Homemade Raw Milk Butter in a Jar (or mixer)

Butter.  Golden, melty, buttery butter.  

You can totally make your own! And not feel guilty about using, eating, or cooking with real butter.

It's real food, not the plastic synthetic margarine in a tub.

I used to make butter with my mixer, but it’s SO messy. This jar method is much easier!

(To follow along with a video, scroll to the bottom)

Now, just like when you learned to make your own whipped cream, you start by scooping the cream off the top of your raw milk after about a day in your fridge.

Or purchase Raw Cream in our farm store.

You can use the cream as it is, which is called sweet cream butter.

Or you can drop in a kefir grain or two & let the cream sit at room temperature for 24-48 hours (check the tartness/thickness after 24 hrs) to make cultured butter. 

We prefer cultured butter. It adds more flavor and probiotics.

Either way you prefer, the cream needs to be at room temperature before starting.

Room temp can mean different things depending on the time of year in our 100+-year-old farmhouse.

In the winter I have to set the jar by the fireplace. In the summer I have to get the jar of cream out of the fridge and only let it sit out for about 30-45 minutes.

If the cream is too cold it takes forever to turn to butter, if it’s too warm you basically melt any butter you make!

Don’t fill your jar completely full. If you buy a quart jar of cream here, pour it into a half-gallon jar, and start SHAKING!

Yeah, you heard me right.

You know those shake weights, right? No need for that, just make some butter in a jar!!

Keep shaking.

Do some squats.

Keep shaking.

Don’t let the sweaty jar from the fridge slip out of your hand.

Keep shaking.

Pass it off to hubby if needed.

Keep shaking.

Quart (4 cups) of fresh cream in half gallon jar.

After 5 minutes of shaking.

More shaking.

Less than 10 minutes of shaking and you should have butter!

In less than 10 minutes you should be seeing a difference.

Cultured cream will turn to butter faster than fresh cream. Don’t ask me why.. I just know ;)

First, it will start sticking to the sides of the jar.

Then you’ll hear and feel the difference as the clumps of butter separate and stick together.

BOOM! Butter!!

Isn't that cool?!

Now the butter has to be rinsed.  You want to get as much buttermilk out of the butter as possible, this gives it a longer shelf life.

1. Pour the contents of your jar through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth with a bowl underneath. The liquid is buttermilk!

2. Scoop the butter back into the jar.

3. Add cold water and a few ice cubes to the jar of butter.

4. Put the lid on the jar and shake (thought you were done with that didn’t ya?)

5. Strain, you can just dump this “rinse” water down the drain.

6. Repeat steps 2-5 until the water is clear.

Now you need to knead and squish the water out of the butter.

If you'd like to add salt, now is the time to do it. Just add and mix until it's to your liking.

Sometimes the ice makes the butter too hard to squish the water out. You may have to let it sit & warm up a little.

Out of 4 cups of cream I had about 8 oz. of butter and almost 3 cups of buttermilk. See why I don’t sell this in the store?! That’s a lot of work!!

I got my nifty butter paddles in the top photo from cheesemaking.com and I LOVE them!!

Some people use their hands to squeeze out the buttermilk and knead the butter, but it just melts in your hands leaving a greasy mess.

These paddles have ridges help to get the water away from the butter, and since they are wooden, actually absorb some of the moisture.

Highly recommend if you plan on making a lot of butter.

Oh my gosh! You just made butter, yay!! 

Next up, we'll be making homemade buttermilk biscuits with the leftover buttermilk.

Now call your mom & sisters to tell them how easy it was and where they can get their own milk to make this delicious butter!  :)

Want to follow along with a video? Check out below!

Maybe you want to take the “easy way” and use your mixer?

I’ll warn you, it’s messy!! But I have a video for that too if you’re not up for the shaking. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya ;)

Author: Hoffman's Little Acres (Anna)

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Cultured Butter, Sweet cream butter, & buttermilk

Making butter is on a lot of people's bucket list. It's easier than you think! And a byproduct of making butter is BUTTERMILK

Ingredients

• 1 qt Hoffman's Little Acres raw cream at room temperature, and a half-gallon jar or a mixer.
• That's it!
• If you want cultured butter you just drop some kefir grains in and let it sit on your counter for 24 hours.
• Remove grains before "churning"

Instructions

Jar method

1. Take your room temp cream and pour it into a half gallon mason jar.
2. Screw the lid on tight!
3. Shake until the butter separates from the buttermilk

Mixer method

1. Pour your cream into your mixing bowl.
2. Mix on low until the cream begins to thicken.
3. Increase speed until butter starts separating from buttermilk.
4. Lower speed, it gets messy!

After you get butter from either method

1. Strain butter chunks from buttermilk KEEP buttermilk!
2. Rinse butter under cold water while kneading with a wooden spoon to squish all the buttermilk out.
3. After water runs clear, mix in salt to taste.
4. Store your butter in the fridge or counter if you'll be using it quickly.