Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Butter on my Bread...

So I am not sure if I mentioned this or not, but I made butter! It was great and I took pictures to show you!

My grandmother found me some good cream from Trickling Springs Creamery at our local Pennsylvania Dutch Market. 


My grandmother's KitchenAid mixer. As you are probably noticing, my grandma was an integral part of this homesteading experiment. I have a mixer, not as nice as hers but we were over there and I just couldn't wait until I got home to do this so I just did it there.


So I mixed and I mixed... It went from a liquid to a solid whipped cream looking consistency. Then the whipped cream turned into liquid again! At this point, I thought for sure I had messed it all up. After more mixing, the butter started to form and separate from the buttermilk. This was kinda a sloshy mess but I knew at that point I was doing something right.


I drained out the buttermilk and saved it for some wonderful recipe such as buttermilk biscuits or pancakes.


Now the next step I didn't do as well as I should have. I was supposed to rinse and squeeze all the liquid out or it would spoil faster. I got most of it out but I think it could have been done better.
Here is my finished product!! I apologize for the bad decision to put it in a dish that is the exact same color as the butter, since it does not take as good of a picture.


I used it all up pretty quickly. It was good but I wish I would have salted it. Unfortunately, when I was doing the cost breakdown of homemade butter versus store bought, the store bought is definitely more economical. The cream cost a lot more than a pound of butter and it only produced about a stick and a half. I did get buttermilk out of it which was a bonus. I think the only way I could see making all your own butter is if you had a deal with a dairy to get the cream really cheap. I don't have those connections yet.

On a side note, I got heckled while I made this. A lot of my family was over for a big breakfast and during a quiet moment I decided to do it. Some of the comments were things like "Oh so you want to be a homesteader but you are using a KitchenAid?? Where is your churn?" They were all laughs until the butter was finished. They were all quite impressed with this skill even if I didn't use a churn...

2 comments:

  1. Isn't it fun though? And of course people make fun of it...but they want to eat it too! lol. I use my kitchen aid to make butter too, it's alot easier than shaking a jar and a hand churn costs almost as much as the kitchen aid and only has one purpose. It takes a week of goat milk for me to get enough cream to make butter and it's just a stick worth. But I feel good and I call it gourmet butter! I used to go to a local dairy farm and get a few gallons of raw milk from the bulk tank. I let the cream separate in the fridge and then used it for whipped cream and butter making. I love adding new skills!

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  2. It was pretty fun actually. It was interesting to see how it goes through different stages until it gets to becoming butter. I will do it again I think with my kids. It would be a good learning opportunity for them. So you make goat butter? How different does that taste from regular butter? I need to find a good local dairy around here. Maryland does not let you sell raw milk. PA does which is right up the street but there was a recent outbreak at a local farm where lots of people got sick from their milk.

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