Anyone ever made butter?

[Miss-Shelf]

I made butter when I was staying at Tinkers Bubble, a low impact community in Somerset.

The milk was straaight from the cow

There was a thing like a big jam jar with a screw on top and a windy handle - we passed it round when our hands got tired.

It tasted utterly delicious,

you had the moment of triumph - the rest of us were your butter lackeys!

ha ha

 

[pennimania]

you had the moment of triumph - the rest of us were your butter lackeys!

ha ha

i think it was the little miss mania who got lucky

 

[nogojones]

Can you go straight from blue top milk? I've got my late aunties butter churner and pats, and always wanted to make it as she made the best better ever. Salt is needed!

 

[Wolveryeti]

If you get the super outrageous Jersey cow full fat special finest milk from the supermarket, butter naturally congeals at the bottom of the bottle. Lush, it is.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Can you go straight from blue top milk? I've got my late aunties butter churner and pats, and always wanted to make it as she made the best better ever. Salt is needed!

No, it's full fat but it's been homogenised ie the cream won't float to the top, so it wouldn't work. You need top of the milk from gold top or cream.

 

[gentlegreen]

If you leave unsalted butter at room temperature for a few months until it goes smelly, has it become cheese ?

 

[moose]

No, it's become something you put in the bin

 

[seeformiles]

I made butter in primary school in 1964. A teacher collected all the cream from the top of every bottle of free milk provided to children (glass bottles, one third of a pint size) and we all had a go and churned it and we all had some on a cream cracker after lunch. We learned to card and comb wool from the school sheep too. One of the teachers sheared it (somewhat inexpertly). This was a London primary. I didn't realise how amazing it was till my own kids were primary age.

In a previous life, dabbling in primary school teaching, I remembered doing this from my own school days and used it as a science experiment with my class. I brought in my hand whisk and let each child have a go (getting the other kids to time them for a minute each) - finished up serving it on digestives. Always a winner!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

If you leave unsalted butter at room temperature for a few months until it goes smelly, has it become cheese ?

That's how you make rancid butter, not how you make cheese.

 

[nogojones]

No, it's full fat but it's been homogenised ie the cream won't float to the top, so it wouldn't work. You need top of the milk from gold top or cream.

Ahh. More questions...

1. Where can I get this gold top?
2. How much would I need to fill the churn. It looks like it holds a gallon, a gallon of cream would be pricey.
3. Double or single cream?
3. how much butter milk would be left and what can I use it for?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Never mind the gold top, you'll have so much milk left over that will become a problem on its own. Just get cream. You don't fill the whole churn, it's got to have room to slap about inside.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

iirc, any real fresh cream will work.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

There are masses of recipes using buttermilk, millions, google buttermilk recipe.