If you haven’t already, you should learn how to make butter. It’s so simple that I believe everyone needs to make homemade butter at least once.
To experience the best of what homemade butter can be, I only bother making it if I’ve got some extra raw cream from grass-fed cows on hand. Otherwise, I buy Organic Valley’s Pasture Butter. It’s a rich, yellow butter from grass-fed cows. It’s just not raw. (For online sources of butter from grass-fed cows, check out Where to Find Butter from Grass-Fed Cows.)
I also like to experiment with my butter. You can make homemade butter from sour or sweet cream, with or without salt, and with or without various herbs and spices. However you do it, the same general method is used.
How to Make Butter: Homemade Butter Tutorial
How To Make Butter: The Players
- Any amount of cream
- sea salt (optional)
How To Make Butter: The How-To
Begin by pouring your cream into a blender or food processor. Here I’m using slightly soured raw cream. It’s too far gone to be happy in coffee, but it’s not quite solid enough to be served up as sour cream.
Blend your cream, and be sure to have someone do the all-important job of keeping the lid on. (My four year old was eager to volunteer.)
After five or more minutes, the homemade butter will start to separate into butter and buttermilk. When you notice that happening, stop the blender and let the cream sit for a minute or two as the butter rises to the top.
Pour the buttermilk into another container, using a spoon to press as much buttermilk out of the butter as possible.
You could call your homemade butter done at this point, but if you want it to last for more than a few days you need to wash the butter. Pour ice cold water into the blender and blend for another thirty seconds.
After you’ve washed the butter, pour off the water. Use a spoon or a spatula to squeeze out the last dregs of the buttermilk. What’s left is yummy homemade butter. I mix in sea salt with a spoon.
Now your homemade butter is ready to spread on a delicious slice of sourdough bread made with sprouted grains, or melt over steamed vegetables!
And — wonder of wonders — you know how to make butter!
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I do this in a stand mixer. It takes longer because I can’t put the speed up too much or it splatters despite the shield. But it runs unattended. I buy a pint of cream every two weeks and this is where most of it goes. I should buy more cream so I don’t have to be so stingy with it. 🙂
Did you use manufactured cream to make your butter and where did you find it? I live in the Chicago area and Illinois doesn’t allow raw or non-pasteurized cream in the state.
Thanks!
Just ran across this post but Illinois DOES allow the sale of raw milk and cream. You just have to find a farm and go get it directly from the farmer on his/her farm in your own container. Ask around at the Chicago area farmers markets and they can probably point you to a supplier. Also try the real milk website which lists laws by states as well as vendors.
I am a farmer in Elizabeth, IL which is about 20 minutes before Galena. I provide raw butter and milk. The butter is a bright yellow unlike the industrial butter in the stores.
Just email me deborah-371@hotmail for information.
Have a question. I bought raw butter at Sprouts last week. It was $12.00 for a tub which nearly killed me! The flavor is rather gamey. Is all raw butter that gamey?
It really depends on what time of year and what the cow is eating. Ask a farmer and they will explain
In the spring it is possible wherever you live that the cows got into wild onions or some kinds of strong wild grasses. I remember having been forced to drink milk and eat butter with an onion flavor. However, usually the butter was wonderful.
My girlfriend said it also depends if you leave it open in the fridge. Goat milk/butter might taste gamey to some. And it does matter what the cow is eating, brassica can make the milk taste bad.
If cows are feeding on brassicas or some kind of a crop for an extended period the milk will taste weird. But if cows are on good quality pasture alone the milk will taste superb
I couldn’t agree more with the last comment. We had cows and goats. We used the milk from both animals. The milk straight from both animals did take on whatever it was that they were eating outside of the barn. Even though while they were in the barn we fed them mostly grain and hay.
No butter is not gamie. The butter is either sour or the cow ate something that gave the milk a bad taste. If the cream is sweet the butter will be also as long as all thw buttermilk was washed thoroughly from it.
Pat, I am also in Illinois, and Illinois does allow raw milk and cream to be sold at farms. We are in Dixon, IL and have a local farm that we buy from. There are several in the Chicago area as well though. I know your post was from quite some time ago, but hopefully you are able to see my reply!!
I’ve made it with heavy whipping cream and it came out just as great!
Just did the same myself – had two pints that didn’t get used as intended, sell by was yesterday, thought “Hey, what if…?” OH MY GAWDS it’s tasty!!!!
Betsy, don’t forget to drape a towel over the mixer; they keeps it from splattering. Also, you only get about half of the amount of cream (aka, 2 cups cream equals 1 cup butter). After draining, spend another 30-60 seconds blending it with iced cold water, squeeze out all the water, then put in plastic wrap. You’ll have it at least a week.
Here in Vermont, we’re fortunate to have great, local butter by Cabots and also by Vermont Butter and Cheese Co. Their lightly salted, cultured butter is simply outstanding. The first time I had it in a restaurant, I couldn’t stop eating it. When our server told the chef that I was oohing and aahing over the butter, he came out to say hello because he, too, loved it.
Cabot butter is not grass fed. Vermont butter and Cheese Co. is not grass fed either. All cows eat grass! Not grain. I am so disappointed with the Vermont populace where New Hampshire has legalized the retail sale of Grass fed Raw milk, very few Vermonters even know the difference. The science is out and available for study at you leisure. The nutrient density of grass fed milk and beef far exceeds that of grain fed cattle. Grass fed cows are healthier and live longer lives and actually produce more milk over their life span because they live nearly 4 times longer than their grain fed counterparts. Please Vermonters do your homework and stop resting on the Vermont name. It is only a name.
That might be true if you have some animals that don’t have strong dairy character but with today’s genetics with most dairy breeds your animal will either lose production and/or condition without some grain. I raise milk goats and Nigerians you could probably get away without grain as long as you have high quality hay but forget about it with the large breeds.
Robin, are you using A1 or A2 cows??
Hmmmm…This needs an update…Cabot butter is OK, but not the best by any means, and now that they no longer guarantee to not use milk from cows that were treated with antibiotics and/or growth hormone, we pretty much no longer buy their products. Since Michael posted his message but before you posted yours, Vermont legalized the sale of raw milk if purchased directly from the farm. And there are now plenty of farms that raise 100% grass fed beef. They grow and store their own hay and the cows eat that in the winter. Most regular grocery stores and co-ops sell Kerrygold and Organic Valley (pastured) butter. We buy raw milk from a Vermont farm that raises grass fed cattle and we have started to make our own butter. Next month, we’ll start making cheese. There are classes on how to use raw milk to make dairy products and they are often booked to capacity. Granted, most of the classes are booked by flatlanders but that is because most of us are from cities and we never learned what to do with dairy, but as for born and bred Vermonters? Your comments are way off base. The vast majority of them grew up on farms or were raised by those who did and they certainly know quality food from the mass-produced stuff sold in stores. If they can get their hands on the raw materials, most still make (or raise) their own.
What a great, practical post. Looks so easy and delicious, and you haven’t steered me wrong yet. I’ll try this with my kids soon. Thanks.
These is interesting. I always like to make common foods like this from scratch. I bet a lot of people don’t even realize that butter is “made,” because we’re so used to buying it as a finished product. But I bet you can feel a heck of a lot better eating this than the stuff from the stores, especially knowing you’re using whole, organic, grass-fed ingredients.
Matt (No Meat Athlete)
Aight, ima try this out. If I can do this in my blender then how hard can it be right (and then i get products out of one, buttermillk and butter!)?
Betsy — I made it in my stand mixer once, but I decided the blender was easier.
Michael — Us butter lovers have to stick together. Quality butter from grass-fed cows is one thing that is absolutely worth paying for.
Lee — If you do it with your kids, they can have even more fun churning the butter by hand. Just put the cream in a lidded jar and let them take turns shaking the jar by hand or rolling it back and forth to each other on the floor.
