Homemade Butter

Lately I’ve been playing in my kitchen with homemade dairy products. These range from yogurt to cheese, and I thought the best recipe to start this series with would be butter/ buttermilk. Mind you not just any butter, but Cultured Homemade, Handmade butter! Talk about highfalutin! Oh, but that taste truly is worth it and it’s so easy to make.

You just need 3 things – Cream, Salt, and a Sterile Glass Jar. The other important things are time, and energy…if you need an arm workout this is for you!

Now, I like to use raw heavy cream that is cultured by sitting at room temperature for 10-12 hours, but you can also use store bought pasteurized heavy cream. The main difference outside of taste, is that the pasteurized butter will last more than 10 days, so keep that in mind when deciding to make a batch.

You don’t have to culture the cream but it does give the butter and resulting buttermilk a nice nutty, slightly tangy taste.

Here’s my recipe for Cultured Homemade Butter:

Makes 3 oz Butter, 5 oz Buttermilk

Ingredients:

8 oz Heavy Cream

8 oz Sterile Glass Jar
1 tsp Himalayan Pink Salt

Prep Work: Throughly wash & dry the glass jar.

*To Culture- Leave raw heavy cream out overnight. For pasteurized heavy cream, add a Tbsp of plain live culture kefir yogurt, mix, and leave out overnight.

*If you are not going to culture the cream, still be sure to let the cream sit out a few hours to reach room temperature.*

Directions:

1. Pour the heavy cream into the sterile jar and start shaking.

First, the cream will turn into whipped cream with soft, then stiff peaks.

Keep going until you hear sloshing and thuds, this means you have separated the butter fat from the liquid (buttermilk). This usually takes between 10-15 minutes.

2. Once you have butter, pour out and reserve the buttermilk*. Then rinse the butter with cold filtered water, till the water runs clear. *Can be used for baking, or drinking.