{BUTTER PICTURES}

Im procrastinating. I have tons to do today but its stuff i don't wanna do. So Klaire's watching "I Love Lucy" and im blogging.

I promised pictures, i have them. Lots of them! Some i still need to upload though, like the ones of my garden. It sure is purty!

So here's the butter pictures:

Meet my churn. Shes a beaut! Ive wanted her for years and this Easter i finally got to buy her. Shes hand made by a cousin of mine and shes breaking in real nice. Now, there's LOTS of other kids of churns, and im hoping to get my hands on one. But for now, i love the one i have, it works just fine for our weekly butter consumption needs.
Butter making can be real messy, so have LOTS of towels on hand!


Its wise to have a few extra bowls on hand. You'll need them further along in the process. Also, spoons. Have some wooden or bamboo spoons on hand, or spatulas will work too. NO METAL! Some people use metal, but i don't, it changes the flavor of the butter IMO. So ensure that no metal comes in contact with the butter.

You can use either heavy whipping cream, home style whipping cream, or raw milk that has the cream separated. But to use the raw milk, you need to add a few other steps in the process.
For now though, im using cream, im going to be venturing into using raw milk here in the next few months though.
You can either add the cream cold or warm, but when its added cold it takes longer, much longer for the butter ad butter milk to separate. So just let the cream sit out in a bowl for an hour or so and you'll be set to go.


A good way to track the progress of butter making is by how the cream coats the stick. You'll see what im talking about further into the process. This looks like a good coating, but we want a thicker coating than this, the cream is still pretty liquidy at this point.


So after about 10 or so minutes of churning you can see that its still very liquidy. It hasn't thickened yet, but you can see that the stick of the churn is starting to get coated really nicely.


So this is about 15 or so minutes into churning, now its in a soft whipping cream stage. This is the beginning of the cream turning thick. Its coating the stick really nicely, its almost doubled in volume, its coating the inside of the churn as well. But we want it thicker!


A few minutes later, and with more churning if you look closely you can see that the butter solids are starting to form and separate from the buttermilk. But theres still alot of churning that needs to be done.


At this point we take of the lid to peek in because by now you should feel a difference in the ease of moving the churn stick. It should take more effort to move it. So now you can see how the cream has changed from a soft whipping cream stage to a really loose and soft butter stage. Its kind of hard to see the small globs of butter starting to form, but they are forming. The cream is looking a bit lumpier and is holding its shape.


After working it some more, its a little lumpier. Almost there!


At this point the butter solids are now clumping together and its really seperating from the buttermilk. You can see a thin coat of the buttermilk on the back part of the paddle while the butter is getting in a big clump, you can also see that the cream is no longer coating the churn stick. At this point it should be a bit easier to move the churn stick and you should be hearing lots of sloshing. But the butter hasn't fully formed into a patty at the bottom of the churn yet. Still separating.


The beginning of the butter patty at the bottom of the churn. If you look closely you can see the buttermilk floating on top of the butter patty. It still needs a little more churning though.


Still lots of loose butter curds that are full of buttermilk.


So about 30-35 minutes in this is whats coming up on the churn stick. No loose butter curds, no clumps of butter, no whipping cream, just a super light coating of buttermilk. All of the butter is in a bug patty at the bottom of the churn.


This is what the inside of the churn looks like. The buttermilk sloshing around and the butter patty at the bottom of the churn. Now, at his point, you don't want to overwork the butter as long as its still in contact with the buttermilk. Its possible to work a certain amount of buttermilk back into the butter. And it will make the butter go rancid after a day or so. So don't over work it.


Pour off the buttermilk into another bowl. The butter will remain at the bottom of the churn. Now this is real buttermilk! It has a totally different flavor than what you buy in the store. It tastes so much better! Save it, you can use it the next day in pancakes, onion rings, as a breading wash for chicken or pork chops, and tons of other things!




BUTTAH!!! You can see the buttermilk still coming out of the butter.


Now scoop the butter patty out of the bottom of the churn. Again, use a non metal bowl. We are going to work and rinse the rest of the buttermilk out of the butter and salt it.


After squishing and working it for a few minutes, more buttermilk still coming out.




So after you work it and no more buttermilk comes out with working it with a spoon now its time to rinse it. More buttermilk will still come out! The cloudy water is the left over buttermilk and water mixing. So rinse it until the water runs clear. Use COLD water too! That helps the butter stay together.
Its important to do this step because any leftover buttermilk in the butter will cause it to go rancid in a matter of a day or two. So really put some work into this step, your butter will last longer and taste better.


Look at the beautiful soft yellow of the butter! Real butter my friends, there's nothing like it! Now, after rinsing it work it in the bowl a few minutes more and water will come out of the butter. Its OK if there's a few droplets here and there, but get as much out as you can. Once its pretty dry add your salt and mix well.


At this point find a good container for it with an airtight lid. At this point, some people put fresh water on top of the butter to keep it fresh, but i don't. I just make sure we always keep it in the fridge. Make sure you tap down the butter in the container, air bubbles will introduce bacteria and will make it go rancid.
We got 6 oz. of butter from about a cup of cream IIRC.


And that my friends, is butter.
I know some people make it in their kitchen aides, but i don't because of the metal factor.
Our next venture will be into making butter from raw milk, and then making a cultured butter. People in Europe actually mostly eat cultured butter, and its so much healthier for us too!

The reason ive gone to making our butter and butter for my dad is because its fun, its cheaper, its resourceful, and its healthier.
Butters that are mass produced are filled with nasty nasty things, and when you eat real butter for a bit and eat mass produced butter there is a real different taste.