How to churn your own butter

Following various sources on this lovely substance, I decided to try churning my own butter! If all you have in front of you is a cow and a pail, then you'll have to add a couple of steps to this how-to. Otherwise, you'll need the following:

- 250 ml whipping cream (actually, the more, the merrier)

- 500 ml Mason jar

- small marble

It might be better to do this with the cream at room temperature, but I took it straight from the fridge. Half of the cream had been opened 3 weeks ago but was still viable (let's say we're making cultured butter).

Pour the cream into the jar and seal it up. Start shaking, alternating between left and right hands for best results. After a few minutes the cream should be thick enough to add the marble. (Some people add the marble from the start but I don't like the idea of glass banging against glass.)

Keep shaking the jar, and notice the increased viscosity of the mixture. The cream contains butterfat globules encased inside phospholipid membranes which suspend the fat in the water and prevents it from forming one solid mass. The agitation, or churning, ruptures these membranes.

After about 10 minutes of shaking, the cream will appear to freeze up, and the marble will seem to be stuck. Shaking for another minute or two will cause the mixture to break once more  and release the marble. At this point the butter will congeal inside the jar:

Ball of butter

You can pour off the remaining liquid, which is buttermilk. This delicious substance is great for pancakes but you'll probably want to let it mature for a while before using it (read: go sour)

Buttermilk

Separated butter

Separated butter

At this point you'll want to gently rinse the butter with cold water a couple of times, until the poured off liquid becomes clear. Work out the remaining buttermilk (which will cause the butter to go bad) in a bowl using a spoon or a paddle.

Kelley pitches in to rinse the butter

At this point you can add salt if you like. About a ¼ tsp is probably sufficient, although you should add a little bit at a time until the butter tastes right.

Adding salt

Mix the butter thoroughly and scoop it into your container of choice, then refrigerate. Unfortunately I didn't have a butter mold so a plastic container had to do.

The final product

The butter you'll produce will likely contain more moisture than the store bought variety. Also, I did this in the summer, at a time when cows graze on carotene-rich grass rather than hay, and it is this carotene that gives the butter its yellow colour. Sometimes carotene or other dyes are added to butter (and margarine!) to simulate this effect.

You can also try variations like adding garlic and fresh chopped parsley to make garlic butter, or get to know some farmers and experiment with the various flavours of different regions. Be forewarned that farmers (in North America at least) aren't allowed to sell cream directly to the public, for reasons probably somewhere between safety and politics.

And remember, butter is an excellent source of flavour!