I just made butter! Will my "system" work?

[BetsyPage]

Okay, first woo-hoo! I just made butter. I had a half-gallon of raw milk left over for last week- I let it sit out overnight and then skimmed as much of the cream off as I could this morning. Then I put it in a mason jar and shook it a few minutes and then all of the sudden the cream turned into butter! It was almost like "pop! Butter!"

So I stopped shaking it, transferred it to a dish and drained it. It's very fluffy and watery- if I had shook it longer would it have firmed up more?

I am thinking about a "system" to process my milk... whenever I have left over milk from the week before (I get a gallon a week), I'll skim off the cream and make butter... will this be OK to do even if it has started to turn a bit? Then I'd like to try my hand at some cheese-making with the leftover milk as described in another thread... the same thing, is it OK if the milk is older and slightly soured, or do I need "Fresh" milk for cheese? If it is soured a bit, what else could I do with the skimmed milk?

Thanks!

[tboroson]

You need to "wash" it. That'll help with the fluffy, watery aspect. It's full of little pockets of buttermilk right now. Squish it around with a spoon to squeeze out some buttermilk. Then run in cold water and squish it around some more, drain it, pour in more water and repeat until the water remains clear. Any remaining buttermilk would make it go rancid quickly.

[BetsyPage]

Ok, thanks, very helpful info!

[gardenmommy]

Can't help you with the cheese question. You can definitely use soured milk for butter. Of course, the more sour it is, the stronger the sour taste in your butter. But, it will contain lots of beneficial beasties! We often make a slightly sour cream butter, as we make butter only twice a week instead of everyday (which is what we could do, given the amount of cream in our cow's milk).

[BetsyPage]

So is the soured butter basically cultured butter then? It doesn't taste sour, but I've had the milk 1.5 weeks so it probably is a tad.

I just found a really helpful link, I think it's been posted before but I just found it again...
http://waltonfeed.com/old/butter.html

[BetsyPage]

Okay, I had forgotten this but now remember... I should get a pig or some chickens and give *them* my "skim" milk! (as described in this link... http://goldenrodfarm.tripod.com/BUTTER.HTM).

That makes total sense- was it in NT or elsewhere that it was pointed out *skim* milk is used to fatten up animals?

You know, I'm realizing that there really is no substitute for doing these things myself. I can read about it here and elsewhere until the cows' come home, but it doesn't click for me until I actually try it. This is fun.

[MamaTessa]

Unless you are using a cream separator, you will end up with about 2% milkfat when you skim the cream off the top of the milk. Not whole milk, but there is definitely still a lot of fat and nutrition in the milk.

[Gale Force]

I would definitely drink the skim milk unless you have an abundant source of raw milk that you can just use it for animals.

[luv my 2 sweeties]

Or you could use the skimmed milk (still not totally "skim" as MammaTessa pointed out) for baking/cooking...

As for the butter, keep shaking it a bit longer before you declare it "done" and wash it. (or put your cream in a food processor and let that do the work.) If you can get the butter more firm, it will last longer. Just washing the creamy-stage butter alone may not get enough of the buttermilk out.

I'm glad to hear it worked out for you! I've made butter from store-bought cream before, but I start getting my raw milk share this week and I was counting on being able to make butter from the cream I skim off myself. We'll drink the remaining milk normally. It will still have plenty of fat and other good things in it.

[AnnC]

Originally Posted by Gale Force

I would definitely drink the skim milk unless you have an abundant source of raw milk that you can just use it for animals.

I get plenty of raw milk from my cowshare, and if I want to skim the cream to make ice cream or something (he makes raw butter, so I just buy that from him), I will sour the skim milk and make whey out of it.

Ann

[BetsyPage]

I'm starting sourdough bread as outlined in Wild Fermentation, and he mentions using milk for some of the water so I can also try that.

Yeah- with the shaking thing I guess I will learn with time how long to shake- i thought I had read shaking too much is bad too?

[cobluegirl]

I use my blender to make butter....oh it has been such a long time since we have had any...yummy...I miss it.