Have you ever made homemade butter before? Well, if not you are in a for a treat, because that is just what we are talking about in today’s Happy Homesteading post.
I can remember when I was in Kindergarten our teacher bringing in some cream, adding it to a little baby food jar and giving it to all us to shake until it magically turned into butter. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and apparently I haven’t changed much since my Kinder years because I still think it’s the coolest thing ever!
HISTORY
As you might know I like to throw some old pictures from my families old photo albums into these Homesteading posts so here are a few old ones for you to enjoy of cows on the farm. I don’t know who these kids are in the pictures, but they are probably related to me in someway.
MAKING HOMEMADE BUTTER
I wanted to try and use unprocessed milk straight from a cow like they did back in the pioneer days. I know there is risk involved with not using processed milk (things like bacteria and such) but I also know the homesteaders from long ago drank it right from the cow. How were they able to survive with all those bacteria I wonder? Secretly I went around at first asking if there was some local dairy farmer that would allow me to sneak some gallons of unprocessed milk, but nope! It’s against the law. Bummer. But then I went to LocalHarvest.org and found out that there is one local dairy farm that sells to my local Yoke’s grocery store. I can actually buy RAW milk if I wanted to and they sell cream too. Woo hoo! The problem? This stuff is expensive. Can we say $6-$10 per gallon? Yep. But this is a local rarity, so I am excited to have it if I want it for making butter and cheese.
I purchased this little 8 oz. bit of cream for us to make butter with made from Pure Eire Dairy.
Since I don’t have any babies around for using baby food jars, I just used one of my snapware containers instead.
I decided this would be fun to do with the my two smallest kiddos, hoping they would really enjoy shaking the jar and watching how it all works. Boy was I wrong. They liked shaking the jar for about 20 seconds before they said..”I’m bored… I don’t wanna…and other whiny type words. ”
It was about 4 minutes of mostly me shaking it when it started not moving inside the container. So I opened it up and found we were at the whipped cream stage. Sorry, I know my pictures are horrible, my camera was acting up I think.
So we put the lid back on and tried to shake it more, but nothing was happening. So we started banging the container on the counter instead. All of a sudden the kids decided they wanted to bang the butter too again, which was nice because my arms were really starting to hurt.
We did this for about 5 minutes until there was a little bit more of a thunking sound when we hit it against the counter.
Here is was after about 10 minutes of total shaking – we had homemade butter!
I used my handy-dandy flour sack towel to line my colander and started smushing out the liquid buttermilk.
I really should have kept the buttermilk for pancakes or something. But I forgot to put a bowl underneath and it went on the counter. The flour sack was soaked with buttermilk too.
I’ll bet the homesteaders/pioneers didn’t waste the buttermilk (hanging my head in shame…) 🙂
And here it is – homemade butter! I covered mine with saran wrap and put it in the fridge. We used it to make apple crisp that night and it was divine. All in all, making butter was a fun experience! But I don’t think it is cost effective. I should do the math….okay I will.
From what I have read you can usually get 2 lbs. of butter and 2 quarts of buttermilk from a gallon of cream. At Costco you can get 1/2 gallon of whipping cream for around $5.79 or so. So for a gallon of this it would cost $11.58 for 2 lbs of butter and some buttermilk. If I cut that in half it would be $5.79 for 2 lbs of butter and at Costco you can get butter at around $2.00 per lb. So making your own butter is not cost effective. Maybe if you had your own cows or goats it might be though? But seeing how I don’t have my own dairy cow I don’t think I will be buying whipping cream to make it myself much, it’s just too expensive.
I someday might have my own dairy cow if I am able to have my country dreams come true. Hope you enjoyed today’s adventure in Homesteading…it’s fun learning these skills.
About Karrie
Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...
Comments & Reviews
Andrea says
Great post. Thank u. I appreciate the math. These things I wonder about.
Barbara K says
I remember making butter when I was a kid (now 65). Mom did not have a churn, but she did have a mixer. She bought our milk from a local farmer. We pulled off the cream and put it in the fridge until we got a gallon of the cream then let it sour. Poured the sour cream into the mixer bowl and started the mixer on low and slowly turned it to high and as it started to separate we turned it lower until it formed a ball in the mixer. We fished out the butter and worked out the rest of the liquid in a mixing bowl. The leftover liquid in the mixer was the best buttermilk in my world. Good memories.
