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| Shake 'n make your own butter |
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| Written by Carolyn Goodwin |
| Friday, 11 September 2009 16:28 |
 My quest began as a search for butter made out of cream from pasture-raised local cows, because of its health benefits and fresh taste. There was nothing like that on store shelves, or at the Farmers Market. I knew that butter started out as cream. And that Town & Country Market on Bainbridge carried Fresh Breeze Heavy Whipping Cream. Fresh Breeze Organic Dairy in Lynden, Washington (near Bellingham) was recently rated among the Top 10 organic dairies in the country by the Cornucopia Institute, based on their organic farming practices and ethics, receiving 1195 poi  nts out of a possible 1200. Some of the large national producers didn’t fare nearly so well – Horizon Organic got 0 points. Yes, zero. You can read the whole survey here. Fresh Breeze milk products are small batch-pasteurized, a process that leaves more of the good proteins and flavor than higher temperature constant-flow processes used by most commercial dairies. I’m not sure if ultra-pasteurized cream would ever make the leap to butter.So I bought a pint of Fresh Breeze whipping cream. Then I went online to find out what I needed to do to complete the transformation. Less than an hour later I had butter. First I let the cream sit out on the counter until it was at room temperature. This dramatically reduces the amount of shaking required. You can use cold crea  m and a food processor, but it seems so much more authentic to shake it by hand. I used a metal-hinged canning jar as my shaker, but any quart jar with a tight lid will do (for a pint of cream). Just make sure it’s very clean. Pour in the cream and let it come to room temp. If you have more time you can add a tablespoon of yogurt and let it sit out 24-36 hours to culture, giving the finished product an even richer taste and additional health benefits. Then, making sure the lid is firmly closed, start shaking. You’ll see and hear the cream go through changes. At first it will be a soft swooshy sound. Then things will quiet down as it goes through the whipped cream stage. You may think nothing is happening. Keep shaking – back and forth, up and down, vary it up a bit as you go to keep things moving. After about 5 minutes, you’ll hear noise again. And you’ll see things starting to break up inside the jar. “Shooka-shooka” is the sound you want. Keep shaking. Soon you’ll see a white watery liquid sloshing around. Open the jar and look inside. Floating in all th  at liquid you’ll see a big lumpy yellow blob. Butter!Drain the liquid – that’s the buttermilk – out, and replace it with icy cold water. Shake, drain, and repeat a few times until the water comes out clear. The goal is to rinse out all of the buttermilk, which can make your precious butter spoil faster. Take the butter blob out of the jar, and roll it around in a paper towel to soak up the rest of the moisture. Try to keep it as cold as possible during the process. You can mix in a little salt now if you wish. Put the finished butter into a ceramic butter keeper, or mold it into a typical bar shape. I found some cute little mini-loaf tins at The Berry Patch kitchen shop on Bainbridge that work just fine as butter molds – the unmolded butter will fit into a standard butter dish. Your butter will stay fresh for a week or so in the fridge -- maybe not quite as long as store-bought. It's so good that probably won't be an issue. Make a little less next time if you don't use it all -- it's easy to a djust the quantity by just reducing the amount of cream you pour in the jar. Before you put the butter back in the fridge, scoop out a bit and spread it on something. Just about anything will do. Bread of cours e. Radishes are fabulous dipped in salt and butter. Or you can eat your fresh butter directly off a spoon. Go ahead, you deserve it. Tell people that you make you own butter and they will be amazed. You don’t need to tell them how easy it is. |
