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I personally prefer to make my own butter. It is very easy. It is a little more time consuming because of getting out the buttermilk and washing the butter but it sure is good. I put a pint or so of cream in my food processor and turn it on. It will first turn to whipped cream. Just let it continue to run. After a few minutes you will notice that the sound changes and you will see the buttermilk separating from the butter solids. You can put it in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and press out the buttermilk but I just use a bowl and the back of a spoon and mash it on itself to press it out(I put the buttermilk in a cup as I go). Or you can use butter muslin and squeeze out the buttermilk. Then I add cold water and wash the butter by pressing the butter into the water. After it is cleaned and the water pressed out mix in a little salt if desired. It sounds like a lot of work but really it isn't. You wash the butter because the buttermilk can cause the butter to sour and mold. If I am going to use it quickly I don't bother to wash it. After removing most of the buttermilk you can also just clarify it and strain of the solids. Also the buttermilk is not the sour, thick, cultured kind you get in the store. I like to drink that as soon as I make it.
Sounds cool Phawk57. I will have to look into making butter some more b/c I try it, but I would like to in the future. It sounds fun, and I bet it is tastier. I had some "real" butter at a European style restaurant before. It was the best I've ever tasted!!!
I personally prefer to make my own butter. It is very easy. It is a little more time consuming because of getting out the buttermilk and washing the butter but it sure is good. I put a pint or so of cream in my food processor and turn it on. It will first turn to whipped cream. Just let it continue to run. After a few minutes you will notice that the sound changes and you will see the buttermilk separating from the butter solids. You can put it in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and press out the buttermilk but I just use a bowl and the back of a spoon and mash it on itself to press it out(I put the buttermilk in a cup as I go). Or you can use butter muslin and squeeze out the buttermilk. Then I add cold water and wash the butter by pressing the butter into the water. After it is cleaned and the water pressed out mix in a little salt if desired. It sounds like a lot of work but really it isn't. You wash the butter because the buttermilk can cause the butter to sour and mold. If I am going to use it quickly I don't bother to wash it. After removing most of the buttermilk you can also just clarify it and strain of the solids. Also the buttermilk is not the sour, thick, cultured kind you get in the store. I like to drink that as soon as I make it.
I did that once just to see if I could do it. I didn't think it tasted any better than butter I buy, and it's just too much trouble for me and not cheaper, either. These days I buy my butter at ALDI for $2.39 a pound and it tastes as good as the "fancy" European style I used to pay more than twice that for!
I did that once just to see if I could do it. I didn't think it tasted any better than butter I buy, and it's just too much trouble for me and not cheaper, either.
You are most certainly entitled to your opinion but I don't agree with it. I don't have an aldi's anywhere near here and most of the stores here sell butter for over $4 a pound. I definitely love the sweet cream buttermilk I get as a result and you can't buy that.
You are most certainly entitled to your opinion but I don't agree with it. I don't have an aldi's anywhere near here and most of the stores here sell butter for over $4 a pound. I definitely love the sweet cream buttermilk I get as a result and you can't buy that.
Homemade butter is to bought butter what store-bought cookies are to homemade cookies. Store bought butter tastes like butter. Butter is butter.
You are most certainly entitled to your opinion but I don't agree with it. I don't have an aldi's anywhere near here and most of the stores here sell butter for over $4 a pound. I definitely love the sweet cream buttermilk I get as a result and you can't buy that.
That's fine. I tried it, and not worth my time. I don't blame you for making your own if you can't find it cheaper and like it more. The one I buy is a lot cheaper than me buying cream and spending time to make it. I do make my own bread, however!
Butter retains its ideal spreadability through a very narrow range of temperatures. At 80 it will lose it's shape and get runny, and at 60 it will be too hard to spread. So there might be, as the seasons change, a difference of a few degrees in the temperature of your kitchen, which you did not notice, but your butter did.
I notice the same effect in chocolate bars, which can get too melty or rather hard, with a very slight temperature change. Check and see if you accidentaly bought unsalted butter, which might make a difference.
I use the cheapest generic brand (butter is butter, it's a commodity), and mine always acts the same.
Last edited by jtur88; 02-24-2011 at 12:54 PM..
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