You don’t need sophisticated ingredients to make butter. A few decades ago there was nothing in stores and our great grandmothers were quite good at making it. What’s more, you don’t need any experience to make high-quality butter, all you need is good cream and patience to beat it
Homemade butter has a short composition, and the manner and conditions of its preparation are well known to us. Store products can not boast of this. Manufacturers widely advertise their products as healthy and without preservatives. Unfortunately, after checking the list of ingredients it is not true
By law, “butter” is a name reserved for food products that have only milk fat in their composition without any unnecessary additives. Unfortunately, on store shelves you can find “fat mix”, which deceptively resembles butter, but it is not. In its composition, milk fat has been replaced by low-quality vegetable fat, the consistency of which is very similar. Such products also contain a large amount of colorants and emulsifiers.
Homemade butter boasts a wealth of vitamins, minerals, and the buttermilk created as a byproduct is full of valuable bacteria. Of course, the more natural the cream, the more nutritional value contained in the butter
To make butter you will need:
To make butter, the best is sweet and all-natural cream bought from a friendly farmer. However, if you do not have access to such, it is worth choosing a better quality one from the store.
When buying the product, pay attention to its composition. Cream must have at least 30-36% fat, and the number of ingredients should be as short as possible. Optionally, live bacterial cultures may appear there. Unfortunately, you have to take into account the fact that even the best quality cream sometimes whips badly, and the resulting butter has a bad consistency. It is not worth getting discouraged, just buy another product next time. Eventually you will find the perfect one
Remember about the right temperature of the cream. If it is too warm, the butter will turn out soft, difficult to rinse and form into the right shape. On the other hand, cold cream is very difficult to whip. Its temperature should be around 17 °C. Half an hour before you start making butter, take it out of the refrigerator.
If you are going to use a hand mixer to make butter, we recommend that you place the cream in a tall jar. Otherwise it will splash a lot and make a mess around
Pour 600g of 30% or 36% cream into a tall container or food processor. Then whip it for about 5 minutes. The cream should change its consistency. At first it will be liquid, then it will take on the consistency of whipping cream, and the final result should be the separation of its liquid part from hard lumps of compacted fat. At this point you should finish whipping
Once you have the right consistency, separate the whole thing. To do this, prepare a large bowl and place a strainer over it. Then, pour the mixture so that there is only buttermilk in the dish and lumps of fat on the strainer. Strained buttermilk is ready for consumption. You can drink it, add it to pancakes, smoothies, or shakes
Collect the clumped fat from the strainer and form a compact lump with a rounded shape with your hands. Then place the butter in a bowl of cold water to rinse out the remaining buttermilk. Do this for a while, if the water turns cloudy and white, change it. Repeat this process until the buttermilk is completely clear. Once done, you can give the butter its final form
You can store homemade butter in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. If you have made a lot of it, it is recommended to freeze the excess. The product can be stored in the freezer for 6 to 8 months. Alternatively, you can use it to make clarified butter