Matt — I do feel better eating good butter!
Tamara — It is easy! And, yes, you can save the buttermilk (called “old-fashioned” buttermilk to keep people from confusing it with cultured buttermilk) and use it for all sorts of goodies. You can even culture it with a little cultured buttermilk and use it instead of cultured buttermilk in all your recipes. (I’ve got directions on how to make cultured buttermilk here on this site.)
Lee- Also, if you make it in a jar with your kids, you can add a little colored marble to the jar. Kids love to hear the marble clink around in the jar and look for it peeping out of the butter. Also, it speeds up the process so the kiddos don’t get too tired from shaking up the jar before the butter actually forms.
I live this idea! I want to find some raw cream, and try this. My grandkids will love the marble.
Did you allow to cream to sour on purpose, or did you use it because it’s what you happened to have on hand? If on purpose, how to sour it? Leave it out overnight? Are there health benefits?
I’ve been making butter lately from pasteurized milk that’s organic, cream top and grass fed. It doesn’t turn yellow like that, it’s white, but it’s quite yummy, and healthier than regular butter from the store. I now have access to raw grass-fed milk, just starting this last week, so I hope to make raw butter soon. Will mine get yellow like yours?
I make mine in the food processor. I love using the leftover buttermilk in breads and such!
Katie
Katie — In this particular case, my cream soured in my fridge b/c my husband has stopped drinking coffee. So, we had extra and it just wasn’t getting used up as quickly. You can sour it more quickly by stirring in a teaspoon of cultured buttermilk and leaving it on the counter over night.
I don’t know of any additional health benefits from souring your cream first, assuming that you’re using raw cream. If you’re using pasteurized cream, then you get the benefit of the added probiotics from the sour culture.
What I do know is that this is how most Europeans make their butter, and the biggest difference is in the type of butter flavor you’ll taste.
The yellow color comes from the cow’s diet. They have to be eating tall, shooting green grasses for the butter to be yellow. In most of the country, that type of grass doesn’t grow until May – September.
I grew up on a farm in KY. On cold mornings in order to get awake for breakfast and school I shared my place behind the coal stove with 2 gal. of milk, thick with cream getting warm. My mother had an internal method of deciding when the milk was ‘ready in that [I’ve done all this before you came along and after you’re here, too]. When I was very young she made (tried) me churn with an old fashioned churn which consists of a large ceramic urn that was covered with a round wooden piece with a hole in it. When the milk was ready (I think it had to do with whey rising to the top after it had soured enough) it was poured into the churn and the dasher the magic piece itself was inserted into the milk and the round top threaded over the handle and on the churn. Then to churn you sat for what seemed like hours and dashed the dasher up and down in a fairly regular rhythm. I would sit and DASH down then up then DOWN and so on. Soon, fearing for her milk she sent me out which was what I wanted anyway.
Yum! I love butter. I have never tried making it so I appreciate your post. Stumbled! Thanks for participating in Real Food Wednesday.
CHEESESLAVE
This looks so cool! I must try this one day.
Jendeis
Oh I love homemade butter, it is simply the best! I have made it in my food processor before, but the blender is a great idea.
Jenna @ Newlyweds
I use my stand mixer because I always make about 2 quarts worth at a time. But I am going to try this out very soon. Nothing like homemade butter! My family prefers homemade butter to store-bought. They say the store-bought tastes waxy.
Amanda@BetterisLittle
I don’t make it myself – too lazy and the cream goes way to fast in our home. I do buy it from the same people who do our cow share. They also offer fresh raw butter for $10/lb. It’s worth every penny and I usually by a 1/2 lb a week. We use kerrygold and OV pastured butter for cooking.
Jenny @ NourishedKitchen
Wow! Thanks for making this look so easy. If I can 1) get more milk from our goats and 2) figure out how to separate the cream, then 3) I’ll be making butter!
~Wardeh
Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS
Wardeh —
Separating cream from milk is EASY. Check this out:
https://www.foodrenegade.com/how-to-separate-cream-from-milk/
Goat milk does not separate naturally unless left undisturbed for so long that it’s going to be close to souring. It is naturally homogenized. Get a cream separator.
Hahaha ‘how to make butter!’
That looks so delicious. I’ve bought Organic Valley butter, but I thought it was all grass fed…? I read that from here: http://www.organicvalley.coop/resources/reading-room/grass-is-greener/page-1/
I’ll have to watch out for that pastured kind.
Did you buy the cream, or did you drink skim milk for a while?
And is cultured, or salted butter better? Thanks!!!!
Kyle
Hmmm. I can’t seem to find any natural small-farmed butter here in Calgary. Problem may be solved!
Ryan
*grin* My daughter and I made butter the other night, but it was a mistake. We had intended to make whipped cream, she got a little carried away with the whipping and I got distracted. Delicious though, just not whipped cream!
Today we picked up 800 lbs of butter from a local butter maker on the other side of the mountain. We’ll be feeding that to our herds of pastured pigs. Every once in a while the dairy has a batch of butter or cheese that doesn’t work out quite right. They give us or another farmer a call rather than sending it to the landfill. These pigs are living high on the hog as this is very high end butter! It goes well with pasture which is the vast majority of their diet – adding calories and lysine.
Cheers,
-Walter
in Vermont
I’d love to taste some of your pork!
Thanks much for this post, I’ve been looking forward to it as I’ve voted for it on your site more than once. 😉
I want to make this with the cream I get off of our raw milk, BUT I’m not able to separate the cream from the milk. It separates well but I can’t seem to get just the cream off the top through the quarter sized hole of the gallon milk jug. Any suggestions?
We allow the cream to rise to the top, poke a couple holes near the bottom of our gallon jugs (with an ice pick), remove the lid, and watch the milk pour into a large pot. It usually takes about 5 minutes for the layer of cream to reach the holes, at which point we simply pour it out of the jug into our standup mixer. We buy two gallons of fresh grass-fed milk a week, and in the summer we get about 1 1/2 lbs. of BRIGHT YELLOW butter out of those two gallons; during the winter, it’s closer to 3/4 lb, and the color is an off-white.
Muffin Dad — YES! Go read the post I linked to in my comment to Wardeh. It’s an EASY way to separate cream from milk.
Your post is very timely – I recently found a source of fresh raw milk from pastured cows (my 4 year-old son’s assessment: “It’s so sweet!”) and I can’t wait to make butter from it – thanks for posts on separating the cream from the milk and the butter making.
My husband is a butter fanatic and at more than $6 for a pound of the good stuff I am very excited to have an even more local, inexpensive option! Thanks so much!
Stacey
So timely.
I’ve been looking into sources for raw milk in our area. Looks like we might have to travel a few miles to get it, but it’s accessible. And I’m stoked.
Homemade butter is a beautiful thing. Totally worth the effort in my book. And who can beat that flavor?? Give me some warm homemade bread and a nice slab of that yellow heaven!
lo
Thanks for the post.
One question – how long will this kind of butter last in the fridge? It’s just me and my hubby so I don’t want to make more than we can eat.
Butter making… the post caught my eye because I really enjoy homemade butter and the process of making it… when everything goes right!
I have a Jersey cow who is on a grass-based diet. Have been milking her or her mamma for several years now and making butter off and on. When everything goes right, we end up with delicious beautiful butter. I use butter for all our fat needs for cooking etc. except if an oil is absolutely necessary for the purpose – then it’s usually olive oil.
Occasionally – and sometimes this happens a few times in a row which can be discouraging – the butter just won’t form. The cream gets thick, then grainy buttery solids form – but too tiny to gather into butter. This has happened both when making butter in a blender and with my hand churn. I’ve continued churning – once for three hours (had help) with the hand churn to see if it would eventually gather – added ice to see if cooling it would help… still didn’t work. If anyone has any idea why this happens and how to prevent it, I’d be delighted to know.
