That’s right. That delicious stuff you’re buying in the store, those tasty blocks that come wrapped in paper and packaged four-at-a-time in little 1-lb boxes—you can make that.
Not only is homemade butter so much yummier than the store-bought kind, it’s also easy to make. This can be done several different ways. You can use a mixer, a food processor, or a container of some sort. I prefer the container method because it allows for a slow churn, rather than an unbridled whip that risks incorporating buttermilk back into the butter, so that’s what I will explain here.
All you’ll need is:
- 1 pint of heavy cream
- a 2-pint* or larger container (I used a 1-liter bottle)
- cheesecloth (I use a gold filter)
- salt
*You will need to use a container that is at least twice the volume of the cream.
First, you’re going to want to bring the heavy cream to room temperature. Why is that, you ask? Okay, science time! Milk and cream contain oodles of tiny fat molecules called globules (I still can’t decide how I feel about that word, but I think I like it). These globules are surrounded by membranes that prevent them from sticking to each other, keeping your milk and cream un-chunky (gross, I know). You make butter by agitating these membranes until they begin to break down, allowing the fat molecules to stick together (a process more commonly known as churning), and eventually resulting in the separation of butter and buttermilk. These membranes break down quickest at room temperature or slightly below. You can churn chilled cream and it will eventually yield butter as well, it will just take a lot longer. If you’re impatient like me, pour the cream into a wider container and set in a warm area for an hour or two, stirring occasionally. (I also use this time to try to finish a liter of seltzer.)
Once the cream has warmed, pour it into the empty container and seal with a secure lid. Shake the container steadily but not too rapidly (I am really trying to avoid the term “medium pace” here, despite how fitting it would be—thanks a lot, Adam Sandler). If you shake too violently, you risk reincorporating the buttermilk and over-churning the butter, which cannot be undone. As you shake, you’ll feel the cream begin to thicken, like whipped cream. Next, it’s going to start to feel like a big dairy rock. It will seem like your shaking isn’t doing anything at all (and you may need to put a little more “umph” into it). And then, like magic, things will start to separate! I switch to a slower and more emphatic shake at this point in time—forcefully inverting the bottle one way, then the other. Continue shaking for a few more minutes, or until a good amount of buttermilk has separated from the butter (around ¾–1 cup).
Remove the top from the container. Place the cheesecloth or gold filter over the opening and strain out the buttermilk. (Reserve the buttermilk for delicious pancake- or biscuit-related uses.) Now, you need to rinse the butter to remove any lingering buttermilk, which can cause your butter to spoil quickly. (Confession: I actually forgot to do this and didn’t remember I was supposed to until I started writing this post. My butter has survived so far [it has been about a week], but it’s still an important part of the process that should not be bypassed.) Fill your container with very cold water until it just covers the butter, then drain out through the cheesecloth. Repeat this process a number of times (around 7), until the drained water is clear. Remove the butter from the container (if you’re using a bottle, just cut the top off) and transfer it to a large wooden cutting board. I actually used a plastic cutting board, which was a mistake. (Is it obvious that it’s been a while since I’ve done this?) You want to use something semi-porous that’s capable of absorbing a little liquid.
Using a wooden spoon, press your butter down into a large, flattened pancake. As you do this, you’ll notice liquid oozing out from the butter. Your cutting board should absorb some of that, but you can also use a paper towel to lightly dab away any excess. Gather butter back into a ball and press flat again. Continue to do this until you have removed most of the liquid. Before you gather up your last butter pancake, add some salt to it (about ¼ teaspoon). This will also ward off spoilage.
And now, grab the nearest piece of bread and slather it with fresh butter! It’s good, isn’t it? It isn’t exactly practical to make for use in cooking or baking, but it’s definitely worth the time and effort as a table-bound, buttering butter. (*Ahem*, a Thanksgiving table, perhaps?) There’s no reason this shouldn’t make an appearance at Thanksgiving, or any holiday, for that matter. It can be made days in advance, it’s easily transportable, and it’s delicious. Done and done.
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mmm looks delicious, beautiful color!
I am always amazed by what a lovely, buttery yellow it ends up being!
Hi,
I am trying this recipe out with a little bit more (pint and a half) of heavy whipping cream in a 1 liter bottle. I’ve been shaking for about 6 minutes and the “dairy rock” has not developed. Just wondering about how long I shake (and do you shake up and down or side to side) for this whole process to finish?
Thanks!
Hi Laura—I think the problem may be the size of the bottle. The container you use should be at least double the volume of the amount of cream you are using. I’m sorry, I did not specify that in my instructions—I should have! If you switch to a larger container, or lose a third of the cream, you should have better results. Good luck!
Never mind- you’re right, suddenly, MAGIC! Butter!!! Thanks for this great recipe!
