How To Make Homemade Butter With Raw Milk
How To Make Homemade Butter With Raw Milk
Have you ever made Homemade Butter? If not, I bet you never realized just how easy it is! All it takes is 2 ingredients to make fresh easy homemade butter that you can flavor however you’d like!
Once you’ve tasted its rich, fresh flavor, you’ll never go back to buying it. And not only that, but learning how to make butter is a valuable culinary skill that will serve you for a lifetime.
You just need two simple ingredients – heavy cream and salt. And the best part? It’s cheaper than store-bought and doesn’t have any additives at all.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This DIY butter only requires two ingredients – heavy cream and salt.
- It’s the freshest tasting butter you’ll ever have – much sweeter and richer than store-bought.
- You can customize the flavor by adding salt, herbs, and other spices to make a delicious compound butter for freezing.
- It’s a fun and easy kitchen project to do with kids.
Why make butter at home?
It’s just one way of working with food that connects us to where our food comes from, how it’s made, and the components of food that can cause these food reactions. When it comes to making butter at home, I think it’s a great way to get one step closer to the food production process and to know more about what goes on your toast.
Second, when you make butter at home, you can control the ingredients, the saltiness, the freshness and the texture of the butter. Making butter at home means you’re in charge of the process. You get to salt it, you get to whip it (if you prefer), you can keep the leftover buttermilk and you can choose where you source your cream.
What happens when you make homemade butter
Cream is derived from whole milk, because when milk is left out, fat molecules float to the top, creating a layer of cream that we skim off and use for other purposes.
Homemade butter is one step past whipped cream. To get butter, you have to whip or mix the cream long enough for the fat molecules to begin to clump together. After enough time mixing and shaking, the fat molecules clump together into butter, leaving the liquid and butterfat behind.
All that’s left to do is squeeze out any excess liquid between the fat molecules, and then voilá, you have butter!
The ingredients you need for homemade butter
- 1-4 cups heavy cream (depending on how much butter you want to make, and how large your mixer is)
- Salt to taste. (This is my favorite salt to use, we order it regularly from Azure Standard!)
I choose to make butter the easy way – in my stand mixer. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can add your cream to a bowl and use a hand mixer or even use a blender. To start making the butter, you’ll add your cream to the mixer or bowl and start mixing on medium low and just keep it going.
As you begin beating the cream, it will first start to thicken and almost look frothy then turn into a thick whipped cream. If you want to make a really yummy whipped cream, all you have to do is add in a couple tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract!
If you’ve gotten to the whipped cream stage, you’re almost done. Just keep beating! In just a few more minutes you’ll have butter! You’ll notice the mixture getting “splashy” again and the liquid start to separate from the solids. The solids are your butter, and the liquid is your buttermilk!
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE BUTTER FROM RAW MILK
Skim Your Cream
First things first, let your milk sit in your fridge for at least 24 hours. This allows the cream to rise to the top for easy skimming. I simply used a small ladle to skim the cream from the top. You aren’t using any of the milk, just the cream. Save the milk for other recipes and drinking!
Mix Your Cream
Pour the cream into the bowl of your KitchenAid mixer. Use the whisk attachment and start on a low setting, gradually increasing the speed.
Strain Your Butter
Using a glass bowl, gather up your butter out of your mixing bowl and separate it from your buttermilk. Save the buttermilk though, because you can use this in recipes too. I place mine in a quart jar and put it in my refrigerator!
Rinse Your Butter
Washing the Butter: A Must-Do Step
I know it sounds crazy – Washing the butter after you make it? Yes. Removing the traces of buttermilk from the butter will help it stay fresher, longer.
Once you’ve separated the butter from the buttermilk, pour off the buttermilk into another bowl or glass to keep for later if you want or discard. There will still be buttermilk remaining in the butter that’s crucial to wash out of the butter so you can ensure it doesn’t become watery or go rancid too quickly.
First, take a spatula and squeeze the butter up against the side of the bowl to ‘press’ any extra buttermilk out of the butter.
Drain off any excess buttermilk. Then, place the drained butter in a bowl and pour cold water over it. Using your hands or the spatula, gently knead the butter, allowing any remaining buttermilk to mix with the water.
Drain the cloudy water and repeat until the water remains clear.
And that’s it!
OTHER IDEAS FOR USING YOUR HOMEMADE BUTTER:
Compound Butters! Compound butters are simply flavored butters. Here are some ideas for you to try!
Sweet compound butter ideas:
- Cinnamon
- Brown Sugar
- Honey
- Orange or other citrus
- Molasses
- Dried fruit like cranberries
- Nuts
Savory compound butter ideas:
- Garlic
- Dried herbs like rosemary, thyme, sage, etc. (think turkey basting butter!)
- Bacon
- Sundried Tomatoes
- Olives
- Anchovies
HOW TO STORE HOMEMADE BUTTER
You can store butter in many ways, such as in a butter dish, in butter bells, butter crock, mason jar, plastic wrap, or any airtight container.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT HOMEMADE BUTTER
How long does homemade butter last?
Homemade butter has a shelf life of up to 2 – 3 weeks when kept in the fridge. You can also keep your homemade butter in the freezer for up to 9 months.
Is it better to make butter with warm or cold cream?
The ideal temperature for churning butter is around 60-65 F. If the cream is too cold, it is harder for the fat globules to stick together, and if it is too warm the butter will be a little too soft and gloopy
What milk is best for making butter?
In order to take full advantage of all of the health benefits of butter, it is best to use raw cream from grass-fed cows. If you do not have access to grass-fed raw milk, you can also make butter from organic whipping cream that you can buy at the store.
How to make butter without a churn?
Whisk the cream at a medium speed in a food mixer until it is thick. First it will be softly whipped, then stiffly whipped. Continue until the whipped cream collapses and separates into butterfat globules. The buttermilk will separate from the butter and slosh around the bowl
How much salt to put in homemade butter?
Add 2 tablespoons of salt to the butter, sprinkling a little at a time from a height for good coverage, then folding it in with your hands. This is primarily to preserve it for longer but will also add flavor. Fold the salt in thoroughly.
How much butter does 1 quart of cream make?
about one pound
Here’s a tip: If you start with one quart of cream (32 ounces), you’ll make about one pound of butter (16 ounces, or four sticks) and two cups of buttermilk.
Why does homemade butter not last as long?
Because it’s fresh, your butter won’t keep as long as commercial butter, so make it in small batches and keep it in the fridge for a few weeks or freeze it for up to 9 months. Also, as a by product of making your own butter, you will have real buttermilk, which you can save for using in baked goods.
Can I leave homemade butter on the counter?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends leaving butter at room temperature no more than two days.
Can you freeze homemade butter?
Yes, butter freezes very well, so feel free to fill your freezer!
What can I do with the buttermilk?
Buttermilk is great for making biscuits or pancakes! It also works well in any recipe that calls for regular milk.
Do I have to let my heavy whipping cream sit out before making the butter?
No, you can make butter with cold cream, but the flavor will be much richer if you let the cream mellow at room temperature before you begin.
Homemade Butter From Raw Milk
Have you ever made Homemade Butter? If not, I bet you never realized just how easy it is! All it takes is 2 ingredients to make fresh easy homemade butter that you can flavor however you’d like!
Ingredients
- 1-4 Cups Heavy Cream
- Optional: salt
Instructions
- Add cream to your mixer with a whisk attachment
- Start on low speed and increase gradually
- Once it becomes like whipped cream, switch your whisk attachment to a paddle attachment
- Keep mixing on high until your butter separates from your buttermilk
- Remove from buttermilk
- Rinse to remove any excess buttermilk
- Add salt, if wanted.
