No, I'm not about to get out my butter churner. I've read you can make it by shaking, using an electric mixer, or even the food processor.
The store brand: Land O' Lakes Unsalted Butter
My Recipe (adapted from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/homemade-butter-recipe/index.html):
1 pint heavy cream, very cold
Pinch salt, optional
- Refrigerate the bowl/beaters/jar or whatever you are going to use ahead of time to get everything very cold. The food network recipe says to shake the cream in a jar for 15 to 30 minutes, but I just put it in my food processor.
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| This whole process took about 8 minutes. |
- Pour into a strainer set over a bowl. The chunks in the strainer are butter, and the liquid in the bowl is buttermilk.
- Pour the buttermilk into a clean container, cover, refrigerate, and reserve for another use.
- Turn the butter into a clean bowl and cover with very cold water. Pour into a strainer, discarding the liquid. Continue rinsing the butter with very cold water until the water runs clear. (The cloudy water is buttermilk which will make the butter turn sour.)
- When the butter is clean, work with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to press out any remaining liquid. Discard this liquid. If desired, add salt to the butter. (Salted butter will keep longer.)
- Transfer the butter to a clean container for keeping and refrigerate until ready to use.
So that's it - you've got butter! It tasted unremarkably like butter - for some reason I thought it would taste like magically delicious butter, but no, just butter. It was a really neat thing to see though, I'd recommend everyone tries to make butter.
The cost? You aren't going to save money making your own butter. But I didn't account for the cup or so of buttermilk you will also get during the butter making process, so that's a bonus for your pancakes or bisquits or whatever. That buttermilk is not the cultured kind you would get from the store, and I haven't used mine yet, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it.
I usually just buy our store brand butter, which costs about a dollar less than Land O' Lakes, so store bought definitely wins the price category.
| Amount | Cost | Cost/pound | |
| Land O' Lakes Unsalted Butter | 1 lb | $ 4.49 | $ 4.49 |
| Homemade | 3/4 lb | $ 5.00 | $ 6.67 |
So overall, you get a butter that tastes a lot like the store bought version, that takes a little bit of work, but costs more...
Bake or Buy? BUY!