Sandra at Thistle Cove Farm says
The amount of butter depends upon the quality of milk which depends upon the breed of cow. Earlier this month, I churned 45 pounds of butter from 10 gallons of Jersey cream.
My dasher broke at the whipped cream stage and I “churned” with my hands until butter formed. Hand churning is similar to the actions used in kneading yeast bread. I haven’t blogged about the process, but will soon.
BTW, you can use a Mason/Kerr/Bell jar and that works really well, especially if you use a wide mouth jar.
Amber says
I tried this. Soo much fun! though my arms did get a little tired, banging it on the floor helped a lot !
Before I thought your couldn’t make butter,like you have to have special supplies or something, I’m such a wierdo, and i didn’t know it was that simple, but it was a hit! every one liked it, even my friends , I probably would never have made butter if i didn’t come across you. Have more fun adventures Karrie, and keep sharing them. we love to hear them 🙂
Sheri says
A little late to the game, but thought I would put my two cents worth in anyway. I just finished making butter with my 3 year old grandson this morning. I put clean marbles in the container. The agitation of the marbles helps it become butter faster.
Happy.MoneySaver says
Great tip! Thanks!
Shelley says
Awesome! I SOOOO want to do this! I actually talked my hubby into letting me get a milk cow this spring (will probably start with a calf so it can “grow up” with the kiddos and be used to them). He says that since I miss them so much (I grew up on a dairy farm) that if I give up one of the miniature horses I could have one! No problem there! Had an unexpected foal last year, and he needs to find a new home. Sooo, Know anybody that needs a 7 month old miniature horse? LOL!
April says
I made butter just the other day, but I used my kitchen aide mixer.
Gretchen says
What was the final measurements for making homemade butter then? Love your blog!
Alliene says
When I lived in Texas, I was able to get raw milk for $5 a gallon from the farm. I would buy 5 gallons at a time. The cream and milk naturally separate, and I would poke a hole in the bottom of the gallon and drain off the milk into another empty gallon container. When it got down to the cream part, I turned the gallon over and poured the cream into another container. I made butter simply by using the kitchen aid mix master. That way, no tired arms or other body parts. I just put the cream in, let it run on low to medium speed, and walk away. It takes longer if the cream is cold, so it should be about room temperature. Sometimes I just made ice-cream instead of butter.
Karrie says
Oooooh…that sounds sooo good. Homemade ice-cream – YUM!
Nealla St Clair says
I was blessed to receive my grandmother’s Daisy churn. We have used it to make butter — about 2 lbs at a time. When the butter is ready, we rinse it in ice water to remove all of the buttermilk. We use a large shallow bowl, work the butter with a wooden paddle-type utensil. We work the ice water through the butter until the water runs clear. If you do not rinse out all of the “buttermilk”, the butter can develop an “off” taste. Once the butter is rinsed, we salt it. If you get too much salt in it, the solution is simple — just rinse in ice water. I vote for getting a churn….maybe birthday or Christmas gift?
Liz says
I make butter from the cream I skim from my goats milk… with goats milk being naturally homogenized though, I take what I can from the jars in the fridge and place it in freezer containers until I have enough saved for butter. I used the shaking in the jar method for awhile then moved on to using my kitchen aid with the paddle, I now have an old Daisy butter churn that works wonderfully! The butter made from goats milk cream is white, not the pretty yellow like that of cows milk due to the goat being very efficient in using and keeping the beta carotine for themselves 🙂 A bit of sea salt and you have an awesome topping for just about anything…including the made from scratch buttermilk pancakes and muffins using the left over liquid from making the butter.
Sally says
Your potatoes are read to harvest,oldtimerssay potatoes need out before July 4 they will start to rot
JOYCE KING says
It was interesting reading all of these posts. I do have a butter churn I got from Lancaster County, PA, years ago. I’m willing to sell it. I can email a picture to anyone who is interested.
