I have a quart of cream...

[transformed]

I am thinking I'll make butter with it.

Something EASY.

How do you make butter?

I'm a beginner.

[Mere]

Caveat - I haven't actually tried this. However, someone in our raw milk co-op said she just puts her cream in a jar, gets it to room temperature, and shakes it a lot. It sounded really, really easy...I just keep using all of our cream for other things and I haven't gotten to try it yet!

[spughy]

No, it's actually way easier than that.

Got a stand mixer? Or a hand mixer? Good. Put the cream in a (metal) bowl, and go to it with the mixer. First it'll turn into whipped cream (mmmm) then it'll be sort of grainy whipped cream, then it'll be butter and buttermilk, at which point it'll go all sloshy so you should shut off the mixer before you make a mess.

Dump it all in a collander or sieve in a bowl, lined with cheesecloth or a loosely-woven dish towel. The liquid will drain through to the bowl and you'll be left with butter in the cloth. Gather it up in a ball, and tighten the cloth so as to squeeze out as much liquid as possible, but stop if the butter starts oozing out of the cloth.

Run your cold tap for a little while to make sure it's as cold as possible (or use some ice here) and place the butter in a deep bowl filled with the cold water. Squidge the butter with your hands, squeezing out all the remaining buttermilk and pressing it back into a ball as you go. Change the water frequently. When it doesn't go cloudy anymore after a few squidges, you're done.

This part is optional: Rinse your mixer off and put the butter back in it. Sprinkle some salt on and turn the mixer on just long enough to mix the salt in well. Then use a spatula to scoop out the butter (mixer-licking also optional) into a nice little bowl, cover and refrigerate. Homemade butter is softer than store butter so you can keep it in the fridge and it'll still be spreadable, mostly.

[transformed]

[Metasequoia]

I had a quart of cream too. I ate it.

[clintonhillmama]

i've made butter in my stand mixer too, like spughy described. but when it starts to separate into butter and buttermilk, i stop mixing and just knead the butter while it's in a colander. squeezing the buttermilk out with a cloth sounds even easier!

then you can make pancakes with the buttermilk, and then put your butter on top!!! seriously the best pancakes i ever had!

[transformed]

man.

I cant find my other beater cause the kids took off with it.

Can I use a blender?

grrr. My cream better not go bad. I have never had raw dairy before.

[quietserena]

Originally Posted by Metasequoia

I had a quart of cream too. I ate it.

Yeah, i'm in this camp too.

[spughy]

Sadly the blender will not work, because when the cream gets whipped-like it's gonna just glom up at the top and there won't be enough weight to pull it down to the blades to agitate it further.

Your kids got some 'splainin to do. Why would they take off with your beater?

[transformed]

I think its one of their "doctor" tools. They would rather use kitchen stuff than an actual doctor kit. LOL.

:

[spughy]

Ok maybe I'm overtired, but I just have this mental image of kids playing open-heart surgery with a hand mixer and it's making me laugh SO hard.

But, um, yeah. I think it's time to raid their toybox.

[texaspeach]

just try to make whipped cream but don't add any sugar. if you keep beating, you'll get butter.

[motherbirth]

The Mason jar method works great. It just takes some time. (Put in glass jar and shake rhythmically). If you have kids, then they have fun doing it and everyone can take turns.