Butter

[nickliv]

Turned a pint of nearly out of date double cream into butter with my eldest (5) tonight.

Remarkably straightforward, and tasty? You bet.

It took a jam jar, and 3 bouts of protracted shaking. Washed the butter with very cold tap water, once the buttermilk was squeezed out, slightly salted, and it now awaits the morning toast.

Try it, it's bloody magic.

 

[JonathanD]

More details... how'd you go about that then? I did it at school when I was about 7 and can't remember a thing, other than it tasted good.

 

[nickliv]

Double cream, as close to its use by date as possible, 1/2 - 3/4 fill a clean jam jar / other container of your choosing, and shake. It'll whip up pretty quickly, just keep going and it'll start to flop about in the jar again. Pretty soon you'll have a lump of butter slopping about in white buttermilk.

Keep the buttermilk if you have a use for it, otherwise just tip it away,and rinse the lump of butter in very cold water, as the butter will be very soft at this stage. (Having cold, wet hands helps here too, as you need to squeeze all the buttermilk out of the butter, otherwise it'll taste rancid)

Once it's rinsed, pat it dry, add salt to taste (You can wash t out again if you add too much) and either form into a pat, or just press it into a container. It won't last long.

In the words of the profaning cragface

BUTTER

DONE

 

[xylaria]

I made bilberry flavoured butter by mistake. I whisked cream until really thick and then added bilberries, the fruit acid made it curdle. I sqeezed the liquid out with cheese cloth. I don't know it qualified as butter by it tasted very good on toast.

 

[Dave Budd]

SWMBO occasionally makes butter using that method (though I don't think she rinses and there is no added salt). Very tastey as you say

We had an inch or so left in a bottle (sometimes use a milk bottle, then you can cut the thing in half to get it out ) and it was sat on the worktop for about 2 weeks She scraped a little bit of mold of the top and put it in a tub for me to take with me to a show last weekend. It tasted absolutely fine! Not rancid at all!

 

[Toddy]

Response to Xylaria

Nice one
That's worth trying again

I used to make Crowdie, which is a kind of Scottish soft cheese. It doesn't travel so no one sells it afaik.
Basically it's creamy milk that's curdled using whatever kind of rennet the housewife had to hand. Hens stomach work just as well as calves, and so
does bedstraw and so do nettles. The crowdie is strained and lightly pressed together then rolled in in chopped pinhead oats.
It's not Caboc, but I think it may be where they got the idea from.

We pour a little cream into a bowl and give kids a teaspoon to beat it, and they make butter for oatcakes that way at the Crannog.
A very satisfying thing to make The buttermilk makes excellent pancakes.

cheers,
M
It's a good way of making fresh butter for shortbread.

 

[JonathanD]

Cheers Nick, I'll give it a go.

 

[Prawnster]

The stuff you can learn on this site is astounding. I'm going to have a go with the kids at making some butter, sounds like fun!

 

[JonathanD]

The stuff you can learn on this site is astounding. I'm going to have a go with the kids at making some butter, sounds like fun!

Can't agree more. Just as you think you've read it all. Something new comes along and bites you on the bum.

 

[bikebum1975]

Made butter once by accident making whipped cream went just a little to far past the whipped cream stage and it started to go to butter so kept on mixing was damn good way better than the stuff you buy. took maybe bout oh I'd say 10 minutes with an electric beater was kinda fun to lol.

 

[Mang]

Went with my son's class on a Tudor day and we made cottage cheese by adding a little vinegar to milk and stirring it.

 

[lub0]

Whats the best way of making cream from raw milk?

 

[Toddy]

If it really is raw......as in non homogenised, then just let it sit and the cream will rise.
If it is homogenised, as most of the stuff from the shops is nowadays, you've got no chance.
Homogenisation breaks up the fat molecules so small that they stay in suspension in the milk.

I reckon it's a cunning trick to make us pay for the cream they remove seperately

cheers,
M