Friday, December 14, 2007

I Made Butter! Sweet Cream Butter!

Today, I came across a very nice website called Indian Food Rocks, and on one of the pages there was a very nice entry on making Homemade Sweet Cream Butter. I read it and couldn't believe it could possibly be that simple to make fresh homemade butter. I decided to stop on the way home, pick up some heavy whipping cream and make some to have with dinner (Classic Stuffed Green Pappers).

IFR has a great description and some fabulous photos of the process. After getting the peppers into the water to parboil, I started the butter process. I didn't have a jar to put it in, so I used a 2 cup Rubbermaid container that I knew would seal tightly, then started shaking. And shaking. And shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking...I shook it alot, for about 15 minutes. At one point towards the end of the shaking, it seemed like there was just a solid mass in the container and nothing was moving around, so I shook it REALLY hard for a minute and all of a sudden the solid seperated out from the liquid and I had butter. Real butter. couldn't belive it - it really was that simple!

Here's the start: and the end product:
Ready for the table:


And here's how you can do it:

Pour about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream into a container that will seal tightly and not come loose even with vigorous shaking.
Close the lid (make sure it is sealed well!) and shake the bejesus out of it for a good 10 minutes. When I was shaking it, I was getting 300+ shakes per minute. After about 10 minutes, you will notice that the cream isn't moving very well inside the container. Don't worry, you're almost there, just shake harder. HARDER DAMN IT, HARDER! When it looks like there's a solid mass in the bottom of the container and just a bunch of milk sloshing around it, it's probably done. Wait... Shake it some more! Ok, now it's done. Pour off the liquid (buttermilk! You can save it to bake with, or make curry with or just drink). Put the butter into a container for use.
I refrigerated mine until the peppers were ready and we spread it on some store bought crusty bread. Mmmmmm....

since there are no presevratives at all in this, it won't keep long, but if you find it as yummy as we did, it won't be around long enough to worry about.

Enjoy,
Lorence

6 comments:

Indian Food Rocks said...

S for Success! S for Sweeeet cream butter! Looks delicious!

I think it might take less time if you used something taller as you will get more of a churning / whipping action with it. But stay with the same width / diameter for the base. What do you think?

This is really so addictive! I can eat so much of it at one go! Which is fine as we don't consume so much butter otherwise or at least that is how I console myself!

I am glad you enjoyed my post!

Lorence said...

Addictive is right! We actually made 2 batches (the midlle photo is from the second batch), and I plan on many more. Boogie was rather unimpressed at first, then I broke out the bread and his attitude changed.

I'm going to take your advice and look for another container that is taller. We usually don't keep any empty's around very long(what's the opposite of a pack rat? That's my wife!).

Thanks for the encouragement.

Dave said...

Nice, you've been busy my man. Gotta stop back here more often. I'm using a rss reader now so I don't miss the good things.

Can't wait (!) to try this one.

Happy New Year.

Apron Appeal said...

homemade butter on store bought crusty bread? Are you nuts?! I guess it's better than nothing but really if you are going to make butter, it just seems right to make bread too.

http://sewmanybooks.blogspot.com/2010/02/bread-of-life.html

Gwen

P.S. I found your site when I googled how to make butter.

Chef Malcolm said...

I've got to admit, that you are a life savor. I ran out of sweet butter in my kitchen at work, and was kind of panicking, really great result, and I don't think ill be buying it any more

Rene' said...

I'm going to try this today! The whole family is coming for Sunday dinner (fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans with he made bisquits, butter and gravy! I've been trying to perfect my homemade bisquits to no avail.