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How To Make Butter

How To Make Butter
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In 90 seconds, a stand mixer can break 1 cup (about .25 L) of cream down into the butter and buttermilk stage.

Like a lot of people, the first time I made butter, it was an accident. I was whipping some cream and got distracted. I got back just in time to see the whipped cream separate into butter and buttermilk. (Hmmmm... I don't think that ever happened with the powered whip cream mix Mom bought.- I love you Mom, but you know - you and cooking = Pellegrino and Crisco.)

I was bummed that I screwed up the whip cream, but It was still really cool how it became butter in just seconds. So I started making butter at home and I'd thought I'd show you how I do it.

I always find that these kinds of things are a lot easier, and less intimidating, if you can watch someone do it. So watch the video and you can see me make butter, start to finish, in real time, with no editing. It's not as messy as it looks in the video - unless you are making a video of yourself doing it.

In the video I use 2 cups (a little less than .5 L) of cream so it takes twice as long. You will see the cream break down at about 3 minutes. Because I didn't use the splash guard, I also couldn't run the mixer at full speed.

With washing, it only takes a little over 9 minutes to go from 100% Heavy Cream to finished homemade butter. That's probably faster than it would take Usain Bolt to run to the corner store, buy a pound of butter (with free Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80 and Carrageenan) and run back home.

These are the ingredients.
Manufacturing Cream (or Heavy Cream)
Sea Salt (optional)

These are the tools I used:
Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer
Wire whisk attachment
Beater attachment
Splash guard - Omitted in video - you'll see why it's important
(ew, i think there is butter in my hair, yummm, yep it's butter.)
Ice water
Spatula
Parchment paper or Plastic wrap
 
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Step 1How to do it

How to do it
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How to do it.

When I went to buy cream at Smart and Final (restaurant supply that is open to the public) I saw "Manufacturing Cream". I didn't know what it was, but it was a little higher in fat than Heavy Cream. It was only pasteurized, not ultra-pasteurized, and the only ingredient in it was "Heavy Cream".

I bought a 2 quart (1.89 L) carton for $7.

I researched it and found out "Manufacturing Cream" is the cream restaurants and bakeries use for baking and cooking (the names of types of milk/cream are different all over - even from state to state. I'm in California.) It does not have all the additives like Ultra-Pasteurized Cream. The flavor is very good. It doesn't last as long as regular ultra-pasteurized heavy cream though.

In the video I'm using 2 cups of cream. I went ahead and weighed the cream, and then the finished butter, so you could see how much butter I got out of it.

Before: 2 Cups (a little less than .5 L) Cream = 1 lbs = 16 ounces = 450g
After: Butter: 7 ounces = 198g
Total cost was $1.75 (sorry, don't know how many €'s, or £'s, or Can$'s or Aus$'s, or ¥'s, etc. that is)

Almost half of the cream was butter.

You want the cream to be between 61°F (16°C) and 65°F (18°C) to get it to separate fast.

I usually do 1 cup (about .25 L) of cream at a time, and it takes about 90 seconds to separate.

I put the cream in the mixer with the wire whisk. If you have a splash guard - USE IT. I left it off in the video so you could see what was happening. The camera, my kitchen, and I, all got splattered with buttery goodness.

It will whip into whip cream, and right after it gets to firm peaks, it will start to separate. SLOW the mixer down, or it will make a mess and splash all over the place - even with the splash guard. Just let it run another 5-10 seconds.

Then switch to the beater blade. If you stay with the whisk, the butter clumps up inside the whisk and is very hard to get out.

Beat the butter on a slow speed for about 10 seconds to let it finish separating. Using a spatula, squish the butter into a lump in the bowl, then pour the buttermilk off. You can use this buttermilk for baking. Some people like to drink it.

Now wash the butter to get all the buttermilk out. If you leave buttermilk in your butter it won't last nearly as long. If you are the kind of folks who like to leave butter out at room temperature, you might find that it has gone rancid if you leave any buttermilk in it.

Add some ice water to the bowl and beat it on low for around 10 seconds.

Use your spatula to squish the butter into a lump again then pour the water off.

Keep repeating the rinse process until you get clear water.

I do the last wash by hand. Pour in some ice water and squish the butter around to see if you can get any more milk.

Pour that water out. Squish the butter around some more to squeeze out any water that is in the butter. We don't want to leave any water suspended in the butter. Keep squishing it and pouring off any water you get until you don't get any more water - about 3 times for me.

That's it. You have butter.

If you like whipped butter, you can just put it back on the mixer and beat it on high, for a minute or two. If I want salted butter, I put some sea salt in while it is whipping. About a 1/4-1/3 tsp per cup of cream.

