It started as a fun experiment.
I watched a video of a guy shaking a cup of cream until it became butter, and I was fascinated.
Theoretically, I know that people once had to make their own butter, but it was something I’d never considered doing myself. The next thing I knew, I was buying a pint of organic whipping cream and pouring it into a glass jar.
I shook it — and shook and shook and shook. About 25 minutes later, the fat had separated from the liquid, and I had butter. I rinsed craggy, pale-yellow curds under cold water, smeared them together using a spatula, spiked the mass with a pinch of flaky sea salt and spread it on a freshly cut, toasted slice of wheat bread.
I was instantly hooked.
How else could I make butter? I mean, shaking was good for my biceps, but I don’t always have 25 minutes to spare before downing my morning toast.
I tried a few other methods, all of which worked similarly. It’s surprisingly predictable: Whip cream until it’s fluffy. Keep whipping. Eventually, the fat separates from the buttermilk. Strain the liquid from the solids, and you have butter.
My favorite method, though decidedly less “Little House on the Prairie”-like than shaking cream in a jar, ended up being the
quickest: Dump the cream into a food processor and hit go. Six to eight minutes later, you have butter.
It’s a really neat trick, making your own butter, but it didn’t fit my criteria for making something that I could otherwise buy. In short, it didn’t taste discernibly better, and it wasn’t much less expensive. Additionally, homemade butter spoils in just a few days and must be kept refrigerated, unlike its more-thoroughly rinsed supermarket counterpart.
Something really good did come out of all the mounds of butter I had made. I started to mix things into it. Lots of things. Anything I had laying around, including herbs, cheese, honey, bourbon and more.
Compound butter is my new obsession. With studies finally validating what I’ve suspected all along — that butter is far better for you nutritionally than most vegetable oils — I don’t feel too bad about spreading that butter on chicken, potatoes, green beans or whatever is on my plate.
And then there’s that toast. Toast with freshly whipped butter is pretty cool, but that same slice slathered with honey butter studded with flaky sea salt? It’s breakfast nirvana.
TO MAKE BUTTER
I used organic whipping cream each time. A cup of cream yields about 3/4 cup butter. All methods, at their core, are just agitating the cream until the fat separates from the liquid. You’ll know it’s finished when a thin liquid appears out of what was previously a thick cream.
In a food processor, it takes six to eight minutes. Using a whisk attachment in a stand mixer, it takes 12 to 18 minutes. By hand, it takes 25 to 30 minutes.
Carefully transfer the curds to a fine-mesh sieve and rinse with very cold running water. Spread the butter into a single mass, squeezing out excess buttermilk as you go. The more buttermilk you leave in the butter, the quicker it will spoil.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one to two weeks, depending on how much buttermilk remains in the butter. You’ll know by the smell if it’s bad.
THE TAKEAWAY
Taste: After some experimenting, you can make the butter exactly to your taste.
Grocery-store cost: $5.79 for 2 cups organic butter
At-home cost: $4.99 for 1 pint cream, which makes 1 1/2 cups organic butter
Additional equipment: Glass jar, stand mixer or food processor
Learning curve/effort: Easy and a fun experiment — cool to show the kids once.
Bottom line: Homemade organic butter isn’t much cheaper than store-bought butter, and we couldn’t discern a difference in taste. The real fun is adding flavors to butter, but this works better with store-bought butter because it has a longer shelf life.
COMPOUND BUTTER RECIPES
ROASTED GARLIC AND ROSEMARY BUTTER
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 small head garlic
1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt (see shopper’s note)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
To roast garlic: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice off top third of head of garlic. Discard. Place remaining garlic on square of aluminum foil. Drizzle with olive oil. Gather ends of foil into purse shape. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes or until pale golden brown. Cool.
To make garlic paste: Squeeze garlic cloves from paper into bowl of food processor. Pulse a few times. Scrape down bowl. Pulse again until paste is formed.
To flavor butter: Add butter and rosemary to garlic paste. Pulse a few times or until ingredients are just mixed. Add salt and pepper. Pulse a few times. Transfer to a crock, or roll into a log using a square of plastic wrap.
To store: Cover and store in refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.
Shopper’s note: I used Maldon, a flaky salt that adds unexpected texture to many dishes. It’s available at some high-end grocery stores and many kitchen-supply stores, such as Cooks of Crocus Hill.
CHIVE AND BLUE CHEESE BUTTER
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons chives, chopped
2 tablespoons blue cheese
Pinch of flaky sea salt
Pinch of black pepper
To flavor butter: In medium bowl, mix all ingredients. Transfer to crock, or roll into a log using a square of plastic wrap.
To store: Cover and store in refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.
HONEY BUTTER
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons honey (see shopper’s note)
1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
To flavor butter: In medium bowl, mix all ingredients. Transfer to a crock, or roll into a log using a square of plastic wrap.
To store: Cover and store in refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.
Shopper’s note: I used Ames Farm raw honey, which is thicker than regular honey, for this recipe.
BACON AND BOURBON BUTTER
Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 slice cooked smoked bacon, finely chopped
1 tablespoon bourbon
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
To flavor butter: In medium bowl, mix all ingredients. Transfer to a crock, or roll into a log using a square of plastic wrap.
To store: Cover and store in refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.
Jess Fleming can be reached at 651-228-5435. Follow her at twitter.com/jessflem.
