I love butter. My family loves butter. Butter love me and sticks with me and wraps itself around my hips and arms in velvety embrace. I wish we didn't have this love affair, it's unhealthy, but there it is.
Yesterday I made butter from the cream I'd been skimming off the top of the milk we buy straight from the udder of the hand milked cow, Pretzel. Last week I'd skimmed the cream off the gallon we purchased and put it into pint jars. Each jar was about 2/3 full and then I added a Tablespoon of salt. I then tried to convince teenagers to shake jars (one a piece) into butter. They shook a little and complained a little and after just so much I collected the jars and dumped them into the kitchen aid and set it on 7 for about.... an hour.
I couldn't believe it took so long! Maybe I shouldn't have added the salt to the cream, maybe the mixer didn't go deep enough into the kitchen aid (my biggest complaint with Kitchen Aid). Maybe the fact that the first pint had been frozen for a week??
It finally broke apart - not into creamy sticky swirls the way I've seen it before but into crumbly bits. When I poured it through the cheese cloth they came together nicely and were even yellow-y which I had assumed was a product of food coloring before.
That two week's supply made enough butter to fill the butter bell, exactly. Now that is not the total collection from the cow, but rather two milkings worth - the two gallons my family consumed last week. Even the kids said in surprise - wow, that's why butter is so expensive and they used it a little more sparingly.
4 comments:
I think you might want to try adding the salt later. Also I think the cream is supposed to be about room temp (or at least not too cold) check crunchy's instructions here: http://crunchychickencooks.blogspot.com/2008/02/handmade-butter.html that is what I use and it takes about half an hour start to finish - no kitchen aid required :)
7 hrs, holy cow! I do usually make butter when it is room temp. I think Crunchy says 60 degrees.
In any event, good for you! Isn't it so nice to have homemmade butter and you get it from a cow whose name you know. I haven't been able to accomplish that . . . yet.
Thank you, this helps!
Green Bean,sorry no, that was one hour.
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