Has anyone done this before? Any idea how long I'm going to have to do this?
-Woolery
How freaking long does it take?!?
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Mrs. W
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How freaking long does it take?!?
For butter to form? I thought, "Gee, what a fun project for the kids: let's put some cream in a couple of lidded containers and shake it up after dinner!" So now I am typing this one-handed while I continue to churn cream with the other hand because the kids are being bathed and put to bed by their daddy.
Has anyone done this before? Any idea how long I'm going to have to do this?
-Woolery
Has anyone done this before? Any idea how long I'm going to have to do this?
-Woolery
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Rev. George
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shaking the jar, esp if it is more than half full is gonna be a pain. as i remeber churning butter with a butter churn, it takes a hour or so, but that's been a long while.
you could cheat and toss it in the food processor...
-+G
you could cheat and toss it in the food processor...
-+G
The path to knighthood is paved with strength and nobility, not LSD and sideburns.
Rev's Rainments
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Site coming soon~
Rev's Rainments
Quality Medieval Clothing at a Fair Price.
Site coming soon~
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Mrs. W
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Alcyoneus: Ha! 
Yes, that happened, just once, to Patrick. He was beating the cream with a blender or something.
George, (sorry, the "Rev." part reminds me of two-cycle engine noises
), I think that the main problem was that the cream was too cold. I just dumped it into the containers without thinking to let it come up to 60-65 (degrees F) first. The containers were half full, and it DID take about an hour of shaking. The kids are now in bed, so I can rinse out the butter, toast me up a slice of home-made bread, and see how it tastes!
I plan to do a quickie "how-to" page on this for the local Shire-to-be. I can post the link here once it is finished.
-Woolery
Yes, that happened, just once, to Patrick. He was beating the cream with a blender or something.
George, (sorry, the "Rev." part reminds me of two-cycle engine noises
), I think that the main problem was that the cream was too cold. I just dumped it into the containers without thinking to let it come up to 60-65 (degrees F) first. The containers were half full, and it DID take about an hour of shaking. The kids are now in bed, so I can rinse out the butter, toast me up a slice of home-made bread, and see how it tastes!
I plan to do a quickie "how-to" page on this for the local Shire-to-be. I can post the link here once it is finished.
-Woolery
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Alexander
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Servus!
Like the Good Reverend said, it's gonna take a long time depending on the amount of milk in the jar. My History teacher was into the whole Fur Trader reenactment thing and did the whole thing about how "we take simple things like butter for granted" class for a week. On the first day, he filled a jar a little over halfway with whole milk and passed it around to the students. We quiclky learned that even with 25 teenagers, it still took 50 minutes of vigorous shaking to even begin to produce something that resembled the nice, yellow, pre-salted sticks that came in aluminium foil in our collective refrigerators.
Still, it was a lot of fun even if the butter didn't taste like much of anything.
Like the Good Reverend said, it's gonna take a long time depending on the amount of milk in the jar. My History teacher was into the whole Fur Trader reenactment thing and did the whole thing about how "we take simple things like butter for granted" class for a week. On the first day, he filled a jar a little over halfway with whole milk and passed it around to the students. We quiclky learned that even with 25 teenagers, it still took 50 minutes of vigorous shaking to even begin to produce something that resembled the nice, yellow, pre-salted sticks that came in aluminium foil in our collective refrigerators.
Still, it was a lot of fun even if the butter didn't taste like much of anything.
Alexander von Hardtwald (retired)
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HugoFuchs
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Yes, there's a big difference between salted and unsalted butter. I luckily don't have to churn mine as the local farmer makes a bunch of both salted and unsalted up. I've always cheated with the pulse-blender trick.
You might want to try raw milk, works better.
Speaking of fresh dairy products, I'm going to go get my fresh strawberry yogurt.
You might want to try raw milk, works better.
Speaking of fresh dairy products, I'm going to go get my fresh strawberry yogurt.
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Rev. George
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as an aside, the butter you are making is sweet cream butter, which only rose to prevaiance in the us after the war. The gov't essentially guaranteed the sale of every pound of butter, so manufacturers stopped making the cultured butter they had been. I would guess that the butter nedieval folks used was cultured
Cultured butter is made from cream/milk that has been cultured/fermented with lactic acid bacteria (this will occour naturally in raw milk, which is full of microbes fromt eh milking process. therre also could be some bad stuff in there too, as a warning) . It has more buttery flavour (from diacetyl) and , IMHO a much better, more complex taste. If you wanted to try it, you could buy some Lurpak at your local grocery. When it comes to toast, bread and other "spreading" duties, its cultured butter all the way for me.
