Like Buttah!

Butter dish from worldvintage.



I love butter. (Um, who doesn't?) And there are some fabulous brands on the market. Homemade butter is a personal favorite, with it's softer flavor and texture. A lower melting point and extra creaminess? Yes, please!

Did you know you can easily make butter at home? Here's how:*

 Pour heavy cream (preferably organic) into a bowl, cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let ripen on the counter for 6+ hours.

 Use a metal whisk and whisk by hand, past the whipped cream stage. No need to aerate, just stir rapidly.

 The butterfat will begin to clump, leaving buttermilk behind.

 Strain through cheesecloth and a strainer; buttermilk will drain through into a bowl below.

 Pick up butter within the cheesecloth and squeeze out any excess buttermilk.

 Rinse under cool water, let drain.

 Clean (or switch) bowl, remove butter from cheesecloth. At this point, you can add salt for salted butter, or a mix of herbs for a compound butter.

 Transfer to wax paper, form into a log and roll up.

 Allow to chill in the fridge. 4 cups of heavy cream will yield nearly 1 lb. of butter, plus about 1- 1/2 cups of buttermilk.

With this batch of leftover buttermilk, I marinated chicken for frying. A buttermilk cake recipe was tempting, as were biscuts.

How will you enjoy your homemade butter?
What will you do with the leftover buttermilk?

*This post was written for my new column on the Vintage Market Team blog (and will post there tomorrow), but everyone loves butter so it's posting here too.