Homemade Butter
Making butter at home is surprisingly easy to do. All you need is fresh heavy cream—and maybe a little salt, if you want salted butter. That’s it. (No, really: That’s it.)
No, you don’t need a butter churn
Unless, of course, you have one.
When I told one of my best friends that I made butter, he exclaimed something like, “Wait, you don’t have a butter churn…do you?”
(If you know me—and you know how much cooking equipment is socked away in our kitchen and basement—it’s always good to doublecheck these details.)
No, I don’t have a butter churn.
I have something better: An electric mixer.
As good as it would be for my arms, I’m not sure I could hack churning butter the old-fashioned way.
I should note that this isn’t a cheaper way of stocking up on butter. Chances are good that this amount of heavy cream will always cost more than a pound of butter.
But you don’t make butter this way because you want to save money. You do it because it’s really cool—and, of course, it gives you the opportunity to triumphantly bellow, “Holy %$&#, I just made butter!!”
Which everyone should do at least once in their life.
What is butter made of, anyway?
Butter is made of a few things: Butterfat, water, and milk proteins.
Butter made from fermented cream is known as cultured butter, which is more full flavored. You can make it by adding yogurt to the cream and aging it a little before you beat it to bits. (That’s next. Stay tuned.)
Start with high-quality heavy cream. If you can get it from a farm, that’s a big bonus. Basically, the better your cream tastes, the higher quality your butter will be.
How to make your own butter
Butter is basically cream that’s been beaten until it separates.
Most cooks have done this before by accident—by overbeating whipped cream.
You know what I mean: Your whipped cream is perfect one minute, then you blink twice and it starts to break down and get grainy.
When you make whipped cream, most of the time, you’re aiming for stiff peaks (when the whipped cream will stand up on the beater in straight little points).
When you make butter, you whip your cream to stiff peaks. And then you keep going.
For folks outside the U.S., heavy cream is cream that has 36 – 40% butterfat.
What can you do with homemade butter?
You mean, aside from gobble it up on fresh bread with reckless abandon? Use homemade butter in any way that you’d use regular butter. In baking and cooking, etc.
Since you’ve gone through the trouble of making it with good cream, I’d be more inclined to keep it pure, and use it on toast and pancakes—or anything where the butter flavor will really shine through.
You could also use it to make compound butter. Here are a few ideas:
- Fresh Herb Compound Butter
- Drunken Cranberry Orange Compound Butter
- Pecan Scotch Compound Butter
- Roasted Garlic Compound Butter
Here’s the whole process, from start to finish.
Homemade Butter
6 cups heavy cream
salt to taste
Yields about 1 lb of butter
Beat the cream until it separates
Grab your cream.
Put it in the bowl of your stand mixer—or in a large mixing bowl, if you’re using a handheld mixer.
If you have a splash guard for your mixer, you might want to use it. You’re beating on fairly high speed, which means your cream can spit a little.
Note: I stopped the mixer a bunch of times to take pictures of the different stages. You don’t have to do that. Just the mixer on and let it run. The whole process should take just under 10 minutes.
Turn the mixer on on medium-high speed.
As you beat the cream, it will begin to thicken.
And get thicker…
…and thicker…
Until eventually you have a bowl of traditional whipped cream.
(There’s your stiff peak.)
Keep beating! The whipped cream will start to get a little grainy looking.
And as you beat, it will lose all that lovely volume.
(That’s just fine. That means it’s starting to break down.)
It will also turn a pale yellow…
…and get really curdle-y and a little gross looking.
Keep beating. You’re almost there.
When the contents of your bowl starts to splatter a little, it’s a good sign that you’re done. This means that the buttermilk has separated out from the solids.
Here’s what the butter solids look like:
Strain the buttermilk
Set a mesh strainer over a bowl.
Pour the butter and buttermilk through the strainer.
Be sure to use a deep bowl. You don’t want the strainer sitting in the buttermilk, like this.
(I had to swap my bowls out.)
Knead the butter to squeeze out any excess liquid
Next, gather the butter into a ball and knead it.
You’re doing this to smoosh any remaining buttermilk out of it.
When all the liquid is out of the butter, you’ll wind up with a ball like this.
(This is where you hold your butter ball up triumphantly and bellow, “Holy &%@#, I just made butter!”)
Set it aside for a minute while you figure out what to do with the buttermilk. If you want to save it, cover it and keep it in the fridge. You can use it in bread, scones, muffins, etc.
(Keep in mind that this liquid isn’t the same thing as the cultured buttermilk that you buy in the store, which has been fermented.)