We have been having the same problem with my jersey cow’s cream. The last 2 times I just fed it to the chickens but this time I strained it in my coffee filter that I use to strain the milk and squished it together. The butter tastes great after I used my hands to make a ball. I would love to know the reason though. Much easier to make butter when it clumps together. We typically get 13 oz of butter per quart of cream.
Maria — If you’re very good at washing the buttermilk completely out, it will last at least as long as store bought butter. To do that, you may want to do the cold water rinse until it comes out clear and not milky looking at all. The more buttermilk left behind in your butter, the more quickly it will spoil.
Deanna — I wish I knew the answer to your question. I’ve never had butter not form for me (but then, I don’t make it as frequently as you do). The only thing I’ve heard about temperature is that you want to use WARM cream in a COOL bowl. Perhaps some of our other, more experienced readers have some ideas?
If it’s better to start with warm cream, how should it be warmed? Just left on the counter until room temperature?
Yep!
How much raw milk do you have to buy to make a pound of butter?
Michelle @ Find Your Balance
Michelle — That depends on how much cream is in the raw milk, and how much fat is in the cream! (I know! It’s not the answer you were hoping for…) Basically, the more fat/cream you’ve got, the more butter you’ll be making.
Michelle – from my experience it takes approximately two quarts of cream to make a pound of butter
~deanna
Awesome article thanks!
Will you be writing one on how to make cheese? That would be cool!
Thanks again,
Titus
I made butter by accident once when I overbeat the cream, I think we’ve all done that once, right? It was delicious. I didn’t know about washing the butter, thanks for the tip! 🙂
Annie – Hip Organic Mama
Totally agree about Kerrygold and Organic Valley! Great stuff. So cool you made butter yourself. I’m totally trying this when I can get some local raw cream. 🙂 Great blog!
Thank you for the recipe! I just finished making my first batch and it’s firming up in the fridge. I can’t get raw cream but I can get some from pasture cows that are also fed some grain. Sadly it didn’t turn out nearly as yellow as I hoped! Starting to wonder if it’s grain fed cows with some pasture instead. I’ll try again in a few weeks in case it’s still too early in the season.
the kitchenaid mixer with the whip attachment makes great butter too. no need to hold the lid on.
Carrie
remember folks, that lovely bright yellow is dependent on what the cow eats- green grass. It scares me a little that the store-bought stuff is always yellow…
I’ve often looked at packages of store bought butter, and it will have annato extract added to it (you know, the plant that is used for it’s yellow/orange color in macaroni and cheese or Goldfish crackers?). Quite deceptive really.
I can’t wait to do this! Can this be done with raw WHOLE milk? or only raw cream?
Meagan
Meagan — Butter can only be made from cream. The cream doesn’t even have to be raw, although that’s what I used.
If you want to use raw whole milk, simply separate off the cream from the milk & use the cream to make butter.
Great post. I been on a huge butter kick lately, so I really liked it.
Grok
Thanks for this! I made butter today with cow’s milk cream that had been given me. It is/was awesome!
And, to Meagan – you CAN make butter from whole milk; I’ve done it. But, IMO, it is not worth the effort. You go through almost all the same motions as above (churning/washing, etc.) but the yield is very low. If the milk is 4% butterfat, then ONLY 4% of its quantity becomes butter. See what I mean? A quart of whole milk for me yields 4 T of butter, after all that work! The reason I tried this is because we have goat’s milk which is naturally homogenized (the cream doesn’t separate too much). I did get butter and it tasted awesome, but in the end, I decided it wasn’t worth the work.
Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS
I make butter pretty regularly. Never buy it at all. It’s just fun to do.
In answer to Deanna’s question, sometimes that has happened to me too (my butter won’t set up). What I do is just put it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes and then I take it out and start churning it in my food processor. Works perfectly everytime.
This doesn’t happen often but when it does, this has helped me.
Thanks for the photos! How long does raw cream butter keep in the fridge? I would expect REALLY long but just want to be sure.
Great tutorial! I have just recently found a good source for raw milk, and have been dying to make butter. I knew it was easy, but you showed me it was! I have just finished and it is setting up in the fridge–can’t wait to try it tonight on fresh baked/ground spelt bread!
Lovin’ your blog btw. 🙂
.-= Phoebe @Cents to Get Debt Free
Okay, so I’m ready to scream. I just tried this, poured the cream off the top of my raw milk, put it in the mixer, and started whipping. Guess I got some milk in there too because it isn’t whipping up. It didn’t even turn to whipped cream, and I’ve made enough whipped cream in my life to know that it just ain’t happenin’. Sigh… Guess I”ll put it in the fridge and use it in my coffee?? Any advice? Sigh…
.-= Musings of a Housewife´s last blog ..Marinade Recipes =-.
Add a little bit of ice or ice water to the mixer and it will set up for you. It’s always good to start out with cold utensils (especially the bowl). If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer it has a metal bowl which will cool down fairly quickly in even a half hour. Also, I always use iced water when separating at the end (after I drain off the whey) because it handles so much easier to knead it and get all the last of the water out, which you’ll want to do so it doesn’t taste sour.
Raw cream butter will only last about 1 day on the counter (and that depends on your mean air temp) and will last a few days in the fridge, with softening in between. The more liquid you work out of your butter while kneading, the better it will taste and the longer it will last without tasting sour. Once it sours, use it for baking bread and cakes and stuff. Don’t throw anything away!
My kids used to love to make it in a jar with 2 marbles added. They would roll it on the floor with their feet (each one with his own jar) and then I would do the finishing. They were amazed every time, as though it was magic. Same reaction the first time we ever made homemade cottage cheese. Most kids today don’t even know where products like butter and cottage cheese originate. How sad.
We go through a LOT of butter at my house (so far, so good… no one is fat or unhealthy YET). I’m hoping to save a little money by making it myself. Also, from what I gathered from the information about butter on Wikepedia, homemade butter may be a little better for you than store-bought. Apparently, store-bought butter is made up of roughly 80% butterfat while homemade is about 65%.
Remember–the nutrients are in the butterfat! The more fat, the better it is for you! So the homemade butter IS better for you than the store bought 🙂
I wouldn’t rely on “advice” from Wikipedia. It’s very nominal in value. Go to web sites like http://www.westonaprice.org for information on nutrition, and go to the site http://www.realmilk.com for info on milk, cream, butter, etc.
Homemade is so far superior to store-bought stuff that Wiki couldn’t make a dent in describing the goodness.
Thanks for this post. I was shaking 2 week old raw cream in a jar and I wore myself out! I found this post just in time.
Shaking cream in a mayonnaise jar is a great way to tire out children. I used to use this trick while babysitting – divide up the cream among the children and make them shake it for a half hour. And the parents always enjoyed having some homemade butter at the end.
I have just finished searching for two hours to no avail for some outlet where I could buy “sour cream butter.” I was born in Canada, and when I was a little girl I LOVED butter, but it was rationed in Canada. So I used to ride my tricycle down to the corner store and check things out. One day I saw them onloading a shipment of my precious butter so I roared home on that trike as fast as a five-year old could go to tell my Mum so she could hurry down and get some before it got all gone. She just laughed at me and told me it wouldn’t get gone all that quickly because the war was over. And that is my memory of the ending of World War II. But as time went on, I noticed that butter just didn’t seem to taste as good as I remembered it when I was little. First we went through that crazy stage of margerine that was shipped in a big plastic bag with a little tablet of dye in it. The margerine was shipped uncolored…it looked like a big bag of Crisco…and you had to knead it so that the bubble of color burst and then you had to sit there and knead it and knead it until it turned yellow. That was because the dairy industry didn’t want margerine to take over their market so they got laws passed that made it illegal to put artificial coloring in the margerine. I guess they figured no one would want to eat that pure white greasy looking mess, but it was cheap, so the food manufacturers got around that obstacle by having the consumer color it themselves. But I digress. So butter never tasted right after that. Untill…one day my mother brought home a package of butter she had found at a local super market in Atlanta that said it was made from sour cream. And Eureka!! That was the butter taste I remembered! But I was never able to find that kind of butter again. So I am very thankful to find this simple way of reconstructing that memory. Thanks!
