The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Food & crafts => Food processing => Topic started by: SallyintNorth on June 23, 2011, 12:12:54 am
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Well I made butter today, just in a jar. I saved cream from two milkings and I shook it for about 5 minutes before it went thick. I wasn't quite sure what to do then, I couldn't see that shaking was doing anything more and yet it just looked like very very thick cream. So I shook some more and - very suddenly - the consistency changed and the lump all came together and cleared the glass. Someone once told me I was looking for the consistency of scrambled eggs, and that's pretty much what it looked like. But you could just tell it was butter now and the glass was clean.
I strained it and whey (buttermilk I suppose) came off. I knew I should wash it in cold water and wash it again and again and again until the water ran clear, and then work it and work it and work it until all the water came out - but I couldn't wait and spread some on a scone. Y.. U.. M..!!! :yum: Tasted absolutely perfect. And - eat your hearts out all of you who don't have your own Jersey cow - it's as yellow as a buttercup! :D <- Very happy Sally!
And to top it all, BH was so impressed he made all our visitors try some. (This from a farmer who - up until today - bought Lurpack spreadable because it tastes better than Country Life, even though Country Life is British and Lurpack is Danish.)
:D :D <- Very very happy Sally!
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Well done - can't wait to have Shetland butter ;D
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Brilliant! Thanks for sharing, you clever thing you!
Now I wanna do it - how large was the jar, how much cream did you put in there etc etc.....
:yum:
(Hey - do you think putting the jar on the top of the washing machine during the spin cycle might cut down on a few mins worth of shaking... :D :D )
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Thank you thank you. :bow: (I love this forum! ;D)
I used a 340g marmalade jar about 1/3 full. Very very thick (remember we are talking Jersey here) and it really did take less than 10 mins shaking in all. 5 mins to go into thick cream that you thought you couldn't shake any more and probably less than 20 more shakes for it to clear the jar and be butter.
I refrigerated the previous night's milk, skimmed the cream off (by hand with a spoon) in the morning and left it in the jar in the cool larder, left the morning's milk standing in the larder, skimmed it when the cream had risen and added it to the jar, then shook it straight away.
My thinking now is that everyone talks about washing it and working it to make it last longer, but maybe the less work way is to just make each day what you want for the next 24 hours - the 'off' flavour won't have time to develop, if yesterday's experience is anything to go by!
I suppose I should make extra, properly washed and worked, to freeze for when there's less creamy milk available, and/or when the ambient temperature is too cold or too hot to make butter.
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hurrah! well done you!
its on my "get round to it" list to make butter from our creamy goat's milk ...
better get on with it then, and see if I can manage it :)
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Sally,
It sounds great and not really too much work at all.
Now where can I get some jersey cream from.............
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i've made it using the kenwood as well - very quick and less work on the old joints :D
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egglady, which beater do you recommend?!
just had a new Kenwood (insurance replacement - never could have paid for one otherwise!!) and aren't really doing it justice.... :D
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Excellent ;D And well done for converting your BH!
My mum used to give us little pots of full fat milk that we'd shake to make butter like this as kids - sat on the swings shaking it - this was to keep us amused, I think kids had simpler tastes then :D
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Excellent ;D And well done for converting your BH!
My mum used to give us little pots of full fat milk that we'd shake to make butter like this as kids - sat on the swings shaking it - this was to keep us amused, I think kids had simpler tastes then :D
I've even had BH making it while he watches telly!
(You're right jaykay, we are obviously very easily amused! ;D)
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egglady, which beater do you recommend?!
just had a new Kenwood (insurance replacement - never could have paid for one otherwise!!) and aren't really doing it justice.... :D
whichever one comes to hand!! usually either the K beater or the whisk - whisk is quicker so you need to keep an eye!
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thanks :)
now I've really no excuse, have I?!
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Well done - can't wait to have Shetland butter ;D
the locals im told produce a sour butter not sure what it is.
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Well done Sally - such and encouragement
DH says I can't get a cow until I retire as he's not going to milk it while I'm at work :'(
So I get a vicarious pleasure out of seeing all the goo dthings that will be in store for us when I get my cow.
Do you think a Jersey would survive in Wales?
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I luuurrrrvvvveeee homemade butter and I just make it with the electric whisk that I use for cake making. Unfortunately, I don't yet have a milking animal here so I'm very jealous about your Jersey.
Melanie x
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Do you think a Jersey would survive in Wales?
Well I was working on a farm in Ceredigion when I concluded that it was definitely a Jersey I wanted. Mind, all their cows were wintered in sheds, the Jerseys and the suckler herd.
Jerseys don't have a great deal of hair, so prolonged wet weather will get to them if they haven't really good shelter. I suspect your climate and conditions are no worse than ours. Hillie went out most days throughout the winter, only being kept in if it was truly awful. She came in at night until the warmer weather arrived.
DH says I can't get a cow until I retire as he's not going to milk it while I'm at work :'(
It now takes me 30 mins to milk her, including fetching her in, feeding her, cleaning and milking her, setting the calf on, filtering and storing the milk, taking the calf back, cleaning her udder and putting her out again. If you worked it so she kept her own calf with her, or took a set-on, you could organise it so you only milked her yourself once a day. Just a thought... ;)
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I milk my goats in the morning only, cos I work. So i separate the kids at night, milk in the morning (I use a hand pump into a bottle, so not even any filtering, bottle goes straight into fridge), and then leave the kids with mum all day. Gives them all a nice time, helps the kids grow well and means I don't have to worry about what time i gt home from work. :)
Could be done ;)
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Do you think a Jersey would survive in Wales?
a friend of mine used to have jersey as a house cow and wer in NE scotland. i presume it wud have been in all winter.
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Sounds great - I nearly made butter by mistake overwhisking the cream but didn't know what to do with it after the whisking bit - from the sounds of it nothing other than eat it could be an option?! 8)
So how are you supposed to "work it" - rinsing the scrambled egg stage in water in a colander until it runs clear sounds ok but then what?
And what do you do with the first liquid that comes off (buttermilk/whey or what?)..
I might try this with commercial cream or full fat milk to get a technique but one day who knows.. ;D
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When I made it, I rinsed until clear (I never kept the buttermilk but I suppose in theory you could) and then kept squashing it all together with my fingers as more buttermilk came out then. I just kept doing that until there was no more liquid - didn't take too long and then into the tupperware box it went - was delicious!
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If it was a very thick cream to begin with you can just eat it or cook with it straight away, yes. If you want to keep it, or the cream was thinner / milky, you should get buttermilk coming separately - this is beautiful to drink (skimmed milk but oh so very tasty) and wonderful to use in baking; I make scones and soda bread and get lots of compliments!
My process, for butter to last a few days, is as follows:
- skim off the cream into a jar
- shake the jar till the 'scrambled eggs' forms and the buttermilk separates (with my Jersey cream this takes about 10 minutes)
- strain the butter, retaining the buttermilk for drinking / cooking
- wash the butter a few times till the water is clear (pig gets first wash water - still buttermilky)
- I don't add salt, but I'd do it now if I did
- 'work' the butter - I bought some Scotch Hands and these are great. You want the water to come out and you want the texture to become, well - more like butter! Do this somewhere cool or you can get the butter starting to melt, which you don't want
- pot up and keep somewhere cool. It will freeze if you want to store some for later
- enjoy!
It really is quite simple and the taste is tremendous. We wouldn't go back to shop-bought butter now.