My stick of goat butter.

Years ago when my children first joined 4-H, we made butter from whipping cream in a jar.  We all took turns shaking it up.  Eventually fat globules began to form.  This was my first attempt at making butter.  Our method was also time-consuming.

A year later I took my children to a Civil War reenactment at the Liendo Plantation in Hempstead, Texas.  If you ever have a chance to visit, please do.  It is very fun and informative.  It is a good way to see life as it was back then.  In one of the tents, a woman in period dress was making butter with a wooden churn in a glass jar.  She saw us watching her work and asked my daughter to come forward.

She taught Kyla the best way to churn butter.  You do not stir it or twist it or beat it.  She taught Kyla to put her palms together with the wooden handle between them.  Kyla then rubbed her hands back and forth like she was trying to warm her hands, which caused the wooden churn to spiral in one direction and then the other.  Additionally, you move your hands up and down, which changes the position of the churn.  Churning butter by hand is much quicker than the shaking method.

The butter that we typically eat is from cow milk.  The cream easily rises to the top.  The cow milk in the store is homogenized, which means that it has undergone a process to break down the milk fat into smaller pieces so that it will not separate.  One of the differences between cow and goat milk is that goat milk is naturally homogenized.

I am whipping up the cream.

One can purchase a cream separator to do the job.  However, they are very expensive.  You would have to make and sell a LOT of butter to rationalize the expense.  If you let the milk sit in the refrigerator for a few days, the cream will begin to rise.  You can skim the cream off the top of the milk and either cook with the skim milk or feed it to your animals.  I store the cream in a freezer-safe container until I get enough cream to warrant making butter.

Most people wait until they have a pint of cream.  I was a little impatient and made butter last night with half of that amount.  I put the cream in a food processor and turn it on.  At first it bulks up and becomes whipping cream.  Then as you continue processing the cream, the fat globules begin to appear as they separate from the milk.  When there is more fat/butter than liquid, I stop the food processor.  I pour out and save the buttermilk to use in cooking.

Since I don’t want my milk to sour on me, I want to remove all the buttermilk from the butter.  I just want the fat.  So I add an equal part of cold, cold water to my butter.  I turn the processor back on.  After a minute, I pour out and discard the water.  I repeat this process on more time and the water is virtually clear.

Now I place the butter into a bowl.  Using a wooden spoon, I knead the butter to ensure that all of the liquid has been removed.  As water appears, I pour it out.  This takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.  You can also add sea salt if you desire.  I do not.  Then, I shape the butter on a plate.  This time I shaped it to look like a stick of butter.

I have poured out the buttermilk and only the butter remains.

I am sure that you can tell the difference between goat butter and cow butter.  Goat butter is pure, stark white.  You can add coloring to it, but why?  The color of my butter does not bother me.  I tastes great.  The whole process does not take that much time and it is rewarding to eat that which you have made.

I have made butter from whole goat milk, which removes the whole skimming the cream step.  However you get a much lower yield.  From a pint of milk, I received a pat of butter.  Not a good use of my time, if you ask me.

Don’t be afraid to try your hand at skills that our ancestors once thought were second nature.  Gardening, baking bread, making butter are all skills that are being brought bake to life by homesteaders.  If you have any questions about making butter or would like to suggest a skill for me to write about, feel free to ask.

Tags: cream rises, goat butter, goat vs. cow milk, homesteading skills, homogenization, making butter, whipping cream

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Homesteading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.