The inspiration for this week’s edition of Making Groceries comes straight out of my favorite memory from first grade. We made butter! It was so cool. Mrs. Sonnenberg poured some cream into a jar at the beginning of the day. We took turns shaking it for as long and as hard as we could, then passed it on to our neighbor. By the end of the day we had creamy butter which we spread on bread and ate as a snack.
I updated today’s recipe by using my food processor. (A mixer with a splash guard would also do the job well.) It took about 5 minutes of processing time and a few more minutes to press. My kiddos are too little to use the jar method, but I hope teachers and parents do this as an activity with children. It’s fun to watch and it’s an excellent science, nutrition and history lesson. With constant shaking 30 minutes should do the job. My memory might be skewed in terms of the time frame.
1 c heavy whipping cream (if you can find something called manufacturing cream, use this. It isn’t as heavily pasteurized cream. Bakeries use it.)
1. Pour your cream into your food processor and push go. After a few minutes, you will have lovely whipped cream. Keep going. After the whipped cream stage, you will see pale yellow butter separate from milk. This milk is buttermilk and should be saved for pancakes or another treat.
2. Once butter has formed, separate it from the buttermilk using a strainer. Form the butter into a ball. Plunge it in ice water and squeeze out any excess buttermilk. The buttermilk will cause the butter to turn rancid more quickly.
3. You can whip your butter for a soft, spreadable texture or simply place it in a jar in your refrigerator. If you’d like, you can add a bit of sea salt, though I recommend leaving it plain and salting your food as you prepare it.
1 cup of cream yields about 1/2 c butter and 1/3 cup of buttermilk. I am sure some gets lost in the mess of creating it.
The Bottom Line
This was fun and easy, but clean-up was messy. Hot soapy water does the trick, but I think containing it the mess inside of the food processor was a good move. From a fun and educational standpoint, I really like this. Butter is so vilified in our culture, but there isn’t anything inherently evil in it. It’s just a food. Margarine contains bizarre and unhealthy transfats. Although I primarily use olive oil to cook, I finish sauces with a tablespoon of butter. It also makes much better baked goods. Used in moderation and for maximum flavor impact, it’s wonderful. This homemade butter has a fresh and creamy quality that just can’t be beat. It would be a shame to go through life without having tasted its goodness.
As for cost, I used organic cream which was $3.29 for 2 cups and yielded about 1 cup of butter and 2/3 c buttermilk. At this rate, a pound of organic butter would cost $6.58. Ouch! But butter is expensive, especially organic. At my store organic butter usually costs about $5.98. Considering the usable buttermilk, I’d say it’s a wash in terms of price. Of course, non-organic cream would be less expensive. The real reason to make butter is for the fun, novelty and quality of it. What a lovely housewarming gift it would make along with a loaf of artisan bread!
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