Trying For Butter… Getting Whipped Cream!
One of the things I was so excited about after getting my hands on some raw milk was making my own butter. I remember the first time Ms. Adelia showed me how to make butter by shaking cream in a mason jar until it slowly turned into solid yellow chunks. I even shared with you a tutorial on how I made my own butter at home!
So, the other day when I decided I was going to learn to make buttermilk biscuits, I went to work collecting the cream from my milk to turn into butter and buttermilk. I did everything as I had before… I scooped the cream off the top of the milk and poured it into a separate jar. I screwed the lid on tight and went to work shaking.
I shook. And I shook. And I shook!
I swear I shook that jar off and on for hours! What in the world is the matter with this cream? I couldn’t figure it out. Jada and I even made a game of rolling it back and forth across the floor to each other. After all of that shaking the cream had turned thick and frothy, but still wasn’t turning to butter! I finally gave up and put it back into the fridge.
The next day I got that jar out again, determined to make butter. I shook that thing off and on all day long, with no change in texture, only a frothy white cream.
Was the cream from this breed of cow not good for making butter? Yes, I honestly wondered that.
Later that night I was talking to a friend and I explained to her that I could not get my cream to turn to butter! I asked her if she knew any reason why this would be. She simply asked, “Was your cream cold?” I said, “Yeah.” She laughed and said, “That’s why! Your cream has to be room temperature to turn to butter.” I said, “Ohhhhh!! Yeah, what I have here looks like whipped cream!” She laughed more and said, “It is whipped cream! Add some sugar to it and get yourself some strawberries!”
So, needless to say, I didn’t get my butter. But at least I learned how to make whipped cream!
By the way, I did add some sugar to it and had a little taste. My opinion… yuck! At first it tasted sweet, but the aftertaste was more like mozzarella cheese! Who knows, maybe it was turning to cheese after all that!!
So now I’m experimenting. I’m leaving the whipped cream out overnight to warm to room temperature. Tomorrow I’m gonna try shaking it again. I’m wondering if it will still turn to butter. Or will it be yogurt in the morning?? Cottage cheese perhaps?? Oh, who knows! Guess we’ll find out!
The next morning…
Well, whattayaknow! 15 minutes of shaking and it DID turn to butter!! Cool! It does, however, still have that weird cheesy flavor. I’ll try baking with it and see if you can still taste it in the biscuits. Experimenting is so cool.
LOL Kendra, you’re cracking me up!!
I had the same experience making butter. I leave it out for a night and then churn it up in the morning. Making your own dairy products is a trial and error process. I have had to give lots of concoctions to the pigs. Oh well it is still in the food cycle. Yogurt is really easy to do. You should try that next.
Haha let us know! I don’t know about the whipped cream taste. I always whip mine in my electric mixer and it’s great, maybe it depends on the sweetener?
You probably had too much in the jar – or you just didn’t shake long enough. Whipping cream is the stage right before butter. I have accidentally made butter before while trying for whipped cream!
I’m just so used to store bought milk that I think it would take a while for me to get used to raw milk. I’ve had it a few times and I swear it tastes like it was mixed with a beef jerky stick. I made mozzarella with raw milk and it tasted great. I haven’t done butter yet, but I will have to give it a shot.
Joel-
The taste of the milk depends on what the cows have been eating. The very first time I tried my friend Addy’s milk it tasted really salty to me. I thought that was just normal, and decided that I did not like raw cow’s milk! But then I tried another friend’s cows milk and I was pleasantly surprised! It tasted just like store bought whole milk to me! So, maybe you can find another cow to try milk from
I will thanks. I’ll also ask the farmer why he feeds his cows beef jerky.
if you leave it out overnight at room temp. wouldent it go sour?
If it is not a philosophical requirement to make this manually, try making your butter in a food processor instead. As someone mentioned, you get whipped cream right before you get butter. I doubt the problem was it being cold if you were shaking it all day, using a machine it warms up from friction anyway. I think you can also make it in a blender or mixer, you might want to google that.
We had a cow I milked a while. I never got enough cream to have enough left to use to make butter and we had a Jersey which is supposed to give a higher cream milk. Buying it from a dairy, you might get more or even be able to buy just the cream. We did not prefer to drink skimmed milk, so had to use some of that cream in the milk as well.
Hey Kendra…
Check out this site. I have never successfully made butter in a jar, but I do know from watching some ladies (many years ago) they added a wooden disk into the jar. I have always made butter with my mixer, but this site shows how to do it with a food processor, which I may try next time.
http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/doityourself.html
Hope you do better on your next try.
Joel- LOL!! Funny
sandra-
not fresh milk. store bought would go bad, but fresh milk just takes on some other form… still edible!
Lerin-
So, I updated my post… it DID turn to butter!!! Ha!
Kara-
I tried pouring out half of the cream and shook more. Still nothing. Once I let it sit to room temp it did turn to butter! So, I think it was too cold to begin with
I’ve noticed that sometimes raw milk will have a different flavor to it even though the source is the same. May have to do with what is going on in their grass feed, etc. Not sure, but seems like I read this someplace.
