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Butter from cream
Cream, a jar and ten minutes: the simplest home dairy project, with the safety notes that matter.
Butter is the easiest dairy project there is, and it makes a good first step into home dairy. You need cream, a way to agitate it and a few minutes.
What you need
- Heavy whipping cream, cold. Use pasteurized cream.
- A jar with a tight lid, a stand mixer or a food processor
- A bowl of ice water, a spatula and a clean cloth or sieve
- Salt, if you like salted butter
Step by step
- Start cold, but not frozen. Cream a little off the fridge chill whips up faster than ice-cold cream.
- Agitate. Shake the jar, or run the mixer. The cream goes through whipped cream first.
- Keep going. It turns grainy and then suddenly separates into yellow butter and thin, milky liquid. That liquid is buttermilk.
- Drain. Pour off the buttermilk. Save it for pancakes or baking.
- Wash. Press the butter in ice water and pour it off, repeating until the water runs clear. Leftover buttermilk is what makes butter spoil early.
- Salt and shape. Work in a pinch of salt if wanted, then pack it into a container or roll it in parchment.
- Chill. Keep it refrigerated and treat it like any perishable dairy product. If it smells sour or off, throw it out.
Raw milk and cream. Raw dairy can carry harmful bacteria, and the rules about selling or sharing it differ from state to state. Use pasteurized cream for home butter unless you know exactly what your state allows, and read what the FDA and CDC say about raw milk before deciding.
If you sell it
Selling butter, cheese or any dairy product usually falls under state food and dairy regulations, licensing and labeling rules. Contact your state department of agriculture before you sell your first pound.
Just for fun
Dairy farmers have turned butter into art for a long time. farm.FM has a humor piece on the competitive side of it: Butter Carving: Dairy Farmers’ Secret Talent Showcased in National Competition. It is comedy, not a how-to.