Jean — FYI, these days sour cream butter is marketed in the U.S. as European Style butter. So, that might be worth trying anyway.
I’ve always been a “butter is better” advocate, I got that opinion from my grandfather who stubbornly refused to eat margarine until the day he died (of a ripe old age) despite doctors telling him for decades that margarine was healthier, well when research fainally came out about trans fats and he was finally vindicated we both did a collective “Hah! I knew it!” But the truth it was we just hate the vegetable shortening like mouth feel of margarine, of course my Grandpa remembered back in his childhood when it was illegal to sell margarine with yellow food die, so he knew the grayish glop that is margarine nefarious true form.
On a different note butter is so easy to make, I’ve once made it by accident. I was whipping some cream for a dessert and forgot it while rushing about the kitchen, when I discovered my “mistake” I improvised a compound herb butter with it, delicious!
to Deanna – that happened to me the other day. It got so think the blender siezed up and still no butter. I added about 1/4 cup milk and then it finished right away.
I do love everything related to cooking, so making butter at home sounds fun to me. It’s probably healthier than the typical butter you find in grocery stores, too. It’s another recipe that I will add to my list, as I do with all the others I find when searching around on the Internet.
Last year for thanksgiving I “banned the can”– everything had to be homemade, all the way down to the marshmallows for the yams. But I used store-bought butter. I knew it couldn’t be too hard to make butter, and so last week searched the internet for ways to make some. I homeschool, and so thought this would also be a geat project for the kids, especially the method that uses a jelly jar. I first tried ripened whole milk (per another blog I read), and that didn’t work. Then I tried whipping cream– cold, straight from the fridge, with a little salt. My boys and I each took turns shaking, and while it was fun and all, I was beginninng to think that it wasn’t going to work. Still, I kept shaking as I searched for other blogs on the subject, and was reading yours when all of a sudden I realized I was shaking a blob of butter around in some buttermilk! The boys were so excited! It did come out a yellow color, but not as bright as it might have been had it come from organic, grass-fed cows.
I’m hoping that since I used cold milk and promptly refridgerated the butter, that it won’t matter that I didn’t wash it (we were too excited about the results for me to finish reading through the blog until today!). And NOW I see that I can also make sour cream?? I have so much yet to learn. Thank you for an imformative article, and to all the commenters for sharing their experiences, as well!
This looks so great! We used to make butter a lot when I was a kid, but it always involved putting cream in a glass jar and taking turns shaking it for a very long time. This looks quite a bit easier……
Quite interesting. As a child (back in the 50s) I remember making butter by the ‘hand crank’ method. We had a large gallon jar with an attachment on top with two angled paddles inside that were operated by a hand crank on the top which was generally worked by the youngest able child (me).
I never thought that it was possible to make genuine butter in a blender and will have to try it if I can locate the cream. As a child about the only groceries we purchased were things such as salt, flour, sugar, coffee, and a few spices. Everything was grown or raised on the ‘farm’.
Hi – I read lots of food blogs and yours is my favourite!! Keep up the great work. I love all the photo’s you post, they’re great!
I’m very excited, I live in Australia where it’s illegal to sell / buy raw milk, but I’ve found a small dairy with happy cows, only 15 mins from me who will sell me raw milk YAY! As of right now I’m watching the lovely cream rise to the top of the milk, ready for skimming and turning into butter. I have been waiting for years to try this. Thanks for the post!
Raelene.
I will certainly be giving this a go as it looks so easy and I’m a “make things from scratch” kinda girl. But I’m wondering when you talk of cream, are you referring to thin pouring cream or thickened cream? I’m in Australia so I’m not sure our definitions are the same (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream#Australia for a list) and I’d rather start the project with the right product than make a botch of it.
According to the definitions at the Wiki article, you would need to start with “pure cream.”
Hi Kristen,
I have made two batches of butter so far. The first time I skimmed the cream off the top of the raw milk, I guess I had about 1 1/2 cups of cream and ended up with only a tiny amount of butter, and it was hard to tell when it had “turned”. I thought perhaps the cream was too thin (like pouring cream – or quite thin pure cream), so the next time I let the cream sour and thicken for about 5-6 days. This was more successful, but the taste is very strong – did I let it get too sour? It was as you described, not sour cream, but not good for coffee. I read that the cream should be quite heavy – how do I achieve heavy cream when I am getting it by skimming raw milk? Another question: is it better to use buttermilk to culture the cream rather than let it naturally sour?
I just tried making butter this morning, it’s a fun process. I made it from fresh cow milk but for some reason the butter I got was whitish and not as yellow as the one in the photos above. I was told that cow milk isn’t the same all the time, and milk taken from cows prior to their delivery is much richer and “fatty” than milk taken after delivery.. I love the photos by the way good stuff.
hi i am wondering why my fresh cream wont mix right?? it will never get to the whipped cream stage?? please help
Thank you for the recipe! No one else told me to wash the raw butter. I made this in my Vitamix in about one minute. I’m so excited to be able to make raw butter so quickly and easily! God bless you, Kim
Oh wow that looks so simple and deliciously creamy! I just tried ghee and cultured butter for the first time recently and love ’em – I’ll have to take the next step and make my own butter. I don’t have time to read through all the comments like I usually do so I look forward to coming back and reading about everyone else’s experiences. 🙂
A question about the buttermilk that was poured off…Is that automatically considered cultured buttermilk? or is there something else that needs to be done to it first? Can I use that part to make buttermilk pancakes?
Thanks so much for all you time and effort!
I have been making butter for about 3 months. I started selling it because people around me just love it. I do have a problem though and I am hoping you have an answer. I rinse the butter 6 or 7 times with ice water, then i spread it out on wax paper with weights to get out the water. But I am so obssesive about getting the water out, and usually I will find some beads of it sitting on top. I have really gone through it with squeezing out water 3 and 4 times. How do i get it out and when is enough enough? thanks
I just made me some rosemary minced garlic butter yummy 🙂 I’ve known how to make itbut I forgot, and I used ultra pasteurized heavy whipping cream and it made a very light tasting butter and the rosemary and garlic totally compliments the butter:) very good stuff people.
I like to make raw butter and mix in raw unfiltered honey!
I’ve been making butter for a few months now and have discovered some answers to questions above.
1) Why is raw cream butter white instead of yellow? It could be the time of year — butter is deeply yellow when the cows first go out on spring pasture and lightens through the year; could be the breed of cow (Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey, etc.).
2) Why won’t butter break? This one I don’t know for sure but my “cure” is to set the cream out overnight to ripen in a lightly covered jar; cover and put back in the fridge until ready to make butter; then process/shake/blend the cold cream. Never fill the bowl/jar more than 1/2 to 2/3 full.
3) Pressing out the water really is tricky. I’ve found a sturdy spatula helps, but if it’s just for us, I don’t worry about getting all the rinse water out. It does help to drain the buttermilk, rinse a few times and then refrigerate it again for a while before the final pressing.
4) How long does it last? I don’t know but if you’re suspicious, then butter can be frozen. If you start to suspect the butter’s been in there a little long, make ghee (butter oil)!
5) Butter can be made from the light cream skimmed off the top of whole milk or manufacturer’s cream from a cream separator. Light cream can shake into butter easier but less yield. Manufacturer’s cream is so thick you need a power tool (blender, processor, etc.).
6) Commercially cultured buttermilk is different from this type of fresh buttermilk. It still makes great pancakes and biscuits though.
