In this post my friend Sharon Biggs Waller, a historical novelist, shares her recipe and method for making homemade butter. Rich, delicious butter can be made using heavy cream and a few simple kitchen items. No churn is required. Read on for the method, or watch the video for a tutorial!
Whenever I tell people I make my own butter they tend to look at me in wonder. “Making butter? Sounds like alchemy,” one person said. Invariably I’m asked if I use a butter churn. Although the idea of sitting on my porch using an old-fashioned churn appeals to my inner Little House on the Prairie, I don’t collect enough cream from my dairy goat to use such a device, nor do I possess the funds to buy one. The truth is, butter is a simple thing to make with ordinary kitchen tools, and you don’t even need to own a goat or a cow. You can make butter with store-bought whipping cream. But before we get into the details, let’s talk a bit about the history of butter.
People have been making butter for centuries throughout Europe and Asia. Humans initially used butter as a way of preserving the fat in milk. Butter rose to prominence as a spread and cooking fat in northern Europe during the Middle Ages, when it was eaten by peasants. The upper classes also ate it periodically, because it was the only animal fat allowed by Rome on days when meat was forbidden. In the 16th century it was allowed during Lent. In the early days, it took a little while to get enough cream to churn, and so it was collected over various days. Because the milk in these small old-timey dairies was not refrigerated, the lactic acid bacteria inherent in dairy would ferment slightly. This cultured butter has a very tangy and rich flavor, and is my personal favorite. Spread cultured butter on sourdough bread or a crusty baguette and you’ll know what heaven tastes like. Most butters made in Europe still taste this way, although they are made from pasteurized cream inoculated with lactic acid.
Uncultured butter made from straight-up pasteurized cream is called sweet cream butter, and is what we’re used to in the United States. Pasteurization of the cream kills the lactic acid bacteria, however butter made from such cream lasts longer. True cultured butter, made from raw cream, turns rancid after ten days. If you want your butter to taste cultured, Ricki Carroll, author of the book Home Cheese Making, advises using unpasteurized cream and letting it ripen at room temp (72 degrees) for several hours. Or use pasteurized cream, let it sit for 12 to 24 hours, add mesophilic starter and let the cream set out overnight before churning. If you’d like to taste European-style butter without making your own, try the brand Plugrá. Although technically not a cultured butter, Plugrá uses natural flavors from cultured milk.
At its very essence, making butter requires nothing more than agitation. What you’re doing is separating the fat from the milk. You can use a blender, a stand mixer or hand mixer, or just shake by hand (if your child has a lot of energy, enlist their help; kid-power goes a long way!). I usually use my stand mixer with the whip attachment for making butter. I’ve also used a blender in the past and it worked just as well. If you use a stand mixer, be sure to place a kitchen towel over the mixer and the bowl to stop the buttermilk from flinging all over your kitchen, which will happen when the butter globules form.
You’ll notice in the pictures below that some of the butter is white, not yellow. That’s because I have a herd of goats, so I usually use the cream we collect to make my homemade butter. Goat’s milk is white because it doesn’t have the beta carotene that causes the yellowish blush in cow milk. A goat turns the carotene present in her fodder into vitamin A, which is colorless.
Here is the process for making homemade butter, step-by-step!
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How to Make Homemade Butter
Ingredients
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- Large bowl of ice water
- Salt to taste (optional)
- Stand mixer, hand mixer or blender, or a jar with a tight fitting lid
Instructions
- Pour a pint of heavy cream or whipping cream into your device or into a jar with a tight-fitting lid. If using a machine, turn on low speed, then raise to medium speed. If you're using a jar, start shaking (you'll need some serious elbow grease if doing it by hand). First, the cream will turn into whipped cream with soft, then stiff peaks. Keep going until the cream breaks. If you’re shaking the cream by hand, you’ll hear a sloshing, then you’ll begin to feel something more solid hit the sides of the jar. If you’re using a stand mixer, you’ll see the butter clinging to the beater. This usually takes anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes -- by hand may take longer. In this process, you are separating the butterfat from the liquid.
- Once the butter has solidified, pour off the buttermilk and save it for baking (or drink it!). Scoop the butter into a bowl. Rinse the butter by pouring ice water over it and pressing the remaining buttermilk out with a small spatula or a spoon. Pour off the water and repeat the process. Keep rinsing and squishing the butter with the ice water until the water runs clear. Then add some salt if you like and work that through the butter.
- There you have it-- old-fashioned butter, no churn required! Spread on toast, corn on the cob, a baked potato, or whatever you like and enjoy!
Nutrition
tried this recipe?
Let us know in the comments!
