Butter is a simple food made with simple ingredients. It starts with fresh milk from local farms.
Fresh cream from Washington comes from comfortable cows on sustainable farms and provides the perfect base for the delicious butter we love and enjoy. Butter is made by breaking up milk’s cream. When cream is shaken, or churned, it separates to form solid butter and liquid buttermilk. Follow these steps to make your own butter.
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Directions
- Choose a local heavy whipping cream available at your favorite grocer or farmer’s market. Most Washington cream is 36% fat, but any heavy whipping cream will do.
- Pour whipping cream (and optional salt) into selected jar and secure lid tight.
- Shake the jar well! Up and down and back and forth (maybe do a little dance).
- Around 4-6 minutes, you should feel like you are no longer shaking anything. The liquid heavy whipping cream has now been formed into a more solid product.
- Shake for an additional 30-60 seconds until you see a lump forming and a liquid in the jar (buttermilk) or hear a “thud” against the jar.
- Separate the butter from the buttermilk by using a strainer. Save liquid buttermilk for use in other recipes, such as pancakes, soups or sauces.
- Rinse the butter.
- Place the newly formed solid butter in a bowl.
- Pour cold water over it, gently kneading the butter in the bowl to rinse any buttermilk away.
- Form butter into a ball and discard the fluid.
- Repeat 2-3 times.
- Taste your butter. It’s ready to spread on toast, slather on corn, or use in a baking recipe.
- Store your butter. Wrap the fresh butter in wax paper or parchment paper (a double wrap of plastic wrap and aluminum foil will work too) and roll into a log. Tie or tape the ends. Fresh butter can be kept refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen up to 6 months.
TIP: If freezing, cut the butter into smaller sizes once it has hardened in the fridge to store in the freezer for easy accessibility.
Have you seen flavored butters recently at your farmer’s market or at a restaurant near you? You can make them too! Follow any of our simple flavored butter recipes.
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FAQs
1 gallon of milk will usually yield 1 to 1.5 pint of cream. The cream will churn to approx. 1/3 to ½ lb of butter. The above info is for our raw cow milk only.
How much heavy cream do I need to make 1 lb of butter? ›
Here's a tip: If you start with one quart of cream (32 ounces), you'll make about one pound of butter (16 ounces, or four sticks) and two cups of buttermilk.
What is the best milk to make butter with? ›
The best option would be fresh, raw cream from pastured Jersey cows. Milk from Jersey cows has the highest fat content, which is why they are primarily dairy cattle. In addition, the fat in their milk has larger globules in it which makes it perfect for churning butter.
How much butter will 2 cups of heavy cream make? ›
Just for reference, 2 cups of cream will make 1 stick of butter (100 grams, 3 1/2 ounces, or 1/2 cup). You'll also get about 1 cup of buttermilk. To take your butter a step further, you can make it into compound butter or whipped butter.
Is it cheaper to make your own butter? ›
Butter isn't that expensive — it's about $3 per pound at the wholesale level. Cream costs roughly $3.50 for 16 ounces, or less if you buy a larger carton. That means the price of making your own butter isn't much more than buying it in the store, and often you can get organic cream cheaper than organic butter.
How long does homemade butter last? ›
How long does homemade butter last? Homemade butter has a shelf life of up to 2 – 3 weeks when kept in the fridge. You can also keep your homemade butter in the freezer for up to 9 months.
What is the best cream to make butter with? ›
Fresh Sweet Cream The ideal cream is non-ultra pasteurized, high butterfat content (36-40%), organic, and from pastured cows. Jersey cream makes churning faster, due to larger butterfat globules.
Should heavy cream be cold when making butter? ›
A few hours prior to churning, leave the cream out on the counter. The ideal temperature for churning butter is around 60-65 F. If the cream is too cold, it is harder for the fat globules to stick together, and if it is too warm the butter will be a little too soft and gloopy.
Can you over mix heavy cream when making butter? ›
So, if you ever overwhip your cream, just keep whipping. Don't stop until the cream starts to clump together and gets a faint yellowish color. Then drain the butter on paper towels, and press out excess liquid. Press the butter into a mold or dish and refrigerate.
Does homemade butter taste better than store bought? ›
Flavor: Homemade butter is striking: It tastes unbelievably fresh. I tested my first batch of homemade butter against my favorite supermarket brand, and the difference was clear: Freshly made butter tastes FRESH, unlike butter that's sat at the supermarket for a while.
The end result is a solid fat-based product, butter, and a liquid with a low amount of fat in it, buttermilk.
Is homemade butter healthier? ›
With all of the health benefits of butter, why not run to the store and gather up a box of wholesome sticks of the stuff right now? Not so fast. Unlike the real, raw, organic, deep yellow, grass-fed butter enjoyed traditionally, most commercial butter is mass-produced from pasteurized and hom*ogenized milk.
When to add salt to homemade butter? ›
If you wish to add salt you will need ¼ teaspoon of plain dairy salt for every 110g (4oz) of butter. Before shaping the butter, spread it out in a thin layer and sprinkle evenly with dairy salt. Mix thoroughly using the butter pats, then weigh into slabs as before.
Why is my heavy cream not turning into butter? ›
When using packaged cream, it is very important to use heavy cream with at least 35% to 50% milkfat. Please DO NOT USE low-fat cream, cooking cream or light cream that has less than 35% milkfat; you won't get butter no matter how much you whip these because there just isn't enough fat.
How much butter do you get out of a gallon of raw milk? ›
So after purchasing one gallon of milk, you will end up with just under two sticks of butter, 2 cups of buttermilk, a quart and a half of yogurt and a quart and a half of milk for drinking.
How much milk is needed to make a pound of butter? ›
It takes 21.2 pounds of whole milk to make one pound of butter.
What is the ratio of milk to butter? ›
How much butter and buttermilk can I get from a liter of milk? Depending on the fat content,you can get 60 to 80 grams of butter per liter of milk.
How long do you have to shake milk to make butter? ›
Keep shaking until the milk has turned into whipped cream (2-3 minutes). Continue to shake until a solid chunk of butter has formed (2-3 minutes). During this step, you should also notice that the jar's contents have become more liquid as the whipped cream separates into buttermilk and the solid mass of butter.
