How to make Butter - Homemade Butter

Making butter - How to store butter

Here are step by step instructions to how to make butter?

Why should you make homemade butter when there is available plenty in the market? What is butter made with? How do you make butter?

Here are the answers to these questions.

What is butter made with?

Butter is made with cream collected from milk. This cream can be collected from cow's milk or a buffalo's milk.

Difference in butter made from cow's milk and buffalo's milk.

Cream and butter made from a water buffalo's milk is whiter compared to the cream and butter from cow's milk.
Buffalo milk contains more fat so you can get more cream and butter per litre milk compared to cow's milk.

You can buy fresh cream or you can collect cream from the milk you get everyday at home. If the milk is homogenized, you can not separate the cream from the milk. (Homogenization is a process that makes a mixture the same throughout the entire substance.)

If you are in India, or a place where unhomogenized milk is supplied everyday by the milkman at your door, or in sachets at the milk vendor, you can collect cream everyday.

Of course you can use that cream in many different ways, to make sweets, to apply on the skin to make it soft, in your soups etc. But if you have a lot of cream, you can make it into butter.

How to get cream from milk?

Heat milk. Cool to room temperature. The fat in the milk will collect at the top in the form of cream as the milk cools.
You can keep the milk in the fridge and get a thicker layer of cream on the top and faster too. Remove the top creamy layer and store in a jar in the freezer compartment.
Do that everyday till the jar is full. You can also store it in the fridge itself if you get enough cream to make butter and you plan to make butter within 2-3 days.

How to make butter at home?

If you have some unused fresh cream or if you found and bought at the supermarket, going very cheap, you can make butter at home.

You can use a blender, food processor, a hand held blender, a manual churner or even a large bottle with a tight lid to make butter from cream.

Using an electric device saves your energy and time too. With the large bottle with the lid, you need to spend more time and energy.

Making butter at home - Homemade Butter

On the day you want to make butter, remove the jar from the freezer and bring it to room temperature. Let it happen naturally (Do not heat it). So you may need to remove the jar from the freezer a few hours in advance.
If you live in a cold place, you may need to remove cream from the fridge at night and make butter the next morning. If you live in a hot place, a couple of hours is enough to bring the cream to room temperature.
When the cream is at room temperature, place in the food processor or a blender. Run it for a few seconds.
Stop and run again. You may see the butter collecting at the top. If not, run the blender some more.
When you see the butter floating at the top, stop and add a little water.
Run the blender for a few seconds. When you stop, you will find the butter collected and floating at the top.
Remove the butter carefully with a big spoon into a bowl of cold water.
If necessary, run the blender again for a few seconds to collect the butter.
The remaining liquid is buttermilk.
Wash the butter in cold water and pour out the water (you can mix this water with the buttermilk to make it thinner). Repeat till the water is clear.
If the white liquid remains in butter, it can turn bad faster. The properly cleaned butter can remain good at the room temperature too for a few days. It will keep for quite a long time in the fridge.
Press out the water from the soft butter with a spoon or with your fingers.

Now you know how to make Butter. Wasn't that easy and simple?

Tips about storing homemade butter:

Butter can be stored in the fridge for about 2-3 weeks. After that it may change taste.
Butter can be stored in the freezer for as long as you want. So it is better to keep a small amount of butter in the fridge and larger amount in the freezer. As the butter in the fridge gets over, you can take out some more from the freezer.
You can add salt/ garlic paste or herbs to the butter if you wish or store it plain in the fridge.
You can also shape the butter by putting it to the rectangle dish or a round dish. When you put the dish in the fridge, the butter will be hard and will be in the shape of the dish you put in.
If you do not wish to keep it in the butter form, you can make it into ghee (clarified butter) which can be stored for months.

Go to How to make clarified butter or How to make ghee.