I’ve tried making butter in a blender with cultured buttermilk (starter + milk/cream blend) twice; both times the jar overheated and cooked the contents! What brands/models of blender are best?
The two models I used were both Oster brand with “all metal drive systems” (talk about heat transfer!): I don’t think they are designed to run for long periods of time. The manual said they couldn’t be used for whipping eggs, either, probably for the same reason.
Second question: how long does blending 2 cups cold cultured buttermilk take? I shook cultured buttermilk (starter + milk/cream blend) in jars for over an hour with glass marbles and got nothing (except larger biceps, perhaps)! Very disappointing!
I’m not giving up yet, but I’m wondering what the best investment in butter-making equipment is…
I tried using plain Half & Half in my Oster blender on LOW (the “1” setting). It did warm up the cream a little, but I stopped it every ten minutes or so to let it cool down. In 30-40 minutes I had “butter” (2 TBSP from 2 cups Half & Half…I’m sure there may have been more if I knew what I was doing!)
The biggest difficulty was the color: the butter granules were white and the buttermilk was white, so at first I didn’t realize I had any butter! It wasn’t until I pulled out what I thought was whipped cream that I realized it was butter.
Toward the end, it did make a slight slushing sound (it sounded a little more “watery”): so if you’re having problems getting butter to form, I would definitely recommend waiting for that sound before you poke at the contents! Something else that may help after you’ve been blending for what seems like eons: put the jug in the fridge for a few minutes so the butter granules (if they’re hiding in there) will harden somewhat.
I am now on the lookout for some heavy cream. 2 TBSP, even 1/4 cup, is a disappointing yield for 2 cups Half & Half! Anyone know a good source of cream in SE Michigan/Toledo?
I got my first raw milk yesterday and was soooo excited. I could hardly wait to make my first batch of butter. My milk sat undisturbed in the back of the fridge for 24 hours, and then i took off all but 1″ of the cream from the top. I can’t tell you how cool the cream was (couldn’t find my thermometer), I set it out for about 45 minutes before I started whipping it. I used an Oster food processor. After 5 minutes, I stopped to see what was happening inside. Nothing. I went through this process for 30 minutes, every 5 minutes checking. But I was determined! After that I just let it run, while I held the top. After 1 hour I gave up! I turned the thing off and looked inside. Not even a tiny glob, nothing! What did I do wrong? Help!
Vickie,
I made the post below, I had the same problem. So I went crazy and finally my husband, bless him, found the below site: http://newlifeonahomestead.com/2010/02/trying-for-butter-getting-whipped-cream/
every Lady on here comments on how store bought cream will turn to butter cold: but Raw cream will not. I did mine tonight and had to let you know! ours sat at rom temp for two hours, near the stove so it felt almost warm when I started shaking in a jar: 15 min later beautiful butter 🙂
I hope this helps you…
Tiffany
Hi. I have made butter from pasteurized heavy/whipping cream with no problems. I was SO excited to make the switch to raw milk products, we get it from a dairy farmer just down the street.
I cannot get the raw cream to “set” I am using cream collected from 5 and 2 days ago. I used my hand mixer for the first 20 min, then saw this post and switched to the blender: my cream never got quite to “whipped” consistency and certainly never butter.
I am dead set on switching to all raw products so any advise would be helpful!
Hi – thank you for posting this recipe. Its the best one out there and so easy!
I use raw milk also, but it works just as well with store-bought cream from regular pasturized milk.
The reason you want it at room temperature is because otherwise the butter when forming will just make a big lump at the bottom of the blender and it will be hard to rinse/ get out etc.
I use salt in my last rinse with cool but not cold water, because I don’t want the butter to harden just yet.
I use about 1 tsp of iodized table salt or kosher salt per 2 cups of cream. I don’t care for very salted butter, but it does last longer that way.
Also, once its done and rinsed in the blender, I put it in a clean, cotton (one you would use to dry crystal with) dishtowel to get all the excess water out and then I put it in my little Cuisinart blender and add fresh rosemary, pepper etc to it to make a spiced butter for the holidays coming up. You can also add real maple syrup and copped pecans and use it for something sweet…
Hi Tiffany…did you ever figure this out? I am in the same place (although I DID get whipped cream with my raw milk after I stuck it in the freezer for 10 minutes first). Then everything goes back to liquid state.
Questions:
1. Why set the cream out on the counter to warm up? What is the benefit of that opposed to just putting it straight in the blender from the fridge?
1a. Do you allow the butter to set it after it has been rinsed? Or do you suggest to just work it, knead it, and get any access water out, then salt it straight-way?
2. What is the suggested ratio of sea salt to raw butter when adding salt to butter? Would it be a different ratio if using table salt?
3. What would you suggest if my cream is 6 days old? Is it still “worthy” enough for butter? Or has it soured and gone bad? What methods could I use to tell if it’s gone bad?
Thanks! Still new to this raw milk stuff, and anxiously learning.
What is a good use for the liquid that you pour off the butter after churning it? I know you call it “butter milk” but it doesn’t sound like it is cultured. Can it be used like cultured buttermilk or would it give different results?
Anybody have a clue why I am not able to make buter with my raw cream? I have made it in my mixer with regular heavy cream (pasturized), so I understand the technique. Then I tried with raw cream, no go. So I stuck it in the freezer to make sure it was really cold, got whipped cream and the next stage went back to liquid. Then I saw Kristen’s idea of the blender, went close to butter and again went back to liquid state.
It has happened with me. It happens with fresh cream. There is still water content in it and churning warms it and it remains in a milk form. On such occasions adding small amount of ice-cold water, say about a half glass, separates the butter from the cream.
In the winter, I have to warm my raw cream up in order for it to break. Even room temperature cream in my house doesn’t reason 70/75 degrees F so it will whip forever and raise and fall unless I have it at a proper temperature. I do this by putting my mixing bowl with the cream in it in my sink full of hot water. When it checks out at about 70, it usually only takes a few minutes to whip up.
How long does raw butter last after you wash it if it is not sour?
This didn’t work out well for me. Is it because I live in a hot tropical environment? I have the cream, I have the blender, but no butter. 🙁
I started this project initially so I could get buttermilk, (Something you can’t find in Costa Rica) but then it switched to me wanting fresh butter.
I’m bummed.
I just tried this and ended up with hot cream. I couldn’t see anywhere what speed to use. I assumed high, but I have a vitamix & after 10ish minutes I just had super hot cream. Any recommendations? I put it in the fridge to cool back down & I’m hoping to try again.
Any recipes for making non-dairy butter? I’ve heard of olive oil butters, etc.
Also, thanks for the great post!
Thanks, just had my first home-made butter thanks to this site. The first try at making it, it didn’t turn out. On the second try it worked beautifully.
I used pasturized heavy whipping cream. I used 1 cup each time. The challenges I had, maybe cos I am only making a small batch is having it blend continuously. Air pockets were created by the blade and nothing was mixing once it hit a whipped stage. I stopped the blender, 3 times to push the cream down. I blended on high setting (5). just like the blog said around 5.5 minutes the butter broke. I blended for bout 30 secs more. This was the butter. My butter on both batches did not look like the blog. Smaller amount so nothing was really rising but I could see how it could be butter and def saw buttermilk. This is where u stop. I think by blending it’s easy to over do it? That’s what happened to my first batch. I blended for longer, the buttermilk went away and blended back with the whitish glob. I now had really thick whip cream, blended for 2-3 minutes and then it broke again, but this time back to cream. I couldn’t get it to ever start the cycle and break into buttermilk. It had turned into warm fizzy cream. Second time it worked, just don’t overwhip.
How much ice cold water should I put in the blender?
Thanks for posting this!
I just made it using my Ninja blender, and a quart of grocery store cream that was tooooo thick. I love that I could make butter with it. It turned out GREAT! My husband was about to throw it out.
