Learn How to Make Butter: Homemade Butter Making Instructions

Learning how to make butter is easy and great fun! Follow our butter making instructions for your own homemade butter. As long as your cream has a high fat content, and is 2-3 days old, you should have no problem at all making delicious butter without any additives or preservatives.

HOW TO MAKE BUTTER: Introduction

In days gone by butter making was done in every household, as well as cheese making and soap making. However, people tend to be too busy with families and careers these days, and the art is not widely practiced. However, I like homemade butter because at least I know what went into it. I can also use the buttermilk for making cheese, and adding to my bread dough and muffin mixture as it make them that much lighter!

HOW TO MAKE BUTTER: Tips for Butter Making Success

To be successful with making homemade butter you need to make sure that your cream has a high fat content. Cream from Jersey cows, therefore, ensures success as the cream that they produce has just what you are looking for in fat content. The second thing is that the cream shouldn't be too fresh. It needs to be a couple of days old so that it has ripened sufficiently to turn into delicious homemade butter.

HOW TO MAKE BUTTER: Instructions

Take 500 ml double pouring Jersey cream and bring to room temperature. Pour into a bowl, and using a hand-held egg beater, start beating the cream. If you have the right conditions within 20 minutes or so, the cream will start to solidify and buttermilk will be the by-product. You can also use an old-fashioned butter churn, or if you want to hasten the beating process you can use an electric beater or a blender.

Once the fat solidifies and you have buttermilk, drain off the liquid and reserve for your baking or cheese making. Now you need to wash the butter, squeezing out any extra buttermilk.

To do this, add a cupful of iced water to the butterfat and beat the contents briefly. Pour off the milky water and repeat the process until the water remains clear after beating. Pour off the last of the water and then mash the butterfat with a fork getting any water out that may have been left behind. Drain this off too, and when you are happy with the butter, add salt to taste as this will prevent the butter from souring.

Finally, take the butter, smooth it into a container, cover and place in the fridge. It will be ready to use within a couple of hours. The butter will keep for a week or two. This recipe will make 300g of butter.

HOW TO MAKE BUTTER: Ringing the Changes

Once you have learned to make butter with our basic homemade butter recipe, you can experiment with herbs, such as cut up chives, and add them at the end. A classic herb butter is adding small quantities of fresh tarragon, parsley and thyme with a dash of black pepper.

For a slightly different flavour, and if your cream is too fresh, you can add 2 tablespoons of either crème fraîche, yogurt, or sour cream to your cream before you start to beat. Leave it at room temperature for about 24 hours at 24°C, lower the temperature to 15°C and then beat to make butter.