Butter Butter Butter!

For the longest time I have wanted a Jersey Cow or even a goat to milk. I fully understand the responsibility this is and how inconvenient milking could be BUT the positives of doing the hard labor would be so worth it in the end!

Although I am not a milk drinker, Marc and Maddie are! I absolutely hate it that milk is almost $5 a gallon and the cheaper off brands have hormones and additives that are ruining our health. With milk you also have cream and butter. And we buy a ton of butter and quit a bit of cream too! 

One of our good friends had posted on fb she was making butter and cheese from some raw milk she had bought in Ft. Smith so I met up with her a few weeks later to get some of my own. I am currently buying my milk in Belleville which is an hour in a half away but the pantry I buy from has a few more items I like to purchase at great prices so the drive isn't to awful. This last trip I bought 6 gallons worth. I brought back three for other families and then we will use three in 2 weeks for sure. 

Here is how I make my butter off the milk I buy. 

When we bring home the milk I transfer it over to a gallon size clear pitcher. I let it stand in the refrigerator for atleast 4 hours to allow the cream to rise and make an obvious cream line to skim. 

If I had a stand mixer, I would simply laddle it into the mixer and turn it on to do its own thing but until then, I use a wide mouth Mason Jar with a lid. I laddle ONLY the cream into the jar. It's very important to not get any milk into your mix. So I end up leaving a very small line of cream in the milk and that's fine too... Just adds some more flavor to our milk. 

Next, we put a lid on it and I or Marc or both of us take turns and shake it for about 30-45 minutes until it all the sudden forms curds of yellow butter!

Strain the milk off the butter into another Mason jar and set to the side because this is your non cultured buttermilk! You definitely want to save this! (And hopefully I will do another post about how to culture your buttermilk-Super Easy!) In the mean time use your buttermilk in all recipes like pancakes, biscuits, & ranch dressing, etc. 

Once your butter has been strained place it in a bowl of cold water and knead the butter in the water and rinse a few times until the butter is free from milk. This extra milk on your butter can sour it so clean it really well.

I then pat my butter dry with a napkin and place in a plastic tub or wax paper and then in a ziplock bag. You can add 1/4 tsp of salt to your butter if you like salted butter and I do this if I'm going to eat it on cornbread, hot rolls, or toast but if I'm using it to cook with, I normally don't salt my butter. 

And that my friends is non cultured homemade butter with no additives or hormones!! So easy and so worth it. For $4 I have butter, buttermilk, & almost a gallon of milk!