Making my own butter! (merged)

Angelina-M

I never add salt. I love the buttery creamy taste and dont want to spoil it. If a recipe calls for salt I can add it... but I cant take it away.

bootman

If I add salt I put the butter back into my mixer and sprinkle the salt on. They give it a good whip up!

hmkn

Seakay wrote: »

Does anyone know why it's only double cream and whipping cream that will work for home made butter? Wasn't butter originally made from milk? I assumed that single cream would take longer but be possible.

Not sure about single cream, but it could be that the fat content isn't high enough.

Butter has always been made from the cream skimmed off the top of the milk, rather than the milk itself, and this has the full fat content, ie double cream.
We used to make butter from top of the milk as kids, but practically all milk is homogenised now, so you have to buy cream.

BTW, haven't read the whole thread, but scones with buttermilk have been mentioned. I make a lot of scones (for other people as well as us- the children often have savoury scones instead of sandwiches for lunch) and I would use your usual scone recipe but replace the milk with buttermilk. I often 'make' buttermilk for scones by mixing natural yogurt and milk, or by adding a tsp of lemon juice to the milk and letting it stand before adding it.

Re Freezing scones

Freshly baked and frozen scones can be defrosted (or even better, warmed in the oven) and eaten, but the best way is to open freeze the scones raw and bake from the freezer. There's virtually no difference in taste/texture and possible even at 7am!

Cheese, cheese and onion or pesto (with or without olives) are good additions to savoury scones.

HTH

Hazel

ubamother

commerically produced butter can include up to 16% water legally. also dairy originated bacteria/lactic acid can be added to butter to give a stronger 'butter' taste and helps it last longer - American butter is far more like my home-made butter - I think they call it sweet-cream butter. I'm very impressed with anyone who makes it by hand - i use my kenwood chef - or at a pinch a food processor is fine - gets very splashy very quickly in the chef if you don't watch it!

boredofbeingathome

Always said this site was great, and i have used this to make the scones and the butter, all i can say is mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

righter

having had cows at various times,i have made much butter. i usually use the food processor,i find it much quicker than the kenwood. our milk is unpasteurised.
(dairy cows are tested regulary for TB,even "house" cows like ours)
You might be interested to know that you are all making "sweet butter",but my husband was bought up on "ripe" butter or lactic butter,that is the butter made from the weeks collection of cream,this means a lot of the cream has ripened (or turned). The smell is like baby sick...but he loves it,personally i cant stand it,but it does make a lovely curry !!

hmkn

righter wrote: »

having had cows at various times,i have made much butter. i usually use the food processor,i find it much quicker than the kenwood. our milk is unpasteurised.

Do you ever cook with the first few milkings after a cow has calved?
My gran gave me a Farmers Weekly cookbook from the late forties ('first take your powdered egg...') and several recipes are for Beestings. It sounds as though they didn't use the first milk, as it is very strong, but the next couple seem to be so thick that they'll set like an egg custard if you bake them.

Not sure what the calf was drinking if they were drinking the milk, but I've always been intrigued.

Hazel

Lizzieanne

angie_loves_veg wrote: »

I don't know if you have had a chance to read through this thread, but there was a link earlier mentioning a 'cooking for engineers' site. The making better article is well presented, with pictures of butter being made in a Kitchen Aid mixer.

At the end, it mentions how and when to flavour your butter - garlic, salt etc

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/113/Making-Butter

Right, I was thinking of having a go at butter making anyway and that's convinced me to give it a try!

celyn90

I had my first go at this last night when I saw some reduced cream in Somerfield on the way home and it's really great! I did two lots one salted and one unsalted - I poured a pint of cream into a tall jam jar, clamped my cheap argos hand whisk in a bench vice with just one beater inserted then let it run on the slowest speed until it started to split. Then I took the beater out and shook the jar so the clots stuck together in one lump and strained out the buttermilk, rinsed and pressed it into some margarine tubs. It's so much nicer than the shop bought block and not as solid. Will definatley be on the hunt for cheap cream from now on! Might have a go at the scones with the buttermilk tommorrow

Deedee73

mmm mmm mm, I just made a little bit from a little pot of double cream! I used the buttermilk in my coffee! Oh it was lovely, butter still tastes a bit sweet though, have I done it right?