How to Make Butter and Buttermilk

My grandmother (on my father’s side) used to make homemade butter and buttermilk. Dad was telling me last night how when he was a kid they didn’t have refrigeration, and so any milk they had went sour fairly quickly if it didn’t get used. He said whenever they had milk that went sour, they would just shake it up in the container it was in until it turned to butter and buttermilk. Easy, huh. Actually it is!

I just made my first batch of butter and buttermilk this afternoon, and I’m so excited I’m grinnin’ from ear to ear!!! It’s so easy it’s unbelievable, and it’s great fun too! And the butter tastes absolutely divine!!!! I don’t think I’m ever going to buy butter again! I use a lot of buttermilk in my baking for breads and biscuits, and I’ll definitely put this homemade buttermilk to good use. I can’t wait make some buttermilk biscuits with it!

I photographed my butter right after it was made so you can see how creamy it is. After it’s refrigerated, it hardens, but it’s still spreadable. The butter I made has a beautiful yellow color.

That’s because the cows who produced this milk were pastured-grazed, getting most of their food from grass and hay. All that grass is filled with carotene, which is where the yellow color of the butter is coming from. The cows who produced this milk were also not given antibotics and/or hormones.

You may be thinking you need some special equipment, such as a butter churn to make butter. Actually, you don’t. You just need a glass jar with a tightly fitting lid. An empty mayonnaise jar which has been cleaned will work fine, or you can use a Mason jar like I did. Other than that, all you need is cream and water. If you don’t care for unsalted butter, then you’ll need a little salt to add to your butter.

The type of cream I used to make my butter was Snowville Creamery’s whipping cream. When I looked on the side of the carton at the ingredients, I saw it was 100% cream. That’s exactly what I wanted…nothing but pure cream. More information about this cream can be found here. Snowville Creamery’s website also has a recipe for how to make butter. You can find their recipe here. The recipe is also on the side of the carton of whipping cream that I purchased in case you want to use their recipe instead of mine.

Are you ready to get started? Before I tell you how to make it, here’s a wonderful video (it’s very short) that will show you exactly how to make butter, and you’ll see just how easy it is.

How to Make Butter and Buttermilk

Disclaimer: The way I made my butter and buttermilk may potentially be harmful to your health. While this is how some country folk, including my grandmother, have made butter and buttermilk, the process of souring the milk could potentially make you ill. If you choose to make butter the way I did, please do your research on food safety first to determine if this method could cause some potential health issues for you and/or your family. I don’t want anyone to get ill.

To make butter and/or buttermilk without souring the milk and to avoid any possibility of illness, please use this method.

Ingredients:

• cream (How much you use is up to you and depends on how much butter you wish to make. Since the butter doesn’t have any preservatives in it, it won’t keep in the fridge a long time like butter you buy in the store. So if you make too much and don’t think you can eat it all before it spoils, just freeze part of your butter.)
• water
• salt (optional)

Instructions:

• After purchasing the cream, I set it out unopened on my counter top for about 8 hours so it can sour. (As I said in my disclaimer above, you may want to omit this step because it might potentially make you ill. You can simply skip this step and avoid any potential health issues that souring the milk might cause.
• Pour the soured cream into a glass jar with a tightly fitting lid. Make sure the jar is only filled about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full.
• Shake the jar until the cream starts to pull off the sides of the jar. You’ll know when it’s happening because you’ll be able to see the butter, as well as the buttermilk. It took about 3-5 minutes for me.
• Pour the buttermilk off the butter and into a glass jar for later use.
• Now you need to rinse your butter. Just add a glass of cold water to the glass jar with the butter, and then put the lid on it and shake it for about 1 minute.
• Drain the water off the butter.
• Repeat this step a second or third time, until the water that’s being drained off the butter runs clear.
• Now that your butter has been rinsed and the water drained, just transfer it to a butter crock or a plastic container.
• Mix in some salt if you like.
• Refrigerate and enjoy every creamy bite!!!