How to make raw milk butter

How to make raw milk butter. The super simple and easy process of making fresh butter out of raw milk cream in my kitchen aid.

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I could give you a list of 100 reasons why I love having a milk cow.

The main one being that I just love Charlotte, she’s basically my therapy animal.

But homemade butter is pretty high on that list.

It never ceases to amaze me. I can go out to my cow, she gives me all this glorious liquid gold, and I can come in and turn it into all sorts of dairy product that we would otherwise have to buy. The cycle of giving on a farm is a wonderful thing.

How to make raw milk butter

All you need for this is:

• Raw cream
• A kitchen aid mixer or blender (or you can get a workout in and just use a mason jar that you’ll shake;))
• Cold water
• Salt

One of the cool things about making butter is there is no measuring required. You just use however much cream you have available and it just makes some butter!

After you milk you just need to let the milk sit in the refrigerator for awhile so all the cream rises to the top. Then I take a small measuring cup or a ladle and start scooping the thick, golden, creamy goodness out of the jar. You can see once you are down to the milk, the color and texture is much different. Cream is thick with a yellow tint, while the milk is much more watery and off white color. Charlotte is still calf sharing so she holds back a lot of cream for her baby, but I still manage to get some for coffee and butter. I scoop it all out into my kitchen aid bowl.

There is much debate over if it’s better to use cold cream or room temperature cream. No one can seem to agree. I always use cold cream, I feel like it’ll make it all pull together sooner since cooler temperatures make butter harden. That’s what has worked for me.

Now is when you get a good workout if you’re using a mason jar and shaking it! Be prepared for some burning arms! My kitchen aid has always worked so well for me that I’ve never tried anything else. Turn it on medium or medium high speed and leave it be for awhile. It usually takes about 10 minutes for mine to turn into butter, sometimes up to 15 minutes. I have heard that using a blender is a lot faster, but 10 minutes isn’t bad and I just work on stuff around the kitchen while it runs.

I like to put a cloth over the top to prevent splashing. This can be quite a messy process as it goes through its different stages. Using a towel keeps me from having to wipe down all the walls, cabinets and appliances nearby. I just have to clean the kitchen aid itself and throw the towel in the laundry.

I just leave it on and check it here and there. It’ll turn into whipped cream, then chunky cream, then suddenly….it’s butter.

Magic!

It all clumps together in a ball of yellow goodness and leaves all the buttermilk behind.

I like to save the buttermilk to use later, so don’t throw it out!

Then I salt it. I kind of eyeball this. Do it to your own taste. For this size of butter clump I use about 1/2 tsp of salt. Sprinkle it on top and then work on massaging it in.

You can either wrap it in parchment paper or plastic wrap. I like parchment paper a lot better for sure, but I used plastic wrap a couple times this year when I was out of the paper. Or if you’re making small batches and eating it as you make it, just store it in a glass tupperware. I’m trying to make extra this summer while the butter is super rich and yellow from all the fresh grass so we can eat it through the winter. Butter is still just fine during the winter but it can end up being more white in color if they are only on dried hay.

Now I pour the buttermilk into a jar and put it in the refrigerator. But if you would like it to culture you can leave to on the counter for 24 hours. The next morning it should be nice and thick. Either way you can use it in any of your baking, pancakes, etc! I love using this to ferment my pancakes overnight before frying them up in the morning.

Now go make some butter!

And beannachdan (blessings)!

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