All told, I wound up with 18.85 ounces of butter, which is just over 1 pound.
Add salt, if you like
If you prefer salted to unsalted butter, knead in a little bit of kosher salt. I didn’t do this, but I’d use 1/2 tsp. – 1 tsp. Definitely start with less and taste as you go.
When you’re happy with how it tastes, pack it into a bowl or a few ramekins.
Refrigerate and use within 2 weeks
Wrap it tightly (butter absorbs odors) and keep it in the fridge. It should keep for about 2 weeks.
That is, of course, if it lasts that long.
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65 Comments
Indeed, and making your own butter you know exactly what ingredients you are getting, no preservatives, no chemicals, just fresh churned butter.
Excellent!
And with these simple ingredients you know exactly what you are getting, nothing but pure butter and a touch of salt.
Excellent!
Very cool! I like the idea of just using the mixer, that makes it simple. I’ve accidentally made some butter particles when churning ice cream too. I wonder if you flavored the base it would be substantially different than making a compound butter after the fact.
I was trying to make a basil whipped cream, and instead made basil butter. Because I heated the cream to steep the basil, I didn’t get the cream chilled enough to whip. It’s a totally different flavor than making the typical compound butter… I’d definitely recommend it!
Now I know what to do with that cream I over whipped.
Looks delicious!! Can’t wait to try it
the one and only time i went to summer camp, i went for a week to alton jones with my bff. they let us choose from three groups, farming, water stuff (kayaking and all that), or hiking type things. we got a preview of each, and of course i was all “that’s easy, food and animals, woo!”
[my mom wasn't happy since the bff i went with? LIVED on a farm. still does. so she basically got no vacation at all but we had a great time, heh.]
anyways, the first night we made butter as a ‘getting to know each other’ activity. they just put some cream in a glass jar and we sat in a circle, and you shook it until you couldn’t shake it no more and passed it to the next person, all the while answering questions about yourself and all that junk.
haven’t had it since, but it was delicious, and all we needed was cream and a jar!
I love this! I used to do this on a smaller scale with my kindergarten students. We made homemade cornbread for Thanksgiving and then made homemade butter using heavy cream in a jar with a marble in it. All the kiddies took a turn shaking it and then we had butter to slather on our cornbread. Good Memories
This is glorious! I just started making my own delicious bread and this just adds to my happiness. Thanks!
wow very impressive! I’m also surprised by how easy it is to make butter at home
OMG! This is so cool! I remember in kindergarden when our class got a bread machine and our teacher thought it’d be a good idea to have us sit around in circles shaking jars of whole milk to make butter …. we didn’t get any… this will certainly make up for it!
Does this work with ultrapasteurized butter, do you know? That’s about all I see around here, and I know such doesn’t work for cheesemaking… Thanks for any help!
…and by the former I meant ultrapasteurized CREAM. Sorry!
Such a simple yet often overlooked process that you have explained and photographed beautifully. Reminds me of eating Premium saltines with my grandmother (and her homemade butter!) <3
Nice work! I’ve definitely done this by accident, but I might do it on purpose very soon now!
I used to do make butter in my classroom every year. We put a little heavy cream and a dash of salt into baby food jars and each child got to shake and shake and shake his jar until it turned into butter. It was always such a hit and so much fun. Thanks for reminding me. (Great tutorial!)
I’ve made butter and it’s fun. But I wish we could get pure heavy cream. It’s all “whipping cream” which has additives and whatnot in it. Maybe in the organics section…
Hi,
First buy cow’s milk (preferably raw, like from farm), boil it and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. You will find a thick layer of cream. Collect this in a bowl. Repeat for a week. Now use this collected cream to make your butter.
Wow! Impressive! This is truly an informative post! Thanks for sharing! Keep up with the good work!
Thanks so much! (And thanks for stopping by!)
Cheers!
+Jessie
This is so cool, Homemade Butter! Who knew you could make it at home? Hey, thanks for this info, will definitely being trying this!
Thanks, lady! Let me know how it goes! It’s really so easy! (Also, kind of evil…I know my butter consumption is going to go through the roof now…)
+Jessie
I made butter by simply shaking cream until it turned into butter. The trick was to let the cream come to room temperature before shaking. This looks easier can’t wait to try!
That’s amazing. It doesn’t look that hard! I wanted to share something with you that someone emailed me a while ago. Who knew you could can butter!?!
1. Use any butter that is on sale. Lesser quality butter requires more
shaking (see #5 below), but the results are the same as with the expensive brands.
