Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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Has anyone ever made butter at home from heavy cream? I know you can whip heavy cream into butter with either a hand mixer or a blender like the Vitamix. But have you ever done it sorta like Mark Sisson style, where you press the buttermilk out of the cream in stages as you whip it? and... did you culture the butter?

flag	asked Apr 4 2011 at 20:09 Jack Kronk 19.9k●2●33●101

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I make cultured butter on a regular basis, you can't beat the simplicity and ease of the jar-shaking method. Takes 15-30 minutes and I'm not left with a blender to clean. To culture the cream, add a tablespoon or two (depending on the amount of cream you're culturing) of yogurt with live cultures (plain greek has worked fine) and stir until mixed well. I leave this concoction in a warm oven (turn it on for a few min and then off) all night (10 hours or so) and in the morning I move it to the fridge until I want to shake it. The leftover liquid aftr shaking is BUTTERMILK. YUM. – livia Apr 4 2011 at 23:17

A few years back, my mom picked up a traditional plunge-style butter churner from Old Sturbridge Village, in anticipation of grandchildren. Turns out my 2 year old daughter loves it. I plan to have lots of home-made butter. – Chris Apr 5 2011 at 0:45

OSUfanz · Answer 1 · 2011-04-04 21:20:40Z UTC

We watched the santa-esk guy on this youtube video and then started doing it ourselves - the kids enjoy to process. After, we add herbs and spices and make it our own. Use saran wrap to shape it in a cylinder and then refrigerate- slice and add your herb butter on top of your steak - yum

making butter video

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being · Answer 2 · 2011-04-04 21:10:54Z UTC

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yeah! i do it all the time! its amazing. i do it with my 3 year old, and she thinks its the coolest thing ever. use ROOM TEMPERATURE raw or pasteurized (NOT ultra pasteurized) heavy cream and put a pint into a quart sized mason jar (or whatever- i do a lot of canning so everything in this house is in a mason jar)and shake it really hard. you will hear the change happen. it only takes a minute or two. then wash it. sisson has some good directions, but thats pretty thorough. i tend to half-ass it. its wonderful and really fun for DIY weirdos like me.

edited Apr 4 2011 at 21:10

answered Apr 4 2011 at 21:00

being
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are you serious? put it in a jar and shake it? that's it? dang compared to Sisson's instructions that seems really simplistic. – Jack Kronk Apr 4 2011 at 21:05

yeah, its really fun! it goes slosh slosh slosh then starts sounding kind of thick, then starts going thump thump thump and you open it and find a big lump of butter floating around in some buttermilk! cool! its important thtat its at room temperature when you start. straight out of the fridge and it might not come together at all. – being Apr 4 2011 at 21:09

I have a friend who does this regularly. Almost exactly the same way as akd! It's pretty cool. – kricka Apr 4 2011 at 21:13

I always thought it takes a long ass time to shake the butter out of heavy cream. Who knew. – Ikco Apr 4 2011 at 21:21

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One key: only fill the jar about halfway. So as Akd said, put a pint in a quart jar, or I've done a half-gallon in a gallon jar. The cream goes through a 'whipped' stage where it fluffs up quite a bit before it breaks down into butter and buttermilk, so if your jar is too full, it'll get hard to shake. Also, make sure it's about room temperature or a little below. If it's fridge temperature, it'll take forever, basically warming up first before it starts to change. Also, you don't have to shake it ferociously. Look at an old butter churn; it's enough to slop it back and forth. – Aaron B. Apr 5 2011 at 0:29

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Ikco · Answer 3 · 2011-04-04 21:19:53Z UTC

I doez.

I just throw two cups of heavy cream* in a blender for 5 minutes (when I see the liquid splashing I run it for another minute) on high. After that I squeeze the butter into somesort of shape and wash it with cold water to remove some excess butter milk (if you put it in a bowl you'll see the water gaining color as the butter milk is released from the butter). Dry it with a paper towel and it's done.

I've read somewhere that the amount of buttermilk that stays within the butter effects the shelf life. For instance I do butter my way and I got a piece of green mold after 7 days but I presume if you do it throughly ala Mark that's timeframe increases.

My understanding is that "cultured" reference to the starting ingredients meaning you use creme fraiche and not heavy cream.

Also link for peepz who don't know what we're talking about. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/homemade-cultured-butter/

*I use pasterized non UHT cream without any additeves. I've read UHT being problematic and I suspect similar for any cream with stabilizators like carregeenan.

Oranges13 · Answer 4 · 2011-04-05 02:11:47Z UTC

Before my paleo days I used to make honey butter all the time. I recall that my boyfriend's parents and his grandmother were AMAZED that one could make butter at home. :)

Never made cultured butter, but now I"m kind of curious to see the difference. Will it be all ritzy and tell me nice things?

Homemade Butter From Heavy Cream?

4 Answers