Making butter at home for our own use is very easy and does not require any specialized equipment other than a butter churner. In olden days our grandmother used to make butter from milk as well as from curd. Now a days we tend to buy readily available butter from the super market and hence the methods used by our ancestors are almost forgotten.

As we do not have a cow or buffalo, we buy our daily requirement of about 1-1/2 to 2 liters of milk from the local milkman. We also make butter in small quantities with this milk. You can extract butter from the milk and also from curd made from left-over milk.

This instructable will guide you with step-by-step instructions on how to make butter at home easily.

Step 1: Collect Cream From Boiling Milk

Collect cream from boiling milk

Heat milk over medium flame in an open mouthed vessel
When the milk is heated, you can see a layer of cream forming at the top. Do not allow it to boil over.
Now using a clean ladle, collect the bubbling cream from the top. You can collect only a small quantity from 1-1/2 to 2 liters of milk everyday. It is ok if little bit of milk also collected with the cream.
Allow the collected cream to cool and store it in the fridge or freezer.
Collect the cream everyday in the same container and store it in the freezer. As you can see in the pictures above, the container is full of cream after about ten days. Let it stay in the freezer until you are ready to extract the butter.

Step 2: Make Curd With Leftover Milk

Butter can be extracted from curd also.

In India, We consume curd regularly and use the leftover milk to make curd. If you have curd at home, then just add the leftover milk and leave it in a warm place overnight. In the morning the curd will be ready. Store it in the fridge to prevent over-fermentation.

Otherwise, you can also use a store-bought yogurt as starter to make curd.

Step 3: Equipment Required

Most of the equipment like open mouthed vessels, ladle, spoon and containers are normally available in every household. The only specialized item is the wooden butter churner we use traditionally to make butter.

The butter churner is stirred vigorously in both directions with the palms of our hands which will help in separating the butter from the cream / curd. Please watch the video on how to use the butter churner.

Step 4: Making Butter From Cream

Remove the collected cream from the fridge / freezer and allow it to liquefy if it is frozen.
Transfer the cream into an open mouthed vessel
Using the butter churner, beat the cream in a circular motion on both directions with the palms of your hands as seen in the video in Step 3.
Soon you will find the butter gets separated from the cream to the side of the vessel.
Scoop out the butter using a ladle and store it in a separate container. This may contain little bit of milk, but there is nothing to worry about that as we will make clean butter soon.

Do not throw away the leftover as it is milk only without cream and can be used.

Step 5: Making Butter From Curd

The method to make butter from curd is same as we did for milk cream

Transfer the curd into an open mouthed vessel
Using the butter churner, beat the curd in a circular motion on both directions with the palms of your hands as seen in the video in Step 3.
Soon you will find the butter gets separated from the curd to the side of the vessel.
Scoop out the butter using a ladle and store it in a separate container. This may contain little bit of whey, but there is nothing to worry about that as we will make clean butter soon.

Do not throw away the leftover whey as this can be consumed as a sweetened or spiced drink and also can be used in many dishes. In Southern parts of India, we call this as Buttermilk and use it everyday with our meals.

Step 6: Use a Spoon to Drain Out Milk / Whey From the Butter

we have collected butter from cream as well as from curd, but this still contains lots milk and whey.

Using a spoon, beat the butter repeatedly in a circular motion, and bring it to the sides.
Drain out the liquid. Repeat this process till all liquid is drained out from the container
By repeatedly pressing the butter with the spoon, you can drain out all the remaining drops of liquid
Now you got pure butter.

Watch the video on how to use the spoon to remove unwanted liquid from the butter

Step 7: Enjoy Your Home-made Butter

You can see in the above photographs both butter made from cream collected from milk and butter churned out from curd. Is not it very easy to make your own butter at home ?

Enjoy your home-made butter...