I wanted to get back to basics like I did when my daughter was small. So I bought a quart of heavy cream the other day with the intent to make butter by hand. First heavy cream in a half gallon jar. Shake it, snake it, shake it..... In about 25 minutes it begins to get thick... Getting thicker. and thicker..... and thicker.....keep shaking.... and shaking for about 35 minutes. Now it begins to leave a clear glass. It's not clinging to the glass anymore. It's getting globbie..... See the butter?? Pouring off the buttermilk... So out of the quart of heavy cream I got 2 cups of buttermilk to make bicuits. What's left is butter.... buttermilk goes into a quart jar to be used tomorrow What's left is butter. Put it in cheese cloth and rinse it in ice water. Pack it in container to be used tomorrow. I got 1 pound of butter and 2 cups of buttermilk out of 1 quart of heavy cream. It took over 45 minutes.... I have canned it but most of the time we use it in a week.
You can make a small churn out of a gallon pickle jar with lid. Might be less work and faster. Sweet cream butter does take a little longer.
Cool, I once thought of making butter myself because the price of butter here is very expensive. After checking the price of cream, it is better for me to buy the butter off the shelf because the price of cream here is ridiculous. Like your way of making it. 8)
I did it the same way but, with 3 children and DH, we went through 5 gallons of raw whole farmers milk a week. I skimmed the milk off and used a gallon jar. We would all take turns rocking the jar on our laps until we had butter. I never measured it but I never bought butter so it was enough for us. It sure tasted good. Oh, 40 years ago fresh milk from a farm was considered safe. You can still buy it but now it is termed 'for animal use only'.
Yes, 2ofus. I used to use milk from my local farm years ago but now I just get cream from the store especially if it's on sale. You can use homogenzed and pasteurized to do it. I get allot if it's on sale the holidays.
I really enjoyed this posting-- it brought back memories. Memories of when I was a tyke. My parents would "farm me out" to my grandparents in the summer for ± three months. They had a small holding, or rather a general farm that would be greater than a small holding, actually...but by much. One of my duties was hand-churning butter. I enjoyed it, but of course when I was really young, my arms got a bit tired. None-the-less, I was enthusiastic and enjoyed the whole process. I could milk the cows when I was larger, and thus it was a process that I could follow from udder to dinner table. My grandpa was very fond of buttermilk and consequently, I never acquired a taste for it. That is to say that he kept it all for himself. hahaha. It took a while to gather enough to churn as each pail was skimmed and only after a period of several days was there enough to churn. Anyhow, it was such a great show-'n tell posting this time, Ware. Chapeau madam!
Forget any of these skin toning / exercise products you see on the shopping channels, all you need is Barb's patented ButterShake workout.
I sat down to watch the evening news. That is my break time. So why not double duty it and get something else done in a day. My daughter used to hello me do this when she was 4 and 5 years old. You guys just don't give yourselves credit. I realize as I get older I just can't do some of the things that I did when I was young but shaking something for less than an hour is a simple thing.
hmmmm! Thinking to myself....I wonder how many calories I burned making a pound of butter and pint of buttermilk. I certainly produced the heat while doing it.
Wonderful post! Just last month, I went to a little fair on a farm and one of the things they had for children was small containers with about a tablespoon of heavy cream in it to shake into butter. I tried it too. Ever since, I've wanted to go buy some heavy cream to make butter. My only problem is I like salted butter. Is there a way to add salt without ending up with salty buttermilk at the end?
I was thinking backand I do not think that my grandpa drank that "butter milk" that was left over...they did something to make buttermilk. They DID use that left-over melk to make biscuits though.
I think you poor the buttermilk out just a little early and then salt the butter and keep on shaking. You have to get the feel to know when that is. I don't use salted butter so it is not a problem for me. Guess that makes about a pat of butter.
