How to make butter at home (2024)

Learn how to make butter at home that is creamy, smooth and perfectly salted (if you like that sort of thing). Take back the quality of the food you eat by learning this basic and put it to good use on everything you can dream of.

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Butter. Since the 1950’s it’s been touted as deadly food. Artery clogging, cholesterol raising saturated fat that left consumers terrified they wouldn’t live to see 60 if they ate it.

So instead of a food people had been eating for centuries that contained just one ingredient–cream from family farmed cows–Americans shifted to hexane-washed hydrogenated vegetable oils, butter consumption dropped, and trans fats ruled as disease rates spiked.

But butter is back baby.

And if you can sort through the rabbit hole of labels in the store you can easily find butter on the shelves. Is it good butter? Well, it’s not all that bad I suppose if your body can tolerate traditional dairy.

The cream used to make most butter is hom*ogenized and pasteurized just like the milk you buy off the shelf and for some people it’s simply not digestible. You can make clarified butter, also known as ghee if you’d prefer to remove the milk solids but right now we are going all in and making our own real deal, grandma would be proud, butter.

What cream do I need to buy to make butter?

You need heavy cream or heavy whipping cream. You can find it in the dairy case with the milk in a carton. You can’t make butter from milk. My biggest issue with regular heavy whipping cream is that almost all of it contains thickeners to stabilize it for shipping and shelf life.

Horizon Organic is one brand that doesn’t have them but be prepared to pay double the cost of other brands for it if that matters to you.

For my butter making, I am using non-hom*ogenized, low heat pasteurized local cream. I can’t get raw milk or cream here in Kentucky so this is a great compromise.

Is it cheaper to make your own butter?

I think so, yes. One pound of Horizon Organic butter at Walmart is about $5.64. I bought a quart of heavy cream and made a pound of butter for about $4 plus I have the kind of cream that works for my body. That’s a win too.

How long does it take to make?

If you make your butter by hand with a jar and shake it, it may take you 10 minutes or more just to get it to solidify then you’ll need to wash and season it. I made mine in the food processor in about 5. The whole process took less than 10 minutes from start to finish.

How to make butter step by step

Step 1: Add cold cream to a food processor fitted with a blade. You can also do this in a Mason jar or in a bowl with a hand mixer. It just takes longer. Beat on high until your cream thickens (this is how you make whipped cream) about 2 minutes.

Step 2: Your whipped cream will start to get chunky and thick but will still be pale white in color and solid. You need to keep mixing it until the buttermilk separates from the cream.

Step 3: Keep beating until you hear and see the butter start to clump together, turn deeper yellow and the white buttermilk separates from the fat. 5 to 6 minutes total.

Step 4: Transfer the butter to a colander. You can save the buttermilk if you want to use it for other recipes or drain it away. Using your hands, squeeze the butter and get out as much of the buttermilk as you can. You can also put it in a clean towel and squeeze.

Step 5: Rinse your butter under cold water, kneading it and turning it over and over until the water runs clear. Make sure you aren’t just rinsing the surface. Mash it as you rinse.

Step 6: Transfer your butter to the counter and add 1 teaspoon salt if you want to use it and knead it in. I used pink sea salt but if you want to use a different one (like table salt) use less and taste as you go. I literally put my butter on the counter and mashed and kneaded the salt in until it was distributed evenly.

Step 7: Transfer your butter to an air tight container. Butter is highly sensitive to odors and absorbs them like crazy. If you want your butter to taste good, it must be sealed in something air tight. I like containers like this for the job.

How long does homemade butter last?

Butter will last up to a month in your refrigerator.

Recipes to use your butter

Compound butters are amazing. You can add all kinds of flavors and use them for sweet or savory dishes. Try these recipes.

You may also like:

• Easy yeast rolls
• Simple Buttered Noodles
• All butter buttermilk biscuits