Thanks for sharing!
Instead of trying to get the milky byproduct outta the butter by pressing it with a spoon, could one use cheese cloth?? Just a thought.
My boyfriend is gonna love this :3
I love cultured buttermilk (the stuff you get at the store.) I’d like to drink “real” buttermilk, the leftover from churning butter. Several questions:
1. How much buttermilk will be leftover from churning a quart of cream?
2. Can you drink the rinsing water? Or should you throw that out?
3. My raw cream, like many others, just won’t whip–-much less turn into butter.
4. I have a vitamix and a kitchenaid mixer. Which should I be using?
5. Does anyone know the nutrition breakdown of “real” buttermilk (as opposed to cultured.) I’m assuming it’s close to skim milk in terms of fat, but what about the carbs and protein?
6. Does anyone in texas sell “real” buttermilk (the leftover after churning butter)?
7. When making butter, is it better to use sweet milk or sour milk?
8. My raw milk today was a bit over 2 weeks old and didn’t taste good. I threw it out. Should I have kept it? What could I have done with it? What’s the difference in soured and bad milk?
Thanks for any feedback anyone has!!!
Martha
1. “Normal” cream is 40% fat and “normal” butter is 80%. So it should be approximately equal parts buttermilk/butter depending on a lot of factors.
2. Sure you can but I wouldn’t.
3. Not sure what the issue is, try to keep it cool (35-50 Fahrenheit).
4. Dunno, I would try getting a jar.. sitting down and watching a movie and maybe trading off with someone else if you get tired. The problem with blenders is they can blend it back together due to their high speed.
5. dunno
6.^
7. I don’t think it matters, do you want sweet butter?
8. Raw milk typically starts to turn anywhere from 1-2 weeks. Sometimes it will last longer but I wouldn’t drink it 😉 Raw milk typically sours whereas store bought milk “goes bad.” Presumably pasteurization kills off the lacto bacteria that cause souring so other bacteria grow first.
What would you recommend if I was to make my own and buy a jar/container of cream? Should I use any certain kind or should I just try to find a farmer somewhere and buy some cream? I live in Cleveland, Ohio and I don’t think there is any farms close by. lol
Thanks for the recipe, I was hoping to make a speech thats a bit of a paradoy of a “Special Occasion” and make it to where we celebrate butter day. This is a perfect recipe for my project!
I am a professional Chef. I have never made butter but I have always wanted to. This recipe was e-a-s-y and produced a butter that was so pure that my guests could hardly believe I made it or even took the trouble to make it. My usage and purchase of commercial grade butter will diminish after this!!
I wonder where you get cream in the area? It seems like it’s so hard to find. I mean I know how to find sources, but usually they just offer milk, not cream.
Or should I say they might say they offer it, but then they are always out of stock.
My mother always made butter this way but then she made that butter into ghee (clarified butter). This is done by placing the butter in a pot on medium heat and allowing it to melt and let the residue separate without allowing it burn, so stir occassionaly, it should take half an hour or so. the residue will sink to the bottom and turn brownish. The ghee will be a golden liquid. Place a muslin or fine cloth in a sieve and strain the ghee to remove the residue. Bottle the ghee and keep for a couple of months.(no need to refrigerate)
Use for omelettes, scrambled or fried eggs and any other dishes which uses melted butter. The flavor is absolutely delicious.The used ghee should not be mixed with the good, keep in a seperate jar for further use.
Pretty useful info especially if you won’t have refrigeration available.
My grandmother used to put fresh cream into a gallon jar with a sealing lid. Then my brother and I would roll the jar back and forth across the floor to each other until it was butter!
This also served to keep us occupied, out of trouble, and out of her way 😉
I have made butter from raw cow milk for years (we bought it from a farmer). I have recently moved and have a new supplier. The milk won’t turn. I’m thinking this old farm house’s ‘room’ temperature isn’t warm enough. I’ve had it sitting out all day. I used to just cover it and let it sit from morning until afternoon or evening. Anyway, does anyone know is there an actual temperature I could go by? Dunno. I’ve placed the bowl of whipped cream on the heat register and I’m going to see how that goes in a while. Otherwise, I don’t kow what I’m doing wrong. I always manage to get a little milk into my cream (blueish streaks) near the end, but that has never affected things before.
I’m new to raw milk. 🙂 I purchased some cream from my farmer this week and it was pretty solid, with no liquid to be seen. Nevertheless, I attempted to make butter with it, thinking maybe the blending would draw out the buttermilk. I never saw any buttermilk, and the cream ended up looking very much like whipped butter. It doesn’t taste quite like the butter I’m used to – but then, I’ve never eaten raw butter before this. Has anyone experienced this? Did I go wrong somewhere? Thanks for any tips and advice!!
It sounds like you hit the whipped cream stage. After that it should start to get sloppy again as the butter and buttermilk separate.
Can this also be done in a food processor?
I’ve done it in a food processor with good results.
Help! I tried this and got nothing just hot cream and I blended it for over and hour… Any tips please!
I have tried multiple times to make butter in my food processor and it never worked, so I tried the blender like you said and it worked!!!!!!!! HOORAY!!!
I was wondering if this would work with Almond Milk? My son is allergic to dairy(all animal milk) and I have successfully gotten rid of all dairy except butter. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks for the recipe, and the point-by-point photos. Just made my first batch of butter from raw milk. 🙂 [yay!]
I used this recipe and I LOVE it. I might be eating too much butter now though! Haha. It tastes so good! Anywho, my butter gets really hard in the fridge so that it’s not really spreadable anymore. Did I do something wrong or is there a way to prevent this?
I thought the liquid that you pour off after the cream turns to butter is buttermilk, not whey. And on that note, how do I get the buttermilk to be thick and cream?. Mine is the consistency of breast milk, even down to the fat rising to the top.
I’m now using those small 250 ml straight sided canning jars for my butter (can’t buy Kerrygold or Organic Valley butters here in British Columbia but my neighbour has a Jersey cow) they store nicely in the freezer and just the right size for the 2 of us.
Using the cream off fresh raw milk I usually skim if too and put it in a jar in the fridge until I have a litre of cream – it allows it to thicken a bit as well. It also works if you have frozen the cream which I do if there is too much to use at one time or if I am too busy to make cream right away (I am also making cheese). 3 gallons of fresh milk give me about a litre of cream at the moment with lots of nice fresh grass around.
I made this today – it was excellent! However, I tried to use my vitamix, and I think that’s probably the wrong kind of blender to use. I ended up putting the cream into a tupperware and shaking it for 15 minutes. Voila! Butter!! Too bad the raw cream is so expensive 🙁
do we have to use cream? what if i have no access to grass fed cream but i have access to grass fed whole milk? is there any way to make butter from whole milk?
is there a difference between cream and whipping cream?
just out of curiosity, does anyone know if Lsigny butter is from grass fed cows?
I bought some fresh raw milk from a farmer the other day and he gave me some extra cream too to make butter. I got a call from him as some of his milk had soured early (a batch previous to mine) and he was curious about what he’d given me. The milk was fine but the extra cream was a bit sour. I remembered reading this post ages ago and have checked the comments etc but I dont know about using the soured cream to make butter. As it appeared to sour early will it be safe? Does anyone know?
I am confused, what is the difference between cultured and raw? So milk from the store won’t make butter correct? What about cream from the store? I want to try making my own stuff, but I can slightly confused.
I made this from fresh, raw cream the other day. The consistency is good, and I rinsed it many times (the water never came clear, but got much less cloudy). The butter has a bit of a sour aftertaste. Any idea how to prevent this in the future?
Thank you! I just MADE butter. I feel on par with Super Woman. It was so easy!
I have Chronic Lyme Disease and cannot have pasteurized dairy. I haven’t been able to buy raw butter and have really been missing it, so I did a quick search and voila! 10 minutes later I have butter.
