Guest Post: Making Butter with My Mom

My mom has been making her own butter for a couple of years now. She still buys butter, but if there's a sale on whipping cream she's all over it. A few weeks ago she made 46 pounds of butter. That's right: 46 pounds. I asked her to write me a guest blog post about her butter making experiences and she finally sent it along the other day. Right now I have 6 blocks of her frozen butter sitting in my freezer. Butter lasts us a long time in this house so we're set for the next couple of months at least.

Adventures in Butter Making by Jo

I am finally writing about my adventures in butter making. Last year in January, after the rush of Christmas, I was grocery shopping and noticed the store was clearing out cartons of whipping cream - a litre or quart for $1. The expiry date was only 2-3 days away though. This was a ridiculously low price and I knew from past experimentation that I could make about 12 ounces or 340 grams of butter from a litre of whipping cream, hence a pound of butter could be made for $1.25. This is an amazing buy for fresh whipped butter.

This year the same store was clearing out their cartons of whipping cream again but the Beatrice brand had a $.75 coupon on the side of the cartons. I bought 27 litres of cream for $27 and took them home. I poured them into 4 litre plastic milk jugs I had saved (I was preparing for this mass making of butter before Christmas when I first spotted the cream coupons). I then cleaned the cartons, cut out the coupons, and went back to the store for more cream. Coupons in hand, I purchased another 27 litres of cream for $.25 a piece (if you're keeping track, that's $.25 for a pound of butter).

We had a lot of people ask why we were buying so much cream. I told people I was making it into butter and I was slightly insane. The cream is close to its sell-by date - actually sometimes I think I'm pretty close to my sell-by date too (I digree - Erin, you know I do this all the time you must have expected it!!!). Anyway, it needs to be whipped into cream, which you could also freeze and use next time you need whipping cream, or it needs to be whipped into butter. Just so you know, whipping cream cannot be frozen unless it is whipped into whipped cream or butter.

Whipped 8-10 pounds of butter, as I made last year, takes a bit of time. But I have to admit that whipping 46 pounds of butter is not for the faint-hearted. In fact, my granddaughter, Amaya, was asking me towards the end of my two and a half days of whipping when I would finally stop. But 46 pounds of butter in the freezer will last us almost a year so I think it was worth it and everyone likes the delicate, creamy taste of fresh butter.

Homemade Butter Making Method

• 1 litre whipping cream
• 1/2-3/4 tsp salt for salted butter OR omit for unsalted butter
• hand held or stand mixer

I use a large stand mixer that holds a litre of cream. I add the salt (or omit for unsalted) and mix on medium speed. If you mix too quickly in the beginning you'll just have a big mess so start slow and increase the speed as it mixes.

It will reach the usual whipped cream stage but you need to go past this point. It will get thicker and separate out from the buttermilk or whey, and will magically turn a pale yellow colour. I whip at a lower speed at this point because as it completely separates it can make a watery mess and surprisingly splash you in the face.

I then put the butter in a wire sieve with a bowl underneath to catch the buttermilk and let it sit while I start the next litre of whipping cream. The butter needs to have as much of the buttermilk squeezed out as possible. After trying a number of methods, I opted for what Julia Child always said and I used my impeccably clean hands.

I weighed the butter out into 340 gram portion sizes, wrapped it in parchment paper molded into bricks, put serveral portions in a freezer bag, and tucked them in the freezer. I also froze about 8 litres of buttermilk, which is nothing like the store bought variety and has a much milder flavour. (*Erin says: I use it to make whey - I'll post more about whey a little later).

Try making a small amount sometime, I think you will like the flavour. As I said, whipping up this much is a lot of work and I have become slightly posessive about my hoard of butter. But honestly, the end result was very satisfying both in taste and price and Amaya was happy when I finally turned off the mixer.

-Mum