flavor may be more significant after freezing and thawing the butter
Step 7. Store in refrigerator or cooler
Homemade butter usually keeps well in the refrigerator for at least a week, and up to three weeks if you completely squeeze out all of the curd. In the refrigerator, unsalted butter will retain its quality for about five or six months, whereas salted butter can last for nine months before its taste is affected.
Unlike many foods, if wrapped tightly in butter it won't change its texture when it freezes
Tips
- If you are using a stand mixer, do not use more than a quart of cream. With practice, you will be able to hear the sound change in the mixer motor as the butter is stirred.
- You can speed up the washing step by combining the butter and water in a blender, but this runs the risk of melting your butter.
- If you can provide whole milk, you can let it sit for about a week, checking daily to sift the cream from the top. This will slightly damage the bacteria-active cream, and can be made into delicious butter without the addition of other ingredients.
