Ordinarily we use mostly coconut oil or olive oil for our cooking and dressings respectively, but after doing some investigation of Nourishing Traditions and all the benefits we are missing out on, I decided I’d like to start adding more animal fats back into our diet. So now I don’t feel so bad about using the bacon grease again and bringing butter back!

(In the future I will be posting more about Nourishing Traditions, what it is and the benefits of this type of diet)

However, another wrench to throw in… Because of all the benefits of raw milk I’ve wanted to have raw milk butter instead of the store brands. That is quite expensive though at about $10 a pound and not really an option for us! So… thanks to a friend she suggested just getting heavy cream and making my own. So we did! I purchased a pint of raw heavy cream and the end product was about ½ lb of delicious, creamy, yummy butter for $3.50! Still expensive, but the taste is amazing. I could eat it by the spoon full! The boys and I had bread and butter and strawberries for lunch today and it was the best! They really enjoyed the butter as well and kept asking for “more and more and more”! They also kept asking for more butter on the bread than what I had already given them!

So how did we do it? It was SO easy! Follow these simple steps and you will enjoy amazing homemade butter on your dinner table tonight!
Making Butter

1. Beat heavy cream in mixer or food processor – (the cream should be at 61-65 degrees before starting). May take up to 5 minutes. Will turn to whipping cream first, but continue beating. Beat until solids and liquids appear. That is butter and buttermilk!

2. Pour off buttermilk. (Save for other recipes that call for buttermilk)

3. Rinse butter in cold/ice water until water runs clear; will probably have to rinse about 5 times and will need to work it with your hands or wooden spoon to get all the buttermilk out. Continue to work water out after finishing the rinsing process.

4. You will be left with sweet cream butter. If you like salted butter, salt to taste and work it through the butter.

5. Form into mold and refrigerate or freeze.

The raw heavy cream I purchased was almost solid. I’ve never seen such heavy cream! I left it on the counter to warm to room temperature before whipping it so that it would turn to butter a little more quickly. Once I put it in the food processor it really only took about 30 seconds to turn to butter. However, if you purchase organic heavy cream, or heavy cream in the grocery store (make sure it is NOT ultra pasteurized) it will probably take more time than that. This raw heavy cream was almost butter before I started whipping it! I think it was about as thick as marshmallow puff (WOW that brings back childhood memories!!!!) and about the same consistency too!

When I poured off the buttermilk there was less than ¼ cup. I saved it and I think we will have buttermilk pancakes or waffles tomorrow for breakfast! I did take a sip of the buttermilk and it was so sweet and rich. I could have finished it right there, but decided to let my family have a bit as well! I expected to have more buttermilk than that, but it is probably because the cream was so thick to start with. There will probably be more if you use organic or regular heavy cream as opposed to the raw.

Enjoy your experiment and let me know how it turns out for you! Next time I’m going to try adding some fresh chives or parsley, maybe some Worcestershire sauce and garlic. I could also add honey to make sweet honey butter for a treat on toast in the morning with some tea! Try anything!!!!