-+G
Cultured butter is made from cream/milk that has been cultured/fermented with lactic acid bacteria (this will occour naturally in raw milk, which is full of microbes fromt eh milking process. therre also could be some bad stuff in there too, as a warning) . It has more buttery flavour (from diacetyl) and , IMHO a much better, more complex taste. If you wanted to try it, you could buy some Lurpak at your local grocery. When it comes to toast, bread and other "spreading" duties, its cultured butter all the way for me.
-+G
The path to knighthood is paved with strength and nobility, not LSD and sideburns.
Rev's Rainments
Quality Medieval Clothing at a Fair Price.
Site coming soon~
Rev's Rainments
Quality Medieval Clothing at a Fair Price.
Site coming soon~
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ULTRAGOTHA
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Butter making requires lots of surfaces impacting against the cream.
Stirring with a slotted spoon, or rotating a slotted spoon between your hands (rubbing hands together with the handle of the spoon between them) should work well.
There are 'butter churns' in Novgorod that are essentially a place where several branches come out of a tree stem at the same place. The tree stem is the handle, the stubs of all the branches are the churn.
Your cream should be at room temperature. Cold cream takes a lot longer to turn into butter.
I do this a lot at public demos.
Stirring with a slotted spoon, or rotating a slotted spoon between your hands (rubbing hands together with the handle of the spoon between them) should work well.
There are 'butter churns' in Novgorod that are essentially a place where several branches come out of a tree stem at the same place. The tree stem is the handle, the stubs of all the branches are the churn.
Your cream should be at room temperature. Cold cream takes a lot longer to turn into butter.
I do this a lot at public demos.
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ULTRAGOTHA
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HugoFuchs
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ULTRAGOTHA wrote:HugoFuchs wrote:as the local farmer makes a bunch of both salted and unsalted up.
Hugo, where in Connecticut does your farmer live? I'm looking for a source of raw milk (and goat milk if I can find some).
Thanks!
There are a number in the state. Raw milk they sell is pasteurized, but not homogenized, as per state law. I hear that one in Simsbury is the only one licensed in the state for true "raw" milk. I can probably check with them next week. I'll check to see if I have a goat milk farm on my list locally. I was logging all the farms just before my motherboard toasted, but I still have the original ist about.
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Mrs. W
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Good call, we did use glass marbles. I assume that it helped, otherwise I might still be churning...
George: what, exactly, is the difference between sweet cream butter and cultured butter? Is it that sweet cream is made from fresh cream vs. milk/cream that has been allowed to ferment a bit? Does sitting overnight to allow the cream to rise before it is skimmed off count? The recipe that I used did say that some people like to let the cream sit out for 12-24 hours prior to churning to improve the flavor, and I will definitely try that the next time.
Also, from what I'm seeing here, it sounds like I shoud churn up that quart of goat's milk in my refrigerator and get the butter before I make curds and whey out of it. Would that be the consensus?
For those who have tried this at home, so to speak: is there a standard method for getting the excess water out of the butter after you rinse it?
Thanks for all of the input so far!
-Woolery
George: what, exactly, is the difference between sweet cream butter and cultured butter? Is it that sweet cream is made from fresh cream vs. milk/cream that has been allowed to ferment a bit? Does sitting overnight to allow the cream to rise before it is skimmed off count? The recipe that I used did say that some people like to let the cream sit out for 12-24 hours prior to churning to improve the flavor, and I will definitely try that the next time.
Also, from what I'm seeing here, it sounds like I shoud churn up that quart of goat's milk in my refrigerator and get the butter before I make curds and whey out of it. Would that be the consensus?
For those who have tried this at home, so to speak: is there a standard method for getting the excess water out of the butter after you rinse it?
Thanks for all of the input so far!
-Woolery
Will have more info by next week.-
HugoFuchs
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On butter:
Buy raw milk.
Refridgerate, let seperate, skim off cream.
Leave a bit of cream if you like your milk creamy.
Mix remaining cream if any back into the milk.