Great tutorial on making butter. Thanks.
Brought back memories. As a kid I was required to sit and pound cream in our round wood butter churn. I have this churn in my “antique” room with a note my mother wrote on it stating that it was purchased at an auction in 1935. It had also made many pounds of butter.
I remember being able to stop pounding when yellow butter was spotted on the plunger rod. Then my mom would finish by washing over and over and salting. We made about 3 or 4 lbs at a time and enjoyed it liberally on home made bread.
Since we always used sour cream buttermilk was not that great for drinking as I remember. It was used for making bread, pancakes, and other stuff.
wow it actually turned out! And it was super easy…thanx for the instructions
What’s the best way to store the butter after it’s made?
I just did this. I got no buttermilk to remove. I then added water to wash. It blended in and did not pour out or separate from the butter which is white not yellow. I used grade a ultra pasteurized heavy whipping cream. What did I do wrong or is my white whipped butter safe to consume?
It was actually a learning project put to us kids. It was voluntary, we (the kids who did the project) were given a small container like the display image uses, and into it went some whipping cream. We were told to just shake it repeatedly until butter formed. It took something like 35 – 45 minutes…but shaking it by hand, though boring, actually gave me a seance of accomplishment that the methods used in this demo, would ever give you.
Um, I feel like I got punk’d. Been blending sour cream for 15 minutes and all I have is hot soupy sour cream…
It might be on here but how long can it kept frozen? After you take it out of freezer how long is it good for in the refrigerator?
recently diagnosed gluten intolerant,so I’ve been paying more attention to ingredients listed on the label,there’s additives preservatives,and other ingredients that I can’t even pronounce. growing up I use to go to my aunts farm every summer I watch her make fresh butter,bake bread & can fruits fresh from the trees and vines. I’m getting back to basics,I’ll be making this butter tomorrow evening.Thanks so much for sharing.
I am trying to make butter but it won’t separate ,what am I doing wrong? is it that I am using light cream I’ve had it processing 15 minute and nothing
Hello, I am a college student and just recently tried to make butter. Although, it is white instead of yellow. The first batch I made was yellowish, but the next was white and fluffy sort of like whipped cream,[I mixed them both together when I kneaded the butter to remove the butter milk, which turned the whole batch white] although, it cooks just like butter. Any suggestions?
Roasted garlic. Oh my.
I’m a purist. I use organic, raw cream and a little salt. Yum!
Thanks for a great illustration of how to make butter. I recently ordered a book that was supposed to be about making butter, and it turned out to be about adding herbs and such to store bought butter. Your post is what I was really looking for!
Peggy Webb, YUM!
The Extruded Noodle, glad this article helped!
are u serious? crazy easy ! thank you !!! love this
I don’t have access to great quality dairy (raw or unpasteurized). Can I still make my own butter or should I just keep buying it from the store at $5 per brick?
I live in Canada so no Kerrygold either 🙁 is the butter,ilk thrown away then?
I have got to do this. I can get non homogenized,lightly pasteurized milk from grass fed cows at the health food store, could I use this.
Love making my own butter! I am able to purchase local raw grassfed cream. I tried to make sour cream and it smells right and is thick, but not super thick like the store so I am not sure… making sour cream scares me!
I have tried and it turned out ok…I don’t think I did the ice water part right…how much ice water?
Thanks for sharing this. I didnt realize it was so simple! And I have a blender :). If I made 3-4 cups at a time, could I freeze the extra butter until ready to use?
KerryGold has sold out and is no longer what it used to be….The cows are no longer 100% grass fed….Soy and corn feed has entered the equation along with GMOs!….Look it up….Time for another company….These people must know we will not allow or tolerate the enclosed ingredients in our foods!!!!!!!
I have made homemade butter for quite a while. in a churn or in a vitamix. Now all of the sudden, the last two times I have tried. the cream can churn forever and just not separate. I don’t understand why this is happening. do you have any suggestions for me? thanks
Ok so I’m dumb (baby brain) I way over blended my butter (for like half an hour!) cuz after 5 minutes it looked like whipped cream so I thought it needed a lot longer. Then I got distracted… It’s now a liquid yellow, looks like melted butter, there’s a bit of white under it so it’s separated something, but it’s very small amount and I have no way of separating the 2 as they r both liquid. Any ideas. Is there something I could use this for… I’d hate to throw away $6 worth of raw cream!! 🙁
what would keep this from working. It’s frothy, but nothing more.
Yes! And it tastes soooo much better! Made it from our raw milk cream. Added garlic and chives. Big tip….make sure it sits out and warms up to room temperature first! 😀
awesome…why do you need to wash it?
The Reallyheal Company, LLC — You “wash” the butter to remove excess buttermilk. This helps the butter last longer before it goes bad. If you don’t wash it, it’ll only last a few days.
I used cream in a carton, shook it 20 times and it’s been fine for almost a year – I forgot about it – went to pour it one day and realized ooops LOL and it was still good
This is cheating…I was taught to put the cream in a small mason jar and shake it until the butter forms. Can’t believe I never thought to try it in a blender or food processor!
I made it once, by accident.
Yum
Made my first cultures butter this week – delicious! I then poached cos fillets in the buttermilk with fresh dill.
Recently made some in large baby food jars. So fun!
We make our butter with a kitchen-aid. We separate the cream using a pre 1950 Montgomery ward electric separator. We first pasteurize our milk With an old safgard pasteurizer 159 degrees 30 minutes. Are cows are fed hay and silage free choice in the winter and pasture and access to hay during the growing season. Three of my Guernseys are 10 years old. They receive about 20 pounds of grain a day. I use antibiotics when necessary. Our cows are too valuable to ignore or cull if they get sick. The best cow calved the first of the month and is milking 13 gallons per day. She is at 110,000 lbs in her life and is still doing well. Too much of the organic and pasture only stuff is about market restriction and not animal or human health. Dairies dump milk if it test over 5 parts per billion. If everyone in America drank a glass of milk every day for two weeks it would be unlikely that anyone would receive 1 billionth part of antibiotic. I would enjoy seeing any science that shows 159 degree pasteurized milk has less nutrients than it did when it was raw. We all grew up on raw but why would anyone take unnecessary risk today. Grass only! I believe cows like people do better on a properly balanced diet.
Many people dont do well on a “properly balanced diet” either…. Soy, corn, and wheat in the US are treated with glyphosates, aka Round-up, which has been proven to damage DNA and is stored in the cells of animals that consume them. They can cause serious damage to our bodies and lead to severe health problems and autoimmune diseases. That is why people want grass fed and organic. I do agree with you on the use of antibiotics when needed to heal an animal, but I think that animal should be pulled off the production line during treatment and for a minimum of 2 weeks after the antibiotic is finished. I do that with my chickens. I have done a great deal of research and am always reading, and I am not convinced cattle or other ruminants require much grain at all. It does increase production, but it does nothing to improve the health of the animal. And I think that is the point. As far as pasteurization, if the dairy equipment is clean, it is not needed for products that will be consumed in 1-2 weeks. The application of heat actually destroys many good bacteria, enzymes, and nutrients, thus making the milk inferior in nutritional value.
Thank you for the article. Really helpful to find raw milk producer in my area.
I just found our site after a friend told me how easy it would be to make butter. One question to make sure I don’t mess everything up…on what speed should I set my blender? I initially thought high speed, but then had second doubts because of heat and overmixing. Thanks for your help!
Hi, occasionally make butter with raw cream using our food processor. We decided to attempt using our Vitamix blender instead. After about 5 minutes of blending, all we had was really hot cream…..so hot it was steaming. Do you think it just hasn’t got to the butter stage yet? Do you think it will at that temp?
Love this recipe
So if I was to get raw milk from someone I know with pastured cows, do I let the cream separate and use that to make my butter? And does it need to be sour a bit for best results?
