I just got finished making butter and thought I'd share a little trick we use at our house. And no, I did not take my own photos because I never take photos until the event/procedure is over, due to a recurring memory disorder I apparently suffer from. And let's face it: final results of butter look like, well, butter. Nothing unique to see there. Back to the subject at hand. You all probably know that we have a cow, and that we milk said cow, thereby giving ourselves lots of milk and cream to use and a killer morning schedule. There is only so much one can do with fresh cream, so we use quite a large percentage of ours to make butter. Making butter is pretty basic - whip it up in the blender
or stand mixer until the butterfat separates from the buttermilk, then press the rest of the buttermilk out by hand. You are left with beautiful, yellow butter, which is delicious. But, it tends to spoil quickly left at room temperature (because I can never get all of the buttermilk out and that little bit of buttermilk left in it goes sour), and it is impossible to spread if you keep it in the fridge. So we have devised a clever solution. After I have churned and pressed the butter, I whip it up with the hand mixer, adding salt to taste and a bit of olive oil. I would guess I use about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of olive oil per pound of butter. When that is all whipped together, then I can store it in the fridge and still spread it on bread, etc., without committing
Wonderacide (the act of slaughtering a piece of bread by attempting to spread it with cold butter.) This has worked quite nicely for us. The little taste of olive oil is not unpleasant at all, if you notice it (which I don't), and it still is one of the healthiest spreads you can find, as opposed to those nasty "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter"-type spreads. (
Megan Mullally, you should be ashamed of yourself.) This trick would work just as well with store-bought butter, in case you happen to not have a cow. Just warm the butter to room temp, whip in some olive oil, then repackage in whatever nifty plastic containers you have on hand. Enjoy.
I just got finished making butter and thought I'd share a little trick we use at our house. And no, I did not take my own photos because I never take photos until the event/procedure is over, due to a recurring memory disorder I apparently suffer from. And let's face it: final results of butter look like, well, butter. Nothing unique to see there. Back to the subject at hand. You all probably know that we have a cow, and that we milk said cow, thereby giving ourselves lots of milk and cream to use and a killer morning schedule. There is only so much one can do with fresh cream, so we use quite a large percentage of ours to make butter. Making butter is pretty basic - whip it up in the blender 
or stand mixer until the butterfat separates from the buttermilk, then press the rest of the buttermilk out by hand. You are left with beautiful, yellow butter, which is delicious. But, it tends to spoil quickly left at room temperature (because I can never get all of the buttermilk out and that little bit of buttermilk left in it goes sour), and it is impossible to spread if you keep it in the fridge. So we have devised a clever solution. After I have churned and pressed the butter, I whip it up with the hand mixer, adding salt to taste and a bit of olive oil. I would guess I use about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of olive oil per pound of butter. When that is all whipped together, then I can store it in the fridge and still spread it on bread, etc., without committing Wonderacide (the act of slaughtering a piece of bread by attempting to spread it with cold butter.) This has worked quite nicely for us. The little taste of olive oil is not unpleasant at all, if you notice it (which I don't), and it still is one of the healthiest spreads you can find, as opposed to those nasty "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter"-type spreads. (Megan Mullally, you should be ashamed of yourself.) This trick would work just as well with store-bought butter, in case you happen to not have a cow. Just warm the butter to room temp, whip in some olive oil, then repackage in whatever nifty plastic containers you have on hand. Enjoy.
sounds great! in the winter i can keep my store bought butter on the counter to stay soft, but in the summer it becomes a yellow pool too quickly so i may have to try that trick. thanks
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome! Thanks for the tips - wish I had a cow to milk - hmmm, maybe not! The morning schedule might just kill me!
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