Sorry… another question. My butter is not at all yellow like yours and it seems pretty soft. Is it supposed to be yellow before I take it out?
Not necessarily. I’m thinking the color of the butter may depend on the cream that you use. (I’ve always used the same type of local heavy cream, which is probably why my butter has always turned out so yellow.) It will also seem pretty soft at first. (Mine looked a bit firm in the in-process pictures because I was taking them on a cold porch!) As long as you smushed out a good deal of water, it should be just fine!
The colour of your butter (and really all dairy products) is based on what the cow was fed and what season it is. Most butter these days is coloured yellow because its more appealing ( and yellowish butter used to mean spring butter and sweeter).
I am going to try making butter tonight. About how much butter do you get as a final result of this recipe?
I use a food processer with the wippwe attachment works great
Fantastic! Thanks for posting, I’m going to give this a try on the weekend
Good luck, Kat!
I tried this and it was so neat! Thanks.
Hi Carey, and all!
My wife and I tried this recipe, and it turned out perfectly!
We used 1 pint of Kroger Heavy Whipping Cream.. My wife
set the cream by at room temperature for about 2 hours.
We then took turns gently agitating the cream in a quart carafe
for about 15 minutes, and saw the “sudden” appearance of
yellow globs immersed in a thin white milky layer.
The first straining with a gold mesh coffee filter yielded about
8 oz of buttermilk, and about the same amount of butter. We
saw a clear rinse after about 4 cold water rinses. We noted that
about 3 gathering/spreading cycles on a wooden cutting board
appeared to squeeze out the remaining thin gruel, which we
blotted up with paper towels.
My wife mixed in 1/4 tsp salt, and we set butter and buttermilk by
in the fridge, but only after a first taste! Very tasty, and spreadable,
like the table butter you get at restaurants.
My wife asks: what flavorings might one add to the butter? She
thought chives, chutney, horseradish or watercress might be
tasty. I’m thinking possibly cinnamon/sugar, or maybe some
garlic powder. This would be a great Thanksgiving or Christmas
Day project to delegate to children!
Thanks, Carey!
– Cal and Carol, Louisville KY
So glad to hear this worked out perfectly! And oh my goodness, I’m sure all of those things would be delicious add-ins to the butter. I love the idea of cinnamon and sugar. I would also suggest butter with roasted garlic and herbs (basil, chives, rosemary, oregano, parsley, and any other favorites).
Another great sweet butter idea is butter + maple syrup (2 parts butter to 1 part syrup). I haven’t actually tried this myself, but I worked at a sap house in high school where they made a maple cream (which is just heated syrup stirred continuously until it cools and becomes a thick, spreadable cream). Of course maple butter isn’t quite the same, but even if it’s half as good as maple cream, it will be the second most delicious substance ever created. :)
The color on the butter is related to the diet of the cows. A more yellow butter is obtained from long summer days and fresh green grass. A pale butter is obtained from short summer days and hay to eat.
Also, it is possible to over churn. I just did it this morning, went from cream to heavy whipped cream and back to milk again, missed butter completely!- I wonder if this makes it homogenized milk? That’s how I found your site. I’m trying to find out.
I love fresh milk and fresh butter! So much healthier for you. For the record if you have access to fresh, raw milk try that. I’ve read at another site that raw milk has a short life span which is wrong. If you let the milk sit in a refrigerator for 2 weeks the cream will be VERY thick and makes the best butter. Yes, the milk is still very good to drink. But you’ve got the keep the top on the container and keep it cold. Raw milk doesn’t really go “bad”, even when it’s too off to drink it’s still very good to cook with. When it finally gets to the point that even cooking with it is a bad idea you-will-know! ;)
Enjoyed your site for the brief time I was here.
Thanks for the info, Bonnie! (I had no idea that the color was related to the cow’s diet—neat!)
I haven’t over-churned to the point of it going back to milk, though I suppose it could be possible that you’ve created something similar to homogenized milk by breaking the fat globules down into even smaller molecules (which is what the homogenization process does in order to keep the cream from rising to the top).
I believe there are a couple vendors at our farmers’ market that sell raw milk, and I’ve been meaning to get my hands on some. (My mother and father lived just up the road from a dairy farm when they were first married, and I’ve been hearing praise for fresh milk and cream since I was little!)
oops! sorry! I said the same thing without reading all the comments first!
I read today that the prime temperature for raw milk is about 2.2 degrees Celsius and will last the longest at about that temperature.
Ah! Good to know. I’d say that I got about 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound of butter in total (more than I was expecting!).
Thanks for a very infomative article! If I start to churn can I leave off and come back to it later?
Hi Mary! I suppose you could, though it might be more trouble than it’s worth. If you’re going to leave it for more than a couple hours, you’d probably want to put it in the fridge (for preservation’s sake). Then you’d want to make sure you warmed it back up to room temperature later before you continued. If the cream is warm enough, it doesn’t take all that long to separate. (I’ve also found that the churning process goes much quicker when I use high-quality fresh cream.) Good luck!
