How to make butter

In regards to: Raised bed Gardening

From: Kunoichi
“Make butter by putting some “half and half” milk in a jar, salt to taste, put the lid on and shake the jar “

I’ve never tried with half and half; I don’t think it would have enough fat in it to make butter.  Use whipping cream.  You can shake it in a jar (filled to a quarter or perhaps 1/3rd, but no more – it needs room to expand), use an electric mixer or even whip by hand.  

I’ve tried it with a food processor but don’t recommend it.  It’s really fast, but the butter ends up in such tiny granules, it’s hard to drain.



Skip the salt until the end.  While whipping or shaking the cream, you’ll of course get whipped cream; just keep on going.  After a while it’ll suddenly separate into solid fats and buttermilk.  

When it’s done (you’ll know when you see it) pour it into a cloth lined colander over a bowl – keep that liquid!  Gently squeeze out as much liquid as you can (if you can, pull up the ends of the cloth and hang it over the bowl to drain for a while, as if you were making cheese), then rinse the butter in cold water several times.  


Drain and squeeze as much water out as you can, then add salt to taste.  Knead or mix in the salt thoroughly while getting rid of any remaining liquid (a press is useful, but they’re not exactly common anymore).

Use the reserved buttermilk for baking.  Awesome flavour!

** Thanks so much Kunoichi! I appreciate so much your info, and quick response!

I thought Dale must have known what he was talking about, to an extent, and not knocking him in the least, but people tend to forget or leave out things, and this is one reason I asked? A let me ask and be sure question, and sure enough you stepped up and gave some good quality advice. Sounds like you might have done this a time or two! This is very, very appreciated by us, and I’m sure everyone else as well! We’ll be trying this!

Thank you so much for dropping in to see us number one, and please feel free to come back and “shed some light” anytime!

Dub and Deb

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2 Responses to How to make butter

  1. Kunoichi says:

    Glad to be of help! Yes, I’ve done it a few times. The first time was when I was a kid, using cream from our own cows and a butter churn my dad had built for my mother! *L* My mother hadn’t used it in years (back then, our little hamlet actually had a local creamery, long since closed, that we sold our cream to. Sometimes we took payment in butter. :-D ). One of my siblings noticed the churn stored away and asked about it. Before we knew it, we were making butter. I was so young, when I got my turn at the churn, I could barely manage it. A very fond memory. I didn’t have a churn to show my own kids, but I did want to share the memory with them. Unfortunately, it’s a lot more expensive when you don’t have your own cream, so we don’t do it very often.

    • admin says:

      Kunoichi! Thanks for coming!

      Oh, you don’t know how much we appreciated you sending in the info on whipping cream, and how to make butter from it! That was great, thanks so much!

      Sounds like you had an interesting childhood, and we’d love to hear some of your stories and memories from then! You don’t know how often Deb and I sit back, talk, and long for “the good ole days!” They weren’t easy mind you, and I’m sure you’re in agreement, but times were truly more enjoyable it seems. Family units were exactly that…family!

      In regards to the cost today of making butter from cream, you’re so right about cost being prohibitive, unless you had your own, but what a great “show the kids,” teaching tool.

      Please come and visit with us again!

      Dub and Deb

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