This weekend was another weekend-long family gathering in Warwickshire. Like everytime we meet up there is lots of food left over by the Sunday afternoon. I managed to bring home, amongst other things, enough sausages to make a meatloaf tomorrow and nearly a litre of double cream. Not wanting the cream to be wasted I set about making butter.
I first came across homemade butter while flicking through River Cottage Family Cookbook a few years back. Never did I think it could be so easy to make. To make it even better not only do you end up with fresh butter you also produce buttermilk which is fantastic for making pancakes and scones.
Making butter this way takes some serious elbow grease, but it is great and satisfying to see the cream turn into butter. While watching a recording of Cook with Gordon, between the two of us we managed to churn out 5 pats of butter.
Homemade Butter
Double cream (ideally not really fresh cream)
jam jar
1) Allow cream to get to room temperature before using. Half fill the jam jar with cream and tightly screw on the lid.
2) Shake the jar enough so you can feel the cream slop against the lid. Keep shaking. All of a sudden you'll notice the slopping sound stop; at this point you have whipped cream.
3) Keep on shaking! All of a sudden the slopping sound will return and you'll notice a large lump sloshing around in a watery liquid. This can take anywhere between 10-30min. Carefully open the lid. If the butter looks like fine cottage cheese shake for a few more seconds until you end up with a smoothish round ball. The solid is the butter and the liquid is buttermilk.
4) Pour off the buttermilk into a bowl and fill jar with cold water. Swil and keep on changing the water until it is clear. Squeeze the ball of butter in your hands to rid of excess buttermilk. It is important to remove as much buttermilk as you can as this can make the butter go sour.
5) Shape into a pat, wrap in greaseproof paper and store in the fridge.
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Oh that sounds really good... though your arms must be sore to have done that 5 times?!
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember making butter from milk/cream in primary school - but I wouldn't have thought of doing it now! How long will it last for?
I didn't notice the pain thanks to Gordon ;)
ReplyDeleteTBH, I'm not too sure how long it lasts. I've never made this much before. I planning on doing some baking in the next few days so will use some then, I think I may freeze the rest.
I remember making butter in primary school too! Great photo of the butter pats Jules.
ReplyDeleteNicisme - thank you :)
ReplyDeleteI have never made butter before but how tempting Jules! I love your little pats of butter how cute and I bet it tastes delicious too.
ReplyDeleteRosie x
I've been meaning to do this for years but haven't ever gotten round to it...you've inspired me though!
ReplyDeleteHow does it taste? I wonder how easy it would be to flavour it? I've got some lovely butter at the moment with flakes of sea-salt in it, would be great to do something like that.
Rosie - Try it with some leftover cream and you'll be surprised how easy it is.
ReplyDeleteGinger - I used the buttermilk and some of the butter to make scotch pancakes this morning. They came out lovely and fluffy. Taste wise, it doesn't have as much taste as normal butter due to the lack of salt, but you can easily add flavourings while the butter is still soft after churning.
Wow - this takes me back, erm, several years... We made butter in school - and like you say, there's nothing quite like it. Good for you for 'spreading' the word! (pun intended, if cringe-worthy)
ReplyDeleteaforkfulofspaghetti - your comment has made me chuckle!
ReplyDeleteThat looks fun. The butter looks very impressive. I think I'd better put that on my 'to do' list.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! I had absolutely no idea it was so easy to make butter. I bet your arms muscles are a bit bigger though!! I always tell people that my last meal would be bread and butter and they look at me like I am crazy.
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