Cooking For Engineers

[Guest]

The problem I have is that I haven't found a compelling reason to make my own butter since I generally can't taste the difference between freshly made butter and freshly made Land O'Lakes butter (which makes it through the same process, just on a massive scale...thank you Good Eats!). The only time I make my own is when I need beurre aux fines herbes or some variation on that theme.

While I won't deny that there's a certain satisfaction that comes from making things from as scratch as possible, can other people taste a difference?

[Erica]

The stage after stiff peaks is clotted cream, I think--a popular topping for scones and the like. Fantastic site, by the way.

[Compmouse]

Ahh this is good stuff, I always wondered how you do this with modern day appliances. I can't count the number of times I've read Little House in the Big Woods and wished that I too could make my own butter.

[Dave Schuler]

If whatever product you buy is labeled “Ultra Homogenized”, you may not be able to make butter with it. Such products typically include gelatin or carageenan to make them whippable but they don't behave like real heavy cream.

[Teresa Lo]

One great resource on fats and oils is Udo Erasmus. This book, Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, is one of the best I've ever read.

www.UdoErasmus.com

Teresa

[juliamom]

I seem to recall a recipe for clotted cream, which called for cooking milk and cream slowly for 8-10 hours, and then letting it cool overnight. But no beating.

[butterlite]

This interesting column brought back memories of the 1966 dairy farmer strike when farmers protesting poor mlk prices flooded rural communities' main streets with thousands of gallons of sweet cream milk.

My father who owned a tiny dairy was resourceful. He collected the cream and made butter. How? He sterilized our wringer washer ( very old laundry technology) with several bleach washes and boiling water rinses. He poured gallons of cream into the sanitized washtub. He turned on the washer and the centrifuge churned the cream into pounds of yellow butter. We stashed the pounds into the freezer and had fresh butter for three years!

[Kristin]

I get fresh raw milk from my in-laws, skim the cream with a ladle and shake it in a Mason jar for about 15 minutes. Must be something like the marble & tupperware method. Does the marble make a difference?

[Michael Chu]

[Guest]

How has pasturizing affected the taste of butter? Does it make a difference. Also the culture mentioned above versus the old skimming method what has a live culture in it yet? What would I buy in a store? Is the old skimming method produce tastier results? Other butter than Cow butter? What butter is the best salted butter in the stores for taste on breads?

[Guest]

The cr*p they sell at the grocery store isn't usually suitable for making butter. First, they always add carageenan and assorted other things to make it hold together, which don't work well in butter. Second, all the cream I have seen at the store lately is ultrapasteurized and DOESN'T CULTURE. It's dead dead dead.

I managed to find real cream at the farmer's market, and it doesn't have any additives, works well, cultures well, and I can get an entire quart for the same price I was paying for a pint of grocery store "cream."

[Guest]

[Kathleen Livingston]

The website was easy to navigate, with clearly and well-written language, containing EXACTLY the information I was looking for. Well done. Thank you.

[guest]

Two people spoke about "ultra homogenized' cream not working when making butter. Is there any confirmation to this? I wanted to make butter with some school children and I don't want them to shake and shake and end up with??? whatever? What would they end up with?

[Michael Chu]