No
how the butter came out to be pure yellow from white cream , have you added any yellow color in it ?
My daughter made home made butter..however after sitting for about 5 minutes it returned to a milky state…she tried recharging it..but it turned to a mayonnaise looking state
Any suggestions??
I do agree with all the concepts you’ve ooffered for your post.
They’re really convincing and can certainly work.
Still, the posts are very quick for starters.
May just you please lengthen them a bit from next time?
Thank you for the post.
Why is that butter recipe yellow, but mine is white?
I tried this and did not work this is fake
I never tried this in a blender . I always use a mason jar. Your arms do get tired but you get good butter. It has to be heavy cream. good luck
yes i made butter when i was a very small child 5-6 yrs old. my mom knew how to keep us busy. She would pour the cream into a mason jar put a lid on it and have us shake it (taking turns with my brothers.)It did take some time but we couldnt eat till we had butter. and gosh dang was it good on home made bread. just thought i would share. maybe some moms out there may like to do this.
what do you do with the buttermilk that you poured out?
hello! extremely novice butter maker here… I’ve got raw milk seperate and has been refrigerated. I understand it needs to “sour” and I’ve not quite figured THAT part out.
help?
Hi, thanks for this information. I tried it and it turned out so well. I am so happy with myself
Is is more or less or more economical that store bought butter?
I did with food processor but it takes to long and it doesn’t work why
I was told you can make butter from lofat half anf half.. is this true?
Just take whole cream in it’s container, shake it 20 times add salt or flavorings and viola butter – easy peasy!
I am 73 years young. And grew up in the mountains of SW Virginia. Every thing we ate we either grew or raised including beef and pork.We rendered the fat out when we butchered the hogs and leeched the lye out of the ashes from the stoves and the fireplaces and made lye soap.we put 5 gallon of fresh cows milk in the dasher churn and let it sour the churned our butter. I still have the old the churn and when I can get fresh cows milk I still churn my own butter.
CORRECTION” We use the cream that formed on top of the milk not the milk its self.
I love home made butter. as a child, my dad used to buy homemade SOUR cream butter from a local farmer. there is nothing more delicious. I was amazed to find that Kristen Michaels makes sour cream butter and i’d like to find out where I can get raw cream so I can make it too. brings back fond and mouthwatering memories.
Hi. When I try to do this in a Cusinard stand mixer, on full speed all I get is cream that tastes like butter. There is no buttermilk even after 30 min on high with a whisk tip. What gives?
A great artical on butter making.
I actually make homemade butter by pouring the heavy cream (Usually a pint) into a medium large glass bowl and grab a wire whisk. I then whisk the cream and watch it thicken. In about 40 minutes of a good hard whisking the fat starts to separate from the liquid and viola suddenly the butter forms a blob in the whisk. I then put the blob of curds etc on a plate and pour the liquid through a strainer. With a spatula I then “Mash” the curds (back on the bowl of course) to squeeze out more of the buttermilk and keep doing so until no more buttermilk seems to come out (all the while pouring the exuded buttermilk in the jar). Then I add a dash of sea salt and fold the butter a little longer until the salt is incorporated. It usually makes about a medium ramekin of butter and a small bell jar of buttermilk filled to the brim. A lot of physical work, but watching the cream turn into butter is magical.
Wanting to eat more healthy your website sounds great
Hi.
Nice article. I have a question about whey butter. Do you know to it is done. I am doing my hard white cheese here and left with a lot of whey. I read that there is whey butter but could not figure out how to do.
Tried several times in a blender and two size bottles. All I got was what looked like a yellowish Cool Whip. Added a little sugar and it worked as a topping fine. Checked several other receipts and got the same results. Used two different brands of heavy cream. After checking with other cooks on line one finally mentioned you can NOT use ultra-pasteurized cream. There is NONE to be found in the Charleston/Mt. Pleasant, SC, area. All receipt should include this warning.
Guess I’ll have to stick to making my own cheese since whole milk is found every where, and give up on the butter.
Homemade stuff always wins. Thanks for sharing. Will try it for sure.
I make mine very similair in my food processor. I have this issue when i put it in the fridge it becomes rick hard. I want it to become spreadable. Can i add olive oil or some else ? Also what would the ratio be to say 6 cups of cream ? I want soft homemade butter spreadable and useable. Anytime i go to use it i have to melt it first.. TIA
I enjoyed your taco seasoning. Very good and hit the spot. I was wondering if you have any yogurt recipes using raw milk?
Wow It’s amazing, thanks Kristen to share this information, its very useful for me.
Thank you for your blog. Can u share details of which brand of sour cream u used.?
I have the leftover buttermilk from churned butter. Can I make cheese from it and how do I do that? Thank-you?
Dear Kristen,
I found you after I prayed for help as I have become highly allergic to so many foods in last 2 years and last year I was covered in raging lumps all over my arms, parts of my face, stomach, parts of my legs it was absolutely awful. The itchiness was from scalp to feet but I had the determination not to scratch.
I came off everything and had a smoothie from a product from a company with great integrity such as yourself. My son had been on this for a few years due to having low white blood cell count.
I tried to find the vitamins you wrote about too as use a brand mostly from America but it is highly costly to buy individual products and I don’t feel any better after taking them for about 3 years but they appear well sourced but who really knows. I believe I will cut them out and use the Smoothie powder from America which has so many vitamins and minerals but again to use as recommended is very expensive for the both of us.
I cannot express how happy I am to have found your Blog. I’m pretty ill still because my body reacts to so many foods. We live in Kent in England and for many years have bought Organic in everything possible but we don’t get a wide variety of Organic as I’m careful and do my best to check out suppliers. I used to love eating my homemade salads, lots of it, but now even that beautiful colourful dish I am highly allergic to apart from the odd ingredient such as cucumber, celery. Tomatoes have always increased the pain in my body but so sad not to be able to eat a delicious organic just ripe half avocado sliced in salad and drizzled with lemon and olive oil and a little Himalyan salt. I used the link for the bed grounding mat as I have had insomnia for so many years. I am exhausted yet my mind will not turn off so I listen to my Bible study books. But come early morning usually around sunrise or before, sleep arrives but not for too long. I do have spinal issues as well and it’s painful to lie down but sitting is absolute agony. Yes, the doctors say “autoimmune illnesses”, it’s like a get out card for them. They refused to test me for allergies as driving down their patients’ costs and I’m not able to go private. I want to thank you as I know you are a genuine person who wants to help people. I did my own research and found out all the foods I am allergic to are high in one thing or another naturally.
I will invest in the bed mat as soon as I am able and they have some back in stock but not sure if they ship to mainland UK. Thank you Kristin for what you do for those of us that want to know exactly what we are eating and putting into our bodies. I started in early 1990s eating a very healthy fresh diet but not eaten meat for 20+ years so I do not understand why I’m ill and in so much pain. I know there is an answer. I’m going to make my own butter as realised I was allergic to butters containing Palm oil. So looking forward to it.
Your article on making butter brings back memories. I used to help my mother make butter from cream separated out of the milk from our own milk cow. She had a butter churn and used a wooden board and paddle. I can’t recall her salting it, but she must have.
This was in the late 50s and early 60s. We raised our own beef, a couple pigs, had chickens and a large garden. We spread manure on our fields and rotated alfalfa with various grain crops. Until I was about eleven we butchered our own beef, but that got to be too much of a hassle so we started having the animal slaughtered locally and a friend (who had been a butcher) helped us cut up the meat. Mom canned veggies and we had a chest freezer for chickens and beef.
Imagine that! We were organic before the term was invented.
Jim
What a fantastic tutorial! Making homemade butter sounds like a fun and rewarding process. Your step-by-step instructions make it easy to follow, and the end result looks incredibly creamy and delicious.