2. Heat pint jars in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes, without rings
or seals. One pound of butter slightly more than fills one pint jar, so if you melt 11 pounds of butter, heat 12 pint jars. A roasting pan works
well for holding the pint jars while in the oven. I use ½ pint jars
for this too.
3. While the jars are heating, melt butter slowly until it comes to a
slow boil. Using a large spatula, stir the bottom of the pot often to keep the butter from scorching. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes at
least: a good simmer time will lessen the amount of shaking required (see #5 below). Place the lids in a small pot and bring to a boil, leaving the lids in simmering water until needed. About 3-5 min.
4. Stirring the melted butter from the bottom to the top with a soup
ladle or small pot with a handle, pour the melted butter carefully into heated jars through a canning jar funnel. Leave 3/4″ of head space in the jar, which allows room for the shaking process.
5. Carefully wipe off the top of the jars, then get a hot lid from the
simmering water, add the lid and ring and tighten securely. Lids will seal as they cool. Once a few lids “ping,” shake while the jars are still warm, but cool enough to handle easily, because the butter will separate and become foamy on top and white on the bottom. In a few minutes, shake again, and repeat until the butter retains the same consistency throughout the jar.
6. At this point, while still slightly warm, put the jars into a
refrigerator. While cooling and hardening, shake again, and the melted butter will then look like butter and become firm. This final shaking is very important! Check every 5 minutes and give the jars a little shake until they are hardened in the jar! Leave in the refrigerator for an hour.
7. Canned butter should store for 3 years or longer on a cool, dark
shelf. [It does last a long time. We have just used up the last of the
butter we canned in 1999, and it was fine after 5 years.] Canned butter does not “melt” again when opened, so it does not need to be refrigerated upon opening, provided it is used within a reasonable length of time.
If storing butter is the goal, purchasing it on sale and freezing is way faster than canning it.
But if making your own butter is feasible then why not “can” or preserve that? I make my own butter and it would be better to prepare one day and enjoy for longer periods of time? Luvs my homemade butter
mmmmmmm
I know this is an old post, but in case someone else wanders over here, the National Center for Home Food Preservation strongly advises against this method, which isn’t really “canning” and is unsafe. http://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#33
Oh that looks soo goood!!! Recently I’ve visited Ukraine and tasted butter made there – it was like pure creme, only then I understood how much chemicals, preservatives and cheaper fats are added to the butter we can get from the shop. Since then I was craving to make butter at home to get that real amazing taste – biggest problem I’m facing though is that in Finland they cell cream that has only 20% of fat…. disaster
This looks awesome! I’m going to do a Pioneer unit study with my son next year for 3rd grade and making butter sounds like something the pioneers did that WE can do. Of course, I may have to try it before then.
p.s. Here from tastespotting.com.
Hi Jessie, thanks for your blog entry concerning butter. It works perfectly! Here are some pictures and my experience (in German). Thank you!
Love this! I am a big fan of butter.
I love this! Your pictures are beautiful too and your explanation of making butter right on! I did the same and wrote about it recently. I found the moment when the butter separates from the buttermilk to be pure magic prompting me to call my friend over to see it. I am glad I am not alone in my butter-making craziness.
It drives me crazy when this happens by mistake but can’t wait to do it on purpose!
I’m excited to try this! Thanks!
Stumbled upon this today! I absolutely CAN’T WAIT to try this at home!!
I made butter years ago with Brownie Scouts. We did it two ways, with a jar and a whole lot of shaking, but then again I had all those energetic girls, and with a wand mixer. Then we ate it over fresh rolls. Mmmm
what can you do with the buttermilk?
I made butter using your recipe and it turned out wonderfully of course. Although I do have one suggestion for those deciding to make it: make sure you get all of the buttermilk liquid out or else it will spoil quickly. After squeezing out all that you can, return the butter to the mixing bowl with about a cup of cold water and mix it, then squeeze the liquid out of it again. Repeat this until the liquid coming out is clear, it will last much longer. I keep mine in a butter crock on the counter top.
We made butter tonight! Didn’t see how you made it though until just now! We made it by putting some heavy cream– from a dairy– into a jar and shook it until a ball formed.
I love love LOVE making butter! I’ve done it the old-fashioned way with a churn (for work…don’t ask..) and with a mixer and/or food processor.
A handy tip is to “wash” the butter in very cold water to get the last of the buttermilk out and to help keep it for a bit longer. But you’re absolutely right, chances of it lasting very long are slim.
