Hand-Churned Butter

Who doesn’t love butter!? I love to eat it every which way… salted, unsalted, seasoned, herbed, spiced, domestic, fancy, European… I’m all for it! The only thing that’s better than a thick coating of butter on fresh bread is HOMEMADE BUTTER on fresh bread!

You’re probably like me and rarely think about what actually goes into making that stick of butter that you buy at the grocery store. The history of making butter goes back to ancient times, but the basic process remains the same to this day. You take cream that separates from fresh whole milk and beat or churn the cream until it thickens and the buttermilk separates leaving you with butter.

If you want to read more about the history of butter you can check out this book from your local library or buy it by clicking on the image below:

I’ve seen homemade butter being made several times throughout my life. When I was a boy I watching seeing fresh butter being churned at a local museum. Later on I produced a successful video showing how to churn homemade butter in a Mason jar for my friend Sweet Paul.  You can watch that video HERE.  When I was recently researching a project I came across the Kilner Butter Churn and I just KNEW I needed to have one. I had no idea that there are several inexpensive butter churns available on the market today. Maybe it’s the rising popularity of homesteading, or maybe people… like me… just want to EAT ALL THE BUTTER.

Check out all the cool butter churns on Amazon HERE. This is the Kilner Butter Churn that I used to make my butter… click the photo to get more info or purchase:

It was really easy to make my homemade butter. You can follow the manufacturer’s instructions to make it, but the process in my Kilner churn is super-basic. You pour in 10 ounces of room-temperature heavy cream. Then you turn the crank for about 10-15 minutes. First the cream turns foamy, then it changes to a liquidy whipped cream, then… when it seems like it’s not working… it  turns thick and the crank gets harder to turn.  You keep going beyond this point and then MAGIC HAPPENS. The crank suddenly gets easy to turn and the buttermilk separates from the butter.  You then take your butter and rinse and knead it a tiny bit in cold water and then you’re set to go!

Watch my VIDEO here:

You can store homemade butter in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks. But I don’t understand how anyone would be able to make it last that long because it’s SO GOOD that you’re going to want to eat it all in one sitting. Churning butter is 10% kid-friendly… next time you have a family gathering or even just a weeknight dinner, pour some cream into your churn and have the kids crank their way to BUTTER nirvana!