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!!!!
trying to find you on facebook, wats ur profile
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Sorry, I’m not on facebook. Hope to be in the near future.
Have a GREAT day!
Bethanie
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Oh my goodness! You are making me want some of the delicious Amish butter we used to get! I wish I could find affordable stuff like that here in SoCal.
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Thankfully we are part of a farm co-op and the prices are about the same as organic! VERY affordable! 😉
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Bethany,
Congrats on your blog! It looks great! As a fan of the work of Weston Price and Sally Fallon, I was eager to “go raw” with our milk – especially for the children. After a lot of discussion and prayer, Dan and I could not come to complete agreement about this. Just thought you and others might like to know that the northern VA Whole Foods Markets carry two varieties of milk that are at least not homogenized. About a year and a half ago they started to carry the variety I favor from Snowville Creamery in Ohio. It is about 80 cents cheaper per half gallon than the other brand and is pasteurized very briefly at the lowest legal temperature. Woo Hoo! You can read about it at their website. If you can’t go raw this is a great, reasonably priced alternative.
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Wow! That’s great to know Kathy! Thanks! I’ve also heard that Trader Joes milk has no hormones or antibiotics in their non organic option, although I haven’t done the research on it. Also, some of the Smart Markets Farmer’s Market have Trickling Springs Creamery from MD which is also minimally pasteurized… we used them before going raw. Thanks for the info Kathy!
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