Whipped butter spreads easier and melts faster. If you use whipped butter for baking - you cannot measure it by volume. You can only measure it by weight. Because we whipped air into it - 1/4 cup of regular butter will be about 1/3rd cup of whipped butter (depending on how much air you whip into it). You smart Europeans, who bake by weight already, need not worry.

(The video is available in High Quality - It's easier to see the splattering of butter all over me and my kitchen)

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41 comments
1-40 of 41next »
Apr 5, 2012. 11:50 PMjakyo says:
what a fab idea. I will be trying that 4 sure ! Thank you .(the video was entertaining and you got the whole thing across with a lighthearted approach ;-O
Dec 5, 2011. 11:28 PMfraninmuc says:
Thank you soooo much for sharing. I don't have a Kitchen Aid but bought a Bosch MUM 8 yesterday online and still have to wait for it to arrive. And I can't wait that long! Since someone mentioned a food processor, I am going to try this out immediately. In the last 8 years I have watched the price of butter (among other things) climb every year before my eyes. Sigh!
Dec 6, 2011. 12:32 AMfraninmuc says:
Update ... I went into the kitchen to get out my food processor and suddenly it dawned on me that I have a handheld mixer which comes with a beater attachment to make whipped cream. There is also a tall plastic container to do this in. So I opened a packet of whipping cream with 30% fat and poured it in. It was at room temperature. In 5 min I had butter. The 'washing' part went really quickly. Pressing the butter was tough. Had a piece of bread with butter already and am happy to report, this was a painless process. No mess, very easy clean-up. If you don't need large quantities, I would recommend doing it this way. From a 200ml packet of whipped cream I got about roughly 70 gr butter. Can't be exact cos I had already spread my slice of bread generously with my home-made butter. Here's a photo as proof! Thanks again SFHandyman!
Aug 13, 2011. 9:12 PMjali5 says:
Do you think I could make a big batch and freeze the buttermilk and butter?
Aug 13, 2011. 9:12 PMjali5 says:
This is awesome! I can't wait to make this! Plus I like the idea of adding garlic powder or anything else for that matter. You can just be creative. Thanks for sharing!
Oct 29, 2008. 3:10 PMPlasmana says:
It seems like a lot more work to make butter than buying butter from the store...
Aug 1, 2011. 2:12 AMInquisitively says:
It is, but often times it tastes better because you did it yourself. Generally, when you work for something, you enjoy the end result more.
Nov 14, 2008. 2:09 AMPlasmana says:
Sorry, yeah, it does look fun to make your own...
Sep 2, 2011. 5:08 PMwww.microbike.ie says:
man c'mon keep stupid comments for urself, Why cook at home go to MD or buy carcinogenic ready meals packed in plastic container containing BPA
May 1, 2011. 6:26 PMmtulk says:
I don't have a stand mixer, so I used my food processor. To my surprise, it took only about 50 seconds for the cream to separate. I used whipping cream (35%) A friend of mine had tried it with table cream but it didn't work. I used less than ¼ tsp of salt to salt 8 oz. of butter. I also made a batch with garlic powder, to make a very nice garlic butter. It is great fun to make, and considering the present price of whipping cream, the price is about break-even with factory butter.
Feb 7, 2010. 8:23 AMEberg13 says:
I made it with a kitchenaid using the paddle attachment because I knew the butter would get all wound around the wisk and be hard to get at. I didn't bother washing, but just hand squeezed the liquid and packed in a ball jar. It is still yummy. Could someone explain what the washing is all about. If it is just to make it look more like manufactured butter, I fail to see why it would be important.