I grew up on a farm and we made butter from our own organic milk (using a butter churn). My mom would make the BEST pancakes using the whey left over from making the butter….or you refer to it as buttermilk. Her pancakes would rise so high and were delicious….this alone is a great reason for making homemade butter!
Holy &%@#, I just made butter!
I may never buy butter again. Ever. This was so incredibly easy too!
Thank you so much. I just got some farm fresh milk and I was told I could make my own butter but didnt know how. This tutorial is great. Just what I was looking for. Cant wait to give it a try.
I made homemade butter when I was in the 1st grade. My teacher had all 50 students sit in a circle and we each took turns shaking a jar of heavy whipped cream. Voila! We had butter and we enjoyed it on bread. I loved the experience so much that I asked my mom to buy whipped cream so that I could make it at home. I used my mom’s hand mixer and made another batch.
I visited this page because I want to show children, that I will be nannying for this summer, how to make homemade butter. I think it does teach patience too!
Thank you for the visual – it is GREAT!!!
Rose
I have my great grandmother’s butter churn (glass w/ wooden paddles) and headed to a family reunion this weekend. I’m going to use your recipe and follow your directions as an activity. Not only will be it a wonderful memory/reminder to the elders in the family and we’ll learn about life in the “old days”, we’ll each get to sample some good ole fashioned butter on homemade bread and enjoy the fruit of our labor!
Thank you so much for your EXCELLENT picture tutorial!! I loved all the beautiful pictures – and totally appreciated how you got shots of all the different phases of butter-making!
I used your tutorial when I made my own:
http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/2011/06/fresh-homemade-butter.html
Thank you!!
We have a dairy farm and are going to skim the milk off the top of the bulk tank to try this. My daughter is going to use the buttermilk in a scone recipe and use the butter to spread on them for a 4-H Project to take to the county fair. Looking for brownie points for creativity! Will let you know how they turn out.
I just purchased a pint of non-homoginized (sp?) heavy cream at a local store here in town to do exactly this….make butter for my mom!!! she has been searching and trying all different brands of butter to find one that reminds her of the butter she had when she was a kid. im hoping that this does the trick. i too have made butter before (shaking it in a jar) at school in home-ec, but now im going to try it with the hand mixer! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for posting a picture of every single stage. that will help me tremendously.
When I was “young” my mom and I over-whipped heavy cream. It was not whipped to the butter stage but passed the whipped cream stage. We didn’t have a lot of money and didn’t want to waste the cream (it tasted delicious!). We opened a large can of sliced peaches and mixed the entire can and it’s heavy syrup (back then there was no LT syrup or fruit juices) into the over-whipped cream, put into a glass pie plate and smoothed out the top, put a piece of waxed paper over it and placed it into the freezer. The was one of the most delicious desserts we ever ate! just let sit out for a couple of minutes and used a hot knife to slice into wedges.
I guess we made peach ice cream but with pure heavy cream. Heavenly………..
First off, thank you so much for this. I’ll be making it this week. Also, what happens if you just use Buttermilk? It has a lot more flavor than regular Heavy Cream. Is it not good to make butter out of? Very curious as I love Buttermilk and use it in many of my baking recipes.
So, I just made butter in 10 minutes, but it did not get to that lumpy looking state.
http://cookieloveseating.blogspot.com/2011/10/homemade-fresh-butter.html
Did I do something wrong? It sure didn’t taste wrong!!
Made my first butter today! Thanks for sharing. Your photographs are beautiful
Wow!
Makes me cry… memories of being a little boy helping my Mother make homemade butter!
Thanks…
Jerry
just made homemade butter for christmas dinner along with fresh cheesecake and cranberrry sauce all for the first time everything turned out great
my dad and I just made about 1/2 a pound of butter, and its delicious!..and we even had some buttermilk left over after making the butter! it tastes perfect!!!
This was so flipping easy!!! My family couldn’t taste the difference from store bought butter!!!! I will be making my own butter from now on!!! Thanks for all the work in posting the simplest directions ever and the step by step pictures were awesome.. I probably would have quit too soon without them!!! Can’t wait to start making specialty flavors for my family!!! I am sharing your website with all my friends!!
Thanks for the pictures. I got the receipe and directions from another website, but they weren’t clear. Your pictures are awesome, and did it right the 2nd time around. Made 17 tbsp pf butter today. I used an ice cube tray, each section is about 1 tsbp. So I don’t have to measure later. My husband loved it, and wants me to do it from now on. I don’t know a farmer or even live close to a farmer, so not sure how much or often I will do this. But it was totally cool.