Butter Making at Home

MAKING BUTTER STEP 1: SKIM, THEN CULTURE CREAM

Start by pouring one gallon of milk (fresh from the cow) into a clean container. Chill the milk quickly and keep it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. Then skim the cream off the top of the fluid with a spoon. When you begin to see watery skim milk in the spoon, stop skimming.

Next pour the cream into a jar, cap the container tightly, and let it sit on the kitchen drainboard for approximately 12 hours (or until the cream is about 75 degrees Fahrenheit and smells slightly sour). This is called ripening or culturing, which is developing the acid content of the cream. (Only cultured cream will produce butter with a good "butter flavor".) Experience will teach you when your cream smells too sour or too ripe, and when it's just perfect. I usually set the cream on the drainboard after breakfast and make butter after supper the same day.

MAKING BUTTER STEP 2: WHIP CREAM

For this step, it's imperative that you use a jar which is only 1/3 full. (If you need to pour your cream into a larger container at this point, do so.) The "empty" two-thirds of the jar allows the cream to expand as you shake it ... and also allows the thick fluid to splash against the walls of the container more violently when the jar is shaken. (This splashing