Also, what is a good salt to pint ratio? And has anyone tried making flavored butter during the process? I am thinking cinnamon or orange or something that uses spices or extracts.
Jan 21, 2011. 8:22 AMosoriocj says:
When I was a kid, my mother boiled whole milk that we drank to prevent disease.
After boiling and cooling, formed a thick cream that my mother removed and froze.
Once gathered about a quart of cream, I was asked to make butter. I used a bowl and a wooden spoon to beat the cream. After beating the cream for about 30 minutes it was forming lumps. A little more time for the butter to form.
After this I put a bit of cold water to wash it, taking care not to wash several times to avoid losing flavor.
Note:
The cream was thicker than what is presented in the film and the lumps formed soon.
In the washing step, you should mix the butter slowly to prevent water from aggregating it.
Sep 5, 2010. 2:14 PMTechNerd1012 says:
As he said, if there is any residual buttermilk left in the butter, the butter wont last quite as long.
Aug 27, 2009. 6:50 AMdchall8 says:
Well that was hilarious! Not your Instructable, but me trying to make butter. After 1.5 hours it finally happened. BUTTER in my very own kitchen. I think my big mistake was thinking I had made whipped butter when in fact all it was was very thick (buttery??) whipped cream. But then it happened. All of a sudden there was butter and there was buttermilk. There's no mistaking when that happens. Thank you for making the video. I would not have had nearly as much fun making it without the encouragement and confidence of seeing it happen.
Sep 5, 2010. 2:07 PMTechNerd1012 says:
lol
Jun 30, 2010. 8:30 PMKwitmeh3 says:
Wow, i was trying to make whipped cream and ended up with butter
Jan 5, 2010. 1:30 PMme94 says:
Hi I got some cream from the farm. I used my mixer on low looked great the next  time looked it was turning back to milk . The next time I used buttermilk  it was on low looked good then i add some sugar & it went to milk. What am i doing wrong HELP 
May 1, 2010. 1:57 PMwagnerkr says:
Make sure you are using heavy cream and not light cream. Light cream is mixed back with milk to be more like half & half. Heavy cream has enough fat in it to be able to separate into butter and liquid. Do NOT use buttermilk - this has had the butter already removed and is often cultured (think yogurt w/ its friendly little bacterias aka pro-biotics). Buttermilk is great for acid indigestion but it will not make butter.  
Jan 22, 2010. 8:48 PMtabbique says:
Don't despair if it takes your mixer/blender a little longer to make the whipped cream separate.  It took our cuisinart about 10-15 min to whip the cream into stuff that was starting to separate.  After that, another 5-10 min on a lower setting to finish separating it.  After that it was buttery goodness!  We put ours in the fridge to harden a bit before kneading and washing.  Use the buttermilk to make kefir or in pancakes :)  no waste!
Feb 3, 2010. 9:43 AMandwmi says:
I use a hand held mixer to make butter.  When it gets to that point I turn off the mixer and use a large wooden spoon to start mashing it into a ball.  It does take about 20 minutes for me to do it this way though.  Also, it is easier to keep the buttermilk for biscuits when I do it this way. :)
Jan 20, 2010. 1:54 PMmissplumeau says:
 I just made my first batch using "Organic Valley" heavy cream. I could not find any of the brands mentioned in your instructable or comments [I used to live in the Bay Area and I MISS so many of the great resources there! I now live in Yankeeland: CT].
I used the only mixing tool available in my house: a hand mixer and a tall cup. that made a fine mess but the result is so delicious.... never mind it took way longer to clean up than to make!!
Next time I HAVE to dig my mixer out of the moving boxes [I am doing major renovation in the house]
Thank you!!
Sep 3, 2009. 9:25 AMRomaida says:
Great instructable! I'm going to make it soon... where can I buy manufacturing cream here in the Metro Detroit area? What color does the butter end up being? I want to use it for frosting but would like to get a white color.
Jun 24, 2009. 9:12 AMPoochacho says:
Actually my family in India makes it much the same but with a blender! This is great - I can't wait to try it!
Jan 3, 2009. 6:25 PMMistaX32 says:
Wow that's neat. I didn't know you were into cooking too, I'm gonna try that out first thing in the morning. By the way, how long does the butter, given that(as you say) remove all the buttermilk remain fresh/edible? Nice instructable, didn't it was that easy, thanks.
Oct 27, 2008. 8:16 PMtreep1 says:
BTW - as one possible explanation of why your video hasn't been watched. I didn't watch your video because I'm on dial-up. I could eat a pound of butter in the time it would take me to download the video.
Oct 27, 2008. 8:14 PMtreep1 says:
I've done this before but never knew about rinsing the additional buttermilk out. Thanks for the info! I love home made bread with home made butter. There's no more pleasing way to raise your cholesterol!
Oct 23, 2008. 1:37 PMAttackingHobo says:
A more fun way for kids to do is just put some heavy cream in a closed jar and have them shake it till it becomes butter and buttermilk.
Oct 26, 2008. 2:13 AMERNesbitt says:
We used to put a marble in a tupperware container with the cream and shook it back and forth until we couldn't hear the marble rattle anymore.
Oct 23, 2008. 2:00 PMcodwithchips says:
hi iam in ireland & i make butter every xmass&no mess if you like home made bread you can use the butter milk for it makes very nice soda or brown bread& if you do this you will never want to go back to shop bought bread again this is also great with boiled potatoes&baked pots, try it for your self, codwithchips
Oct 23, 2008. 8:52 PMMaster James says:
I think this is a very good project for the kids & mama to do together on a rainy weekend! I applaud you in writing this;I have found it to be very informative,easy to follow directions,etc.
Oct 24, 2008. 7:51 PMgolden snake says:
very nice job on an instructable 5/5 but i wonder why your video doesn't have a lot of views?
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Author:SFHandyman
''If you haven't seen my Instructables, or comments, you might not know I have Onanon Disease. I go On 'n', On 'n', On...'' My hobby is collecting hobbies. I read that in Make Magazine. It fits me ...
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