Hi all,
As a little girl growing up, we had a couple of cows. I would help mommy churn and make butter and buttermilk. It was a chore back then, but I have found myself wishing for those times again. I still have my grandmother’s old churn with a churn dash that my dad made for me. (I wonder if I put enough heavy cream in it, if I could produce lots of that creamy butter that we used to make?) After the butter was made, we would scoop the butter from the top of the buttermilk. Mommy would put it in a bowl and whip it with a fork until every drop of water came off of it. It looked like ice cream when she got through with it! She would have about 7 or 8 bowls of fresh cow butter, some she would sell and the rest we would eat on her homemade biscuits. I sure do miss those days!
Sounds wonderful! What lovely memories. :)
My dad taught us to do this as kids using “whipping cream” You don’t have to remove the buttermilk.
Just to give you a laugh for the day – I read and re-read the recipe to see what in the world you were using the Seltzer for…even read through the comments thinking I’d missed something. I will admit that I had cancer last year and underwent chemo…I’m thinking I’m going to blame this on chemo-brain! LOL I’ve made butter before but always used my electric hand mixer. Love your recipe and directions! :)
Hehe! It is a little confusing, especially if you’re used to the hand mixer method. (I learned the bottle-shaking method first, and then mixer approach came later.) But I’d certainly say you’re allowed a confusion pass (and many other passes) after undergoing something as harrowing as chemo, Cathy! Glad you enjoyed the recipe. :)
Back in the 30′s we lived on a small 11 acre farm. We had 2 or 3 cows. pigs, chickens and a large garden. Dad work at a shoe factory. Mom would put milk into earth pots in a cool area. There the cream came to the top that she would skim the cream off for 1 or 2 days. When she had enough cream she would put it into the “butter churner”. It was about 1/2 gallon size. I would start to crank the handle and when it started to become butter and hard to turn dad had to take over.
After mom had skimmed the cream from the milk the remaining milk turned into a curd we call yogurt today. She would cook that and it curdel when it was done cooking she pour it into cheesecloth bags to drain. Those curdels were what we call “farmers cheese” or “dry cottage cheese”. The water that drained from the cheese was green. That water was mixes with mash and fed to the pigs (it is amazing – milk is white, butter is yellow,cheese is white and the water is green). If you can purchase raw milk do the above sequnce and see for yourself. The yogurt part is etible as it is. However it is bitter like the buttermilk. We would put some strawberry or eldeberry jam preserves in it that mom made.
I got a big laugh out of the way you all make butter. Not a one of you said any thing about using sour cream for making the butter. Yes, I said sour cream. Not the store bought kind, but the kind made with raw milk. It makes a diferent taste butter but is ever bit as good as the sweet cream butter. I helped make butter from the time I was big enough to turn the handle on the butter churn and I am now in my 70′s. We never made the fuss over making it as you’ll have. We also drank the butter milk with adding a pinch of salt. Mmmmmmmmmmmm was it good on a hot day. By the way, I still had my mother’s butter churn up until a few years ago and now my daughter has it.
Enjoy making your butter.
I do remember that! My Dad used to call it “ripened” butter. That’s why today the cartons of butter always say “sweet” cream butter! Nothing better than homemade yogurt too! Thanks for that memory!
Linda
You can make butter also by putting it into a bowl and use a mixer. It will turn to whipped cream then keep mixing on high and it will turn to butter. It’s a lot easier to get out of a bowl than a bottle. Just sayin!!!
I learned this method first, and then the hand mixer method a little later. Definitely easier! But I still enjoy doing it this way since it’s a nice little arm workout, and I don’t wind up splattering buttermilk all over the kitchen. (Plus I think it’s a good one to know as well, in the event that a hand mixer doesn’t happen to be available.)
I worked as Activity Director in a nursing home. We used baby food jars and put small amounts of heavy cream in them and let the residents make their own butter. Serve them with hot biscuits and home made applebutter. They love it and is a good exercise for them.
What a wonderful activity. Thank you so much for sharing, Geraldine!
I used to churn butter for my grandmother. We grandkids used to fight over who got to churn the butter. I have been threatening to make my own butter. I do believe I will try now. Thanks for the post.
I made my first butter about sixty years ago. We had five cows and sold most of the butter we made. I was always facinated with the separater machine that separated the cream from the whole milk. The skim milk came out one spout and the cream came out a smaller spout. We also used a hand churn and we thought our arms would fall off before it ever became butter. We had a large wooden bowl that we scooped the butter into and had a large flat wooden paddle to smoothe the buttermilk out of the mass of butter. We kept adding cold water and washing the butter till the water was clear , then we added salt to taste. We had wooden 1 pound boxes that we lined with cheesecloth and filled with butter. We kept the butter in the cellar in an earthenware crock to drain overnight before taking it out of the boxes and wrapping it in butcher’s paper. Then we took it to town to sell. What skim milk the calves and hogs didn’t drink we kids had to and I still can’t stand skim milk. We always made “potcheese” from the remaining buttermilk. Dad always added a pinch of sugar while cooking it to counteract the acidic taste. Nothing fancy, but, as Emeril would say, “A little bit of that stuff would make a tire taste good !”