Research Sources
Belanger, Jerry (2001). Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy Goats. Storey Publishing, North Adams, MA
Carroll, Ricki (2002). Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Homemade Cheeses. Storey Publishing, North Adams, MA
McGee, Harold (2004). On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Scribner, New York, NY
king says
Awesome recipe and directions. I honestly didn’t know making butter was so simple and easy! I tried it for the first time and I has fairly happy with my butter. Straining the buttermilk was the hardest for me, but its not that bad. Thank you for sharing!
Kimberli D Saunders says
Can you use lactose free cream
Tori Avey says
I have never tried that… not sure!
Izabela Gentile says
I added coco and made a really good chocolate spread using this method!
Vijaya says
We always made out butter at home from Buffello milk which is very rich and white, . Them days we did not have fridge freezer. We had to boil the milk three time. Cream on the top made in to yogurt and then churned to make butter and buttermilk. Butter milk used different ways Making curry to drinking adding sugar and salt. Ate with rice.
alberta myers says
can the homemade butter be frozen in the freezer , if so, for how long and what is the process of doing this? does it matter if pasterized or unpasterized in order to freeze?
Tori Avey says
This is a great question. I would think homemade butter should work the same as regular butter in terms of freezing – it should be fine. I do always recommend using pasteurized dairy for food safety, but not sure if that matters in terms of freezing.
Afia says
Hi
I tried your recipe with double cream
Beautiful butter and delicious butter milk
Many thanks for such a nice recipe ❤️
Mary says
I used about 800 ml organic Avalon dairy whipping cream and got about 340 gm of butter and 12 oz of butter milk. Totally worth the $7 and time because you get them both! Next time I’ll strain then rinse BEFORE I squish it all together. Maybe I’ll “culture” the cream first too.
Ta!
Ace says
Do not recommend doing by hand and whisk
andy reeley says
I cannot believe how easy this is. Great cream from my local farm, and a few minutes later, superb butter. It really is so easy if you have a stand mixer. So glad I found this recipe.
Kimberley says
Could anyone tell me how long the buttermilk last for after I’ve made the butter please. Thanks.
Luke says
Unpasteurized butter will last about 10 days before turning rancid. Pasteurised butter lasts a lot longer.
Rachel says
Thanks for this very easy recipe. I had three cups of cream nearing its end-of-shelf life and rather than letting it go bad—BUTTER! I used finely ground pink Himalayan salt and it turned out beautifully. I ended up with about a cup of butter. I’m storing most of it in my butter bell to spread on toast, etc. Thinking about using some different salt/spice combos the next time I run into this “issue.” Plus, it gave me some fun—thanks for that as well!
Ginny says
This is delicious! As for the small amount of butter you get from a lot of cream, I use this as a spread. I do still use store butter for baking, etc. Thank you for this recipe. The video was very helpful.
Lil Chickadee says
I love the recipe! The only problem was after using half of a HUGE bottle of cream, I only got a tiny bit of butter from it.
Katasha says
Going to be making butter soon!!!!
Amanda P. says
O. M. G. This taste so good! It’s like I just bought it! I would say to be patient with it when it starts to separate from the milk butter.
PRITAM MALLICK says
thanks for teaching us the basics of kitchen. We sometimes keep malai for many days in fridge and not in fridger. also we used to keep home made makhan for several days. thanks for guiding us
Cinnamon A Flowers says
Turned out perfectly. We spead it on our fresh baked gluten free bread, so delicious. Used it to make roux for potato soup was perfect.
Diann Surritte says
I remember growing up,my dad bought a piece of land and the first thing he bought fpr it was a cow. Sje was milked eveeu night and then once my mom got enough cream she would take it into the living room and begin shaking it. Them she would hand it off to my dad and then he would pass it onto my brother or me. All of us shaking that jar,we made the best tasting butter there ever was…..I wish I could go back to those days……
Ilona Tanner says
Hi Tori,
I haven’t made butter sincine I was a kid, we used a butter churn in those days.
For my next project I am going to try and make enough butter to give be a reasonable amount of ghee, as good quality butter is hard to find.
Many thanks
Ilona
Will says
This is my second time making this butter. It’s awesome except when I add salt at the end, it doesn’t really dissolve and I’m left with salt crystals in my butter. Any tips? Thanks
Tori Avey says
Hi Will, are you using fine salt crystals? Those work best. Also if you wait 30 minutes or so after adding the salt, then process again, the salt should dissolve and incorporate more easily into the butter. Glad you’re enjoying the recipe!
Jonathan says
Can anyone advise how much buttermilk is produced per pint of cream? I want to make Irish Soda Bread completely from scratch, so with my own butter and buttermilk, but I can’t workout how much cream I need to make the required buttermilk (0.75pints / 420ml). Thanks.
Marcelle says
Hi Jonathan, I work in metric measurements unfortunately, but I get 400g of solid butter and approx. 400 ml of buttermilk out of one litre of cream. Hope this is helpful.
Michelle says
Hi Jonathan,
Two cups of heavy cream yields one cup of butter & one cup of buttermilk. Hope this helps!