? Raw Milk/Butter/Cream

[chantald]

Hello
We drink raw milk from a local farm (we are lactose intolerant but have no problem with raw dairy).. I have been ordering raw butter from another source that is very costly..

I have been skimming the cream off our raw milk and freezing it.. in the hopes to someday get enough to try and make some butter.. I'll never get enough to make our own butter to "keep us in butter".. but then I got thinking.. does freezing the raw cream kill what is in it that helps us digest it? We cannot tolerate store bought milk etc.. we are very lactose intolerant to it.. but have NO problems with raw dairy..

Does freezing the cream make it less likely we can digest it? I can order raw heavy cream by the quart but not ever week..so I could freeze that too.. it's more than I manage to collect from the milk we get.. Along the same lines.. would freezing the raw milk to have on hand when we run out (before the next milk collection day) also make it indigestible to us?

Or do I attempt "regular" butter from the store.. it's all super processed,right?

and I've never made my own butter.. I've no special tools or anything..

Thanks

[Momma2DoubleCuties]

I don't know about freezing and ruining the cream but I do know you don't need any special tools to make butter. A mason jar with a lid and muscles in your arms. And salt if you like salted butter. Take the cream and bring it to room temp put it in the jar and start shaking. You'll also get buttermilk off of this for pancakes or other yummy recipes. Really really easy. To get the exact directions just google making your own butter and I'm sure you'll find a slew of recipes that are super easy to do! Good luck!

[htcamommy]

http://www.organicpastures.com/faq.html
honey butter is the easiest thing in the world to make. I make mine in my standing mixer. I put the standing mixer bowl and beaters in the freezer for an hour before starting. I pour in the cream, listen for when it starts making a sloshing sound telling me that the butter has seperated from the butter milk, pour out the buttermilk, rinse the butter in water, squish out the water with two cold metal spoons (you could mix in salt after this step), wrap it in wax paper, throw it in the fridge. The mason jar/marble way is just to pour it in a mason jar with a marble in it and shake shake shake until the same events occur as above. You could also use a hand held mixer. Just make sure that whatever you do it in is as cold as possible as it cuts your working time quite a bit. Also I think a quart of cream gets me about 1/2lb butter ( I think I'm remembering that right its been along time since I measured). How much butter do you use?

[chantald]

We don't use that much butter on a daily basis unless I am baking..but I get hardly any cream off the milk we get...

[Italiamom]

Chantald, you might have better luck posting this in the allergies forum. Those ladies are amazingly well versed, and many have experience with trial and error scenarios that would help you identify whether using previously frozen (albeit raw) cream would work for your family.

And no, no special tools are needed. When I occasionally make butter, I do it in my food processor. It's extremely easy (just google "how to make butter"). And nothing is better than fresh butter on fresh buttermilk biscuits :-)