Butter is a simple food made with simple ingredients. It starts with fresh milk from local farms.
Fresh cream from Washington comes from comfortable cows on sustainable farms and provides the perfect base for the delicious butter we love and enjoy. Butter is made by breaking up milk’s cream. When cream is shaken, or churned, it separates to form solid butter and liquid buttermilk. Follow these steps to make your own butter.
Directions
- Choose a local heavy whipping cream available at your favorite grocer or farmer’s market. Most Washington cream is 36% fat, but any heavy whipping cream will do.
- Pour whipping cream (and optional salt) into selected jar and secure lid tight.
- Shake the jar well! Up and down and back and forth (maybe do a little dance).
- Around 4-6 minutes, you should feel like you are no longer shaking anything. The liquid heavy whipping cream has now been formed into a more solid product.
- Shake for an additional 30-60 seconds until you see a lump forming and a liquid in the jar (buttermilk) or hear a “thud” against the jar.
- Separate the butter from the buttermilk by using a strainer. Save liquid buttermilk for use in other recipes, such as pancakes, soups or sauces.
- Rinse the butter.
- Place the newly formed solid butter in a bowl.
- Pour cold water over it, gently kneading the butter in the bowl to rinse any buttermilk away.
- Form butter into a ball and discard the fluid.
- Repeat 2-3 times.
- Taste your butter. It’s ready to spread on toast, slather on corn, or use in a baking recipe.
- Store your butter. Wrap the fresh butter in wax paper or parchment paper (a double wrap of plastic wrap and aluminum foil will work too) and roll into a log. Tie or tape the ends. Fresh butter can be kept refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen up to 6 months.
TIP: If freezing, cut the butter into smaller sizes once it has hardened in the fridge to store in the freezer for easy accessibility.
Have you seen flavored butters recently at your farmer’s market or at a restaurant near you? You can make them too! Follow any of our simple flavored butter recipes.
