429 Days/38w6d

Over the next few days I'm going to be posting all of the recipes that I will be using for Thanksgiving this year. One of the things on my list was homemade butter. I wasn't going to do this until Wednesday, but I was really eager to try it out because it's so easy and I'll already have plenty of other things to do on Wednesday. I figured this would be an easy one to get out of the way early.

Butter-
Ingredients/supplies:
1 quart pasteurized good tasting organic heavy cream (no stabilizers, no fillers, not ultra-pasteurized)

Stand or hand mixer (stand is much easier, but a hand mixer will work if that's all you have. Either one has got to be better than a butter churn!)

Sieve and a bowl

You want it as pure and free of fillers as possible

I didn't put the sieve in a bowl because I didn't want to save the buttermilk. I did put a folded cheesecloth over the sieve though just to put another layer between the sieve and the sink.

1. Put the cream in mixing bowl with whisk attachment.

2.Beat the cream at the highest speed until splashes of liquid start hitting the plastic and you can see solid pieces of butter.

If your mixer has a splash guard, you definitely want to use it and possibly a towel (as shown above) as well. The cream will splatter a lot until it starts to thicken up


After about 3-4 minutes, the liquid cream will thicken to whipped cream consistency.


Another two minutes or so and it will start to turn yellow and appear curdled.


You will know the butter is finished when you see liquid appear again. This means that the buttermilk has separated from the solids.

3. Set a sieve over a bowl and pour the contents of the bowl into it. Gently knead the butter to release all of its liquid (about 3 minutes).

I used the cheesecloth to help me knead the rest of the liquid out of the butter


Finished product!

Work kosher salt into the butter if you like (I didn't do this, but I would start with about 1/2 teaspoon and go from there). Freeze or refrigerate it up to a week.