Linda
What a lovely memory, Linda! Thank you so much for sharing.
About half an hour before every family holiday dinner, I take cream and put it in a mason Jar of the appropriate size, and then close it very tightly and hand it over to the kids. They take turns shaking it until we get butter. It takes quite a while (probably because I didn’t know it should be room temp) but it keeps the kids busy till supper is done. I never knew about rinsing it. We just put it on the table for dinner. The kids are too busy to continually ask when supper is done and we have great butter. There is never any left.
What a great holiday tradition! There’s definitely no need for rinsing when it’s polished off by the end of the meal. :)
Back in the late 1930′s and early 1940′s, I remember churning. Mother’s churn had a square stainless steel container that held probably about 5 gallons of cream/milk. It had paddles that churned the milk. They were turned by cogs like on an old fashioned ice cream freezer. The little ditty that I said while turning the handle was ” Come, Butter Come. Come in lumps as big as my thumb.” I know it seemed like hours before the butter “came.” Those were the days, my friends!
When my kids were little I would use butter making as a fun project. I put cream in a jar then the kids took turns shaking and turning. sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not, but we had fun doing it. we didnt go through any drying or rolling. i just put it through a strainer (kept the whey and used it in cooking). somtimes added salt after it was done. we got out the crackers (or fresh bread) and the butter would not make it to the refrigerator before it was eaten up. By the way, I do not think it is cheaper to make your own butter, just funner.
I agree that it’s not cheaper. But it’s definitely a lot of fun!
I volunteer at a living history museum site and we make butter by shaking it to show the children how things were done a hundred years ago before electricity. We have small jars and they each get a little cream. We group the children in three’s or four’s and let them take turns. Then we combine it and “wash” the buttermilk out in a long wooden bowl with a wooden paddle. We usually bake corn bread in a wood burning stove and give each child a piece of cornbread with fresh butter on it for their work. They are amazed that you don’t have to go to the store for everyday things.
What a wonderful, eye-opening activity for the kids! Thank you so much for sharing, Rayne. :)
I used to work with kids at a YMCA Day Camp in 1971. I was 14 years old. We took cream in a large mouth quart size mason jar, heavy cream and a marble. The marble helped to ‘stir’ the cream. We took turns shaking the jar until we coldn’t hear the marble hit the sides of the glass anymore. Then we knew it was stuck somewhere in the ‘solid’. We poured off the buttermilk and pressed out the butter on a wooden cutting board until all the water was gone. I don’t remember rinsing it, but that was a few years ago and the memory isn’t what it used to be. This has been something that I have shared with my kids when they were younger. Hopefully, they will remember and pass it on to their children. I think I will add this to the family recipe book and add your website as a link for further information. Thank you for the memories.
What a wonderful memory and tradition to pass on to your kids. Thank you for sharing, Cheryl! :)
I make butter out of raw goats milk cream.
I use a quart jar, about a pint of cream, and one beater in my electric mixer. The splatters are contained in the jar. I do not have a separator, and goat’s milk is naturally homogenized, so it does take awhile to accumulate enough cream for butter.
I rinse the butter a lot, because to me, it still tastes like whipped milk, until the excess milk/water is removed.
Goats milk does not make yellow butter. It is snow white, but it does taste the same as the yellow when it is well rinsed and salted.
I find that homemade butter from raw goats cream does not keep as well as store bought butter, I suppose because it has no preservatives. But, the better it is rinsed, the longer it will keep.
Try to use fresh butter within a week if not frozen, if frozen it needs to be used within 30 days for best flavor. I find that beyond those dates, the butter tastes a bit “off” it is okay for baking, but not for fresh eating.
Oh my, that sounds lovely!
Hi, Carey! Just wanted to let you know that allfreerecipes.com featured this recipe in one of their free ebooks; “9 Easy Baking Recipes…” and the first step in the instructions reads “First, you’re going to want to bring the heavy cream to room temperature. In a saucepan, combine milk and butter. Heat over medium heat until butter is melted.” So, I decided to look up your website & get the “real” recipe. I’m sure others will figure it out but you might want to let them know they published it wrong in their ebook. Thanks for the wonderful recipe though!!
Hi Yvette! Omg, thank you for letting me know. That’s a pretty glaring (and confusing) error! I’ll try to get in contact with them to let them know. Glad you found the true recipe here!