Butter from Raw Milk – No Churn Required!

Yes, I have succeeded at butter making and I’m going to share my electric & non-electric methods with you!  Really, I’m not sure what my problem was last night, I think that my cream may not have been warm enough because making butter is easy, seriously easy!  And the most I got out of last night was some forearm toning.

For this butter I used raw milk & sea salt.

Non-Electric Method.

1. Take 1 gallon (or more) of fresh milk and place it in a clean, large mouthed container.  Place this container in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours to 24 hours.
2. Remove your milk from the refrigerator and you will see that the cream has indeed risen to the top.  With a long handled spoon or shallow ladle begin to skim off the cream from the milk.  When you begin to see “watery” streaks in your cream you know you are getting close to the milk.  Place your cream into a clean mason jar, large enough that the cream only takes up 1/3 of the jar.  You may have to place your cream into a larger container. This is a significant step and could affect the outcome of your butter!
3. Tightly cap your jar of cream and set out on your counter to “culture” and place your skimmed milk back into the refrigerator.  You will need to allow your cream to culture for about 12 hours, this will give you that butter taste!  Your cream should be about 75 degrees when you are ready to begin making your butter with only a slightly sour smell.
4. Now find your favorite music, make sure that it has a good rhythm.
5. Start shaking.  Keep shaking.  Really shake it.  Although, you will have to get a feel for what you are looking for, most often butter will begin separating from the buttermilk after 15 to 30 minutes.  This is an ideal time to involve the kids!  Everyone can take a turn shaking the jar.
6. You will feel the cream begin to get heavy just before the butter and buttermilk begin to separate.  Then you will start to see small granules of butter form, but keep shaking!  You want to continue agitating the cream until you begin to see large clumps or a mass of yellow butter separate from the buttermilk.
7. Now you can let the butter/buttermilk rest for about 2 minutes.  This will allow the butter to rise to the top, making it easier to strain away from the buttermilk.
8. Strain your butter, and reserve the buttermilk in a tightly capped jar and place in your refrigerator for later use.
9. Now give your butter a quick ice water rinse and place it into a clean bowl.
10. Begin kneading the butter against the sides of the bowl, squeezing out any remaining buttermilk, pour any buttermilk into your jar and place back in refrigerator.
11. Salt your butter, and remember a little goes a long way!

butter separating from buttermilk

The Electric Method:

1. Take 1 gallon (or more) of fresh milk and place it in a clean, large mouthed container.  Place this container in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours to 24 hours.
2. Remove your milk from the refrigerator and you will see that the cream has indeed risen to the top.  With a long handled spoon or shallow ladle begin to skim off the cream from the milk.  When you begin to see “watery” streaks in your cream you know you are getting close to the milk.  Place your cream into a clean mixing bowl, making sure that the cream only fills 1/3 of the bowl.  This is a significant step and could affect the outcome of your butter!
3. Tightly cap your jar of cream and set out on your counter to “culture” and place your skimmed milk back into the refrigerator.  You will need to allow your cream to culture for about 12 hours, this will give you that butter taste!  Your cream should be about 75 degrees when you are ready to begin making your butter with only a slightly sour smell.
   
4. Afix your whisking beater to your mixer, and set the speed to just between low and medium.
   
5. Mix for about 5 minutes and check your cream.  You should see the beginnings of separation.
6. Continue mixing at the same speed until you see large clumps of butter beginning to form.  Stop to scrape the butterfat down from the sides of the bowl as needed.
7. Now you can let the butter/buttermilk rest for about 2 minutes.  This will allow the butter to rise to the top, making it easier to strain away from the buttermilk.
8. Strain your butter, and reserve the buttermilk in a tightly capped jar and place in your refrigerator for later use.
9. Now give your butter a quick ice water rinse and place it into a clean bowl.
10. Begin kneading the butter against the sides of the bowl, squeezing out any remaining buttermilk, pour any buttermilk into your jar and place back in refrigerator.
11. Salt your butter, and remember a little sea salt goes a long way!

buttermilk

Enjoy your raw milk butter on freshly made wheat bread, corn on the cob, or any other favorite food.  If you are my daughter Grace you will enjoy it on a spoon!

Questions? Email me at themothermucker@gmail.com

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Raw Milk, shhh….don’t tell!

Part II of my quest to find raw milk. (see Part I here)

Shhh…I have a secret!

I have found RAW MILK!  I really did it, no back alleys or dark country roads needed. Well, actually a friend of mine found raw milk and hooked me up.  (She has requested anonymity at this time, ha ha.)  It turns out Ohio has a loophole in their raw milk sales laws.  You can not purchase raw milk itself, but you can purchase a share in a dairy herd that produces raw milk! Eureka!  We may have found a timely solution for our dairy needs that will both satisfy my desire for raw milk and my husband’s desire to not have a milk cow!

On June 4th we will be heading out to Jubilee Meadows Farm, LLC in Mt Gilead, Ohio to tour the farm and learn about their herd share program.  When I learn more of the details I will pass them on, or you can contact Steve Miller of Jubilee Meadows Farm at stevofarms@redbird.net.  They also have pastured pork, chicken, and eggs available.

If you are interested in finding a source of raw milk in your area please visit:  RealMilk.com, and the Weston Price Foundation.  Both of these sources provide a great deal of information on raw milk, its benefits, its legal turmoil, and why you should care so much about it.

As I stated in Part I we were going to try a non-homogenized, pasteurized milk available from Trinity Farms.  The milk comes from Hartzler’s Family Dairy in Wooster, Ohio.  Bottled in glass bottles with BPA-free caps, you pay $1.50 deposit fee for the bottle and that cost is either credited to your next bottle or given back to you when you return your bottle.  I purchased the whole milk for our trial run, I figured I wanted to try the highest butterfat content milk available to really gauge how we were going to do with it.  I am pleasantly surprised by how much I like the whole milk.  It definitely tastes more rich than your normal supermarket milk.  Be sure to shake it well before drinking because the cream will rise to the top!  So far we’ve enjoyed the milk on oatmeal, in the latest loaves of bread, and on our berry cobbler last night.  The kids are enjoying it and so far I have not witnessed any strong symptoms in Will or the others.

Our 8 weeks of being dairy free was a difficult journey, and I’m hesitantly hopeful that we will be able to reintroduce dairy into our diets again, however, it will be grass-fed, non-homogenized dairy!  I’m looking forward to making our own butter, yogurt and perhaps cheese if we decide to purchase a herd-share.  Don’t worry there will definitely be a Part III in our dairy saga!

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