Is Making Your Own Butter Worth the Effort? (2024)

In our column Fake It or Make It we test a homemade dish against its prepackaged counterpart to find out what's really worth cooking from scratch.

Mmmmm, butter. As Julia Child once said, "With enough butter, anything is good." We can all agree with her on that, but opinions diverge on whether a homemade variety trumps what you find in the grocery store--all things (especially things like time and cost) considered. Many home cooks swear that supermarket butter has nothing on the stuff made from scratch, which has always struck me as curious since butter comes from just one ingredient--heavy cream--and it's not among the many, many items that fine dining restaurants typically make from scratch. Could taking a DIY approach really lead to a better finished product? Here, we put the claim to the test.

The Contenders

Breakstone's All Natural Unsalted Butter vs. Homemade Unsalted Butter

Making butter is the rare cooking project where you end up with more ingredients than you started with: Heavy cream basically needs to be "agitated" until it separates into butterfat and buttermilk. While this might call back memories of shaking a jar of heavy cream in your elementary school classroom, or conjure images of a pilgrim woman bending over a wooden churn, neither of these methods represent best practices for modern butter making. The best way in a home kitchen is to whip heavy cream with an electric stand-mixer until it separates into clumps of butterfat and buttermilk. Then strain out the buttermilk and knead the butterfat in ice cold water to remove every last drop of milk. Some sources, but not all, suggest ripening the cream first by letting it sit at room temperature for 12 hours to achieve better butter flavor. The Guardian and Joy the Baker provide great step-by-step guides to the whole process.

Relative Costs

It's more than twice as expensive to make your own butter than to buy it. I paid $2.00 for a cup of Breakstone's butter, and $3.59 for enough heavy cream to make 3/4 cup of the homemade--or $4.79 per cup.

Relative Healthfulness

Even. Both are made with heavy cream.

Time Commitment

It took me about 25 minutes to whip, strain, and knead my butter.

Leftovers Potential

Store-bought butter can keep in a cold fridge for months without spoiling, as long as you keep it away from strong odors. Homemade butter's shelf life depends on how thoroughly you extract the buttermilk. If a substantial amount of buttermilk remains, it will sour within a week, otherwise homemade butter can keep for up to 2-3 weeks in the fridge.

What The Testers Said

First let me introduce our panel.

THE HEALTH NUT
A delicate eater, the health nut is calorie conscious but also likes to eat well

THE FOODIE
Calorie agnostic, our foodie judge has a sophisticated palate and a love of cooking

Is Making Your Own Butter Worth the Effort? (2024)

FAQs

Is it worth it to make homemade butter? ›

It's Cheaper

That means the price of making your own butter isn't much more than buying it in the store, and often you can get organic cream cheaper than organic butter.

Is it cheaper to make your own butter than buy it? ›

While homemade butter is cheaper than store bought, buttermilk from the store is cheaper than homemade.

How hard is it to make your own butter? ›

As it turns out, it's simple to make if you have a stand (or hand) mixer, a blender, or a food processor. Within about 10 minutes, you can turn cream into solid butter.

Is it healthier to make my own butter? ›

Homemade butter is a source of fats that are healthier than commercially-available butters. The latter contain trans-fats, which may result in weight gain and may harm your health in other ways as well.

Does homemade butter taste like store-bought? ›

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.

Why does my homemade butter taste sour? ›

Butter can taste a bit malty (like “Grape Nuts”), or sour if bacterial had a chance to grow in the milk. The cause is usually due to Streptococcus lactis in poorly cooled milk.

How long does Handmade butter last? ›

Homemade butter's shelf life depends on how thoroughly you extract the buttermilk. If a substantial amount of buttermilk remains, it will sour within a week, otherwise homemade butter can keep for up to 2-3 weeks in the fridge.

Why does homemade butter taste different? ›

Unwashed Butter Has a Peculiar Flavor

Unwashed butter always has a little buttermilk clinging it, which gives it a peculiar flavor–even when fresh, even before the casein has begun to putrify.

How much butter will 1 gallon of milk make? ›

1 gallon of milk will usually yield 1 to 1.5 pint of cream. The cream will churn to approx. 1/3 to ½ lb of butter.

What are the benefits of homemade butter? ›

What's more, homemade white butter is packed with the goodness of milk proteins, saturated fats, vitamin D and A, which helps in boosting immunity and is good for bone health.

Is it cheaper to make your own clarified butter? ›

Homemade ghee from butter is simple, easy to make, and cheaper than buying. This Indian clarified butter is delicious, shelf-stable, nutty in flavor, and has high smoke point making it perfect for cooking, roasting, stir-frying, and even deep-frying.

Does homemade butter last as long as store-bought? ›

Store-bought butter can keep in a cold fridge for months without spoiling, as long as you keep it away from strong odors. Homemade butter's shelf life depends on how thoroughly you extract the buttermilk.

Does homemade butter have a higher fat content? ›

In any case, homemade butter will have a higher milk fat content than store-bought butter – which is a good thing, trust me.

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