Alisa says
It may not be cost effective to buy cream just to make your own butter, but if you happened to have some that was going to go bad soon you could make some butter (put some salt in it to make it last longer) just so that the cream doesn’t go to waste. You could even put the butter in your freezer if you weren’t going to use it right away. Also, I wanted to thank you for rendering tallow. I have probably 10 lbs of fat from the grass fed cow that we bought from our neighbor last year (we bought a quarter of a cow) and I’ve been meaning to render the tallow for a while, I just didn’t know the best way to do it on a large scale. I think I’m going to do it in my crockpot either in my back yard or in my garage (now that I know that it would stink up my 1 story house [so I can’t go upstairs like you did]). I have an 11-cup food processor (thank goodness) and a 6-quart crockpot so I should be able to do a lot in not much time. Also, you can also make butter in your Kitchen Aid. We are so lazy these days!! I think it would be awesome to have one of those fully functioning old butter churns. How cool would that be? The antique look of it would look awesome for decoration. I would also use it sometimes too, of course. 🙂
Karrie says
That is so true Alisa, I have had some cream go to waste before because I let it set there too long. Great thinking! And I hope the crockpot method turns out wonderfully for you – you will have to let me know how it goes. Yeah, I have wanted an antique butter churn so badly..but the one I want is really pricey. I keep trying to convince the happy husband I NEED it..LOL, but he doesn’t quite see it the same way.
Rachelle Benson says
We can buy RAW here… I have allergies to dairy so I use goats milk ( its $5.00 a gallon…still not cheap) and goats do not produce enough cream to make butter. I miss it! ( I use coconut oil for most butter recipes) I may have to find a local cow milk supplier and make some. I invested in a century old butter churn on Ebay several years ago. It sits in my kitchen up high on a shelf.. and I love it. Its fully functional… when we first moved here I had a dexter milking cow ( miniature cows for small properties…love them!)… and I made butter every day… do you see what you just did??? Now I have to go find some RAW cream…lolol right after I get the goat cheese finished in the kitchen… Happy Homesteading!!
Karrie says
Rachelle, you are a girl after my own heart! I want an old antique butter churn myself, but the one I want was around $100. I would love to use it as a decoration and try it out making butter too. But I haven’t been able to convince the happy husband yet that I must spend $100 on a butter churn…LOL
Jessica kiefer says
You know, I make blackened chicken and broccoli fettuccine Alfredo with garlic toast a lot because my kids love it….I end up with half a pint of heavy cream every time I do….I wonder if I could try making butter out of it??? Hmmmm, think I might get up from this computer and go try it!! Thanks for the recipes….I actually came to your website for the laundry detergent recipe(passing it thru the family) I love it!!! My son is a mess maker with his clothes, stains, oils and grass….Sigh….The kid can drive a laundry doing woman to drinking!!!! LOL I can’t wait to try the laundry crystals recipe…..I am now a loyal reader of your blog!! I love it all!!!! Thank you!!! My recipe for Alfredo in case u all want it:(I feed five so, I double it)
Kroger brand blackened chicken spice, Cube chicken meat(bite sized) and liberally coat chicken with spice, brown on stove top, add just a little water to cook chicken tenderly then, uncover and cook it out when meat is tender-
cut broccoli into bite sized chunks and steam until crunchy/cooked
cook pasta
Put all that in a big bowl for tossing later and cook the Alfredo sauce
Sauce:
1/2 cup butter(I use real salted butter not the tub kind)
1/2 cup whipping cream(heavy cream)
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese(grated) (whatever P. cheese you buy the sauce will taste like that, so choose wisely)
Put butter in saucepan and melt then, add cream- get hot then, add cheese and stir until cheese is melted
When it’s ready add 1/2 tsp salt and pepper and a little parsley(1 or 2 Tbs.) to flavor and pour over bowl of ingredients and toss……
I serve it with garlic toast.
Hope you enjoy it…..I’m from Mississippi so, it isn’t diet food guys….It’s rich and will probably kill me it’s so good but, I’ll die happy!!!!
Karrie says
That sounds super delicious!
Kelly says
Great article. BTW– last week on the KGW morning segment with Drew Carney, he was at the ‘Ag Fest’ and they had ‘Mother Goose’ on there and she had the kids making butter in a sealed jar with a marble inside the jar to help speed up the butter making process. Just thought I would throw that out there in the event you need some insentive to get your kids to make butter again. 🙂
Thanks for all you do for us.
Kelly Hayden