Saturday, August 31, 2013

Butter Business

It has been a very long time since I posted anything on my blog, but I think it's time to give it another go. 

Today I visited the local dairy for the first time. I have purchased their milk at the local co-op before but had never been to the store at the farm. I bought a half gallon of milk and a pint of cream. When I got home, I made butter for the first time. 


I love butter and refuse to eat any butter substitutes, especially margarine which just freaks me out. I cook only with butter and never use shortening or margarine. I had heard that homemade butter is leaps and bounds better than anything you can buy in a store and I also hate store-bought buttermilk, so this seemed like killing two birds with one stone to me. I enjoy the fact that I know where the milk came from, know that the cream came from a cow milked yesterday and know exactly what is in my butter. 

And so my adventure began. Here is my churning journey in photos. 


Cream


Getting thicker


Almost whipped cream


Getting lumpy


Starting to separate


Completely separated...finally


Fresh butter


And buttermilk

Lessons from today:

This is a splashy, messy business
Use a deeper bowl than you think you need
Try using the food processor next time for speedy separating and splash control 

Now I need a good idea for what to make with the buttermilk before it spoils. Any suggestions?

No comments:

Post a Comment