Put cream in sealed container.
Leave out until next day to sour slightly (roughly 70 degree room temp), this will improve the flavor.
[note: by keeping track of how long it is out at what temp, you can control the flavor.]
Churn in favorite manner.
When butter seperates from buttermilk, drain off buttermilk for pancakes or muffins.
Put butter in shallow bowl.
Rinse butter in near freezing water, work the butter in the water with a stiff spatula.
Drain & repeat until water is clear twice.
Work the water for a couple minutes more to help remove excess water.
Add (a little) salt to extend shelflife and possibly increase taste.
Put in mold or tub.
Make bread product with buttermilk.
Eat bread product while still warm from oven with fresh butter and cold glass of milk.
You can always buy heavy cream instead of seperating your own and just leave it to sour in the container it came in.
Sweet butter is cream with a PH of 6.6 or higher (about 98% of commercial butter in the U.S. is sweet butter).
Leaving it out if it has the right cultures could count, but then you'd have to watch the PH and temp or it won't come out right.
Cultured butter has cultures added that alter the taste and drives the PH down.
You can also melt a bunch of unsalted butter(but don't boil it) and then wait until it seperates. skim the froth away(whey). Keep the clear golden liquid and pour through cheesecloth. Ditch the sediment. You can take this camping as it takes longer to spoil. This is clarified butter.
To make butter and cheese, you'd have to centerfuge the cream from the whey.
It can be done with some of the more powerful centerfuge juicers.
I don't think it can be done in reverse succesfully, but I've never tried.
BTW, goats milk is more difficult to butter than cowsmilk; there is less fat in the milk and the cream doesn't easily sperate(smaller fat globules).
On another note, a friend sent me a list of raw milk suppliers for the U.S. (though probably not complete).
PM me a location, and I'll try to get something close to you.
I don't know if you can get unpasturized from them; they have to keep the cows and the equipment ultra-clean.
You can call and ask.
Buy raw milk.
Refridgerate, let seperate, skim off cream.
Leave a bit of cream if you like your milk creamy.
Mix remaining cream if any back into the milk.
Put cream in sealed container.
Leave out until next day to sour slightly (roughly 70 degree room temp), this will improve the flavor.
[note: by keeping track of how long it is out at what temp, you can control the flavor.]
Churn in favorite manner.
When butter seperates from buttermilk, drain off buttermilk for pancakes or muffins.
Put butter in shallow bowl.
Rinse butter in near freezing water, work the butter in the water with a stiff spatula.
Drain & repeat until water is clear twice.
Work the water for a couple minutes more to help remove excess water.
Add (a little) salt to extend shelflife and possibly increase taste.
Put in mold or tub.
Make bread product with buttermilk.
Eat bread product while still warm from oven with fresh butter and cold glass of milk.
You can always buy heavy cream instead of seperating your own and just leave it to sour in the container it came in.
Sweet butter is cream with a PH of 6.6 or higher (about 98% of commercial butter in the U.S. is sweet butter).
Leaving it out if it has the right cultures could count, but then you'd have to watch the PH and temp or it won't come out right.
Cultured butter has cultures added that alter the taste and drives the PH down.
You can also melt a bunch of unsalted butter(but don't boil it) and then wait until it seperates. skim the froth away(whey). Keep the clear golden liquid and pour through cheesecloth. Ditch the sediment. You can take this camping as it takes longer to spoil. This is clarified butter.
To make butter and cheese, you'd have to centerfuge the cream from the whey.
It can be done with some of the more powerful centerfuge juicers.
I don't think it can be done in reverse succesfully, but I've never tried.
BTW, goats milk is more difficult to butter than cowsmilk; there is less fat in the milk and the cream doesn't easily sperate(smaller fat globules).
On another note, a friend sent me a list of raw milk suppliers for the U.S. (though probably not complete).
PM me a location, and I'll try to get something close to you.
I don't know if you can get unpasturized from them; they have to keep the cows and the equipment ultra-clean.
You can call and ask.
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Mrs. W
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Thank you, both for the assistance and all of the information! I am good to go on the goat milk source: one of my mother-in-law's bagpipe students raises dairy goats. (Weird how my family networks: I can get fresh eggs from one of my father-in-law's drum students.) I will let you know if the goat butter turns out...
-Woolery
-Woolery