This was a great post – very educational. I’ll certainly remember to make butter keep it room temp!
When we do butter by the shaking method we add either a metal washer or a marble (both cleaned and sterilized of course) and it turns much faster and by using the blender you want to use the blend, or at least that’s how I’ve always done it. My kids don’t like homemade butter though, they say it doesn’t taste like butter and its too white! LOL
If you do it in the blended it’ll work cold. Maybe just by shaking it won’t. Anyways, raw butter will take getting used to. It doesn’t taste like store butter THANKFULLY.
It actually HAS flavor. Love it. Embrace it. Cherish it. It’s real butter.
so?? Did you bake with it? Did it taste good? This post is seeming like a homestead soap opera…lol.
Jessica- LOL! Yes, I did bake with it. This was my third or fourth attempt at trying my hand at making biscuits. And guess what, they came out the BEST EVER! I was SO pleased! I used the butter and the buttermilk that I’d made and the biscuits were fantastic.
Whipped cream is what you have just before it turns into butter. I’ve used cream right out of the frig, and it turned into butter fine. I use a mixer though. Cow’s milk takes about 20 minutes; my goat’s milk is much faster, but that could be because it’s Nigerian milk, which has more milk solids than cows or big goats. The reason your whipped cream tastes like cheese is because it had started to culture and turn into cheese. If you had it out of the frig for a long time, that’s what happens to it. Whipped cream should be delicious and sweet — better than store bought.
And if you want buttermilk, you don’t have to make butter first. In fact, what is left over after making butter does not even remotely resemble what we think of as buttermilk. You can buy a buttermilk culture from one of the cheesemaking supply places. Makes delicious buttermilk biscuits and pancakes, and you can keep reculturing it over and over again like yogurt.
Oh, Kendra, this is why I love your blog–you experiment and make silly mistakes just I do! Your descriptions always make me laugh.
I’m a little late posting here, but I’m just now catching up with my blog reader. I wanted to share with you that I’ve just recently started making my own buttermilk, and you can also make it from a starter culture like Deborah said. The nice thing, though, is that you don’t need to buy an official culture from the store. All you do is add maybe 1/2 cup of buttermilk to a quarter jar, fill the jar with good-quality milk, screw on the lid, shake, and leave the jar in a warm place for about 24 hours. (I put mine on top of the fridge.) I’ve only made a few batches so I’m not sure how this will work long-term, but I’ve used the leftover from my previous batches to start the next batch, so I haven’t bought buttermilk at the store in weeks! Anyway, I just wanted to share that in case in helps. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us! 
I have made butter for years with cold cream. I made it and sold it to customers in KS, had no problems getting it to churn. Last year, I made about 60lbs of butter in a commercial sized mixer, cold cream. I ran out and boarded my cows over while I relocated. I ran out of my butter stash and got some raw milk from some of my plain friends. I was mortified that I couldn’t get the cream to turn. I rarely had this experience before. I was so appalled because I was desperate for good butter having run out. After tossing out the frothy stuff three times in a row ( I used some of it for whipped cream), I decided to let it sit out for the day and viola it turned into butter. Again, I never had this problem before.
If you let your cream sour it makes the best, I mean best tasting butter. Don’t be afraid of lightly soured milk or cream. It is very healthy for you if it is not sour because of bad bacteria. Old timers drank clabbered milk often. It was easier to digest. I often had customers in their 80′s who would buy fresh milk to let it sour and drink it as clabbered. Europeans use sour cream butter all the time and admonish American’s for our reliance on sweet cream butter.
The key to good butter is wash, wash and more washing. It doesn’t turn rancid as quickly. Enjoy your journey, it is rewarding for sure. I too was a city girl, gone country. We are enjoying our life immensely.
Blessings,
Christina
Kendra,
The first time I made butter, the same cheese taste/smell happened, only for mine it was parmesan, lol! I did some research and realized I did not was the butter solids well enough. You have to be sure to get all the buttermilk out of the butter. I dump mine in a bowl and pour cold water into it and mix it around with a spatula, then dump it off. I repeat the process until the water runs back out clear. No more cheesy butter! The better you wash it the longer the butter keeps! BTW, I’m a brand new follower and I LOVE YOUR BLOG!
Natalie
Okay this butter thing is new for me but I have made it before using heavy whipping cream…I’m using cream off my goats milk and for some reason I can not get it to turn into butter…any ideas
Jeff,
Is the cream cold? I’ve found that if I leave it to room temp it turns much more quickly.
Thank you or this post! I am in the middle of using my Stand mixer and all I have is froth. I took the milk straight from the fridge and poured off the cream, so I’m letting it sit a bit now then I’ll try again. I’m so glad you had problems too so I could learn what I’m doing wrong! lol
Thanks for this. I was having the same problem and couldn’t figure it out, so I searched on the Internet and it led me here. I put the cream in the microwave for a few seconds, and after 30 more seconds with the whisk, I had butter!
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