My fantasy deflated, I cast the thought of butter-making out of my head. Until last week, when I picked up my dog-eared copy of Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser. Her chapter “Butter– and Something ‘Just as Good’” made me think entirely too much about the stuff. I wanted to know how to make it on my own, so I did a little research. And I do mean little.

It’s alarmingly easy to do, as you’ll soon see. For an excellent and very informative post on butter and butter-making, visit Cooking for Engineers -- a site filled with all the cooking Geekdom to which I aspire.

Butter

Makes: 1 cup

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy whipping cream (at a temperature between 60 and 68°F)
A pinch of salt (optional)
Finely diced herbs (also optional)

Preparation:

1. Place cream in the clean, cool bowl of your stand mixer, assuming you have one. Mix on medium speed.

whisk cream

2. Basically, you begin by making whipped cream. Once the cream has reached stiff-peak stage, slow the mixing down a little. The cream will now start to clump in the bowl.

butter happens when you keep whipping after the cream turns into whipped cream

3. What you have in the bowl will quickly turn from creamy white to, not surprisingly given the subject matter of this post, buttery yellow.

butter turns

4. After a short while, the buttermilk will begin to separate from the butter solids.

buttermilk separates from butter solids

5. Pour off the buttermilk. You may save it as the appropriate beverage for a late night, heart-to-heart conversation about women with your teen-aged son around your antique farm house table, cook with it, or throw it away. The choice is yours.

6. At this point, it’s a good idea to rinse the remaining buttermilk from the solid bits, since the buttermilk will cause your butter to turn rancid much sooner than one would like. Pour cold water over the butter, then squeeze and knead. Repeat until water runs clear.

squeeze and knead butter

7. Congratulations, you now have your butter.

butter done

8. You may now add a little salt, if that is your preference. Or fold in some fresh herbs. Whatever the hell you want, really-- it’s your butter.

butter with chives

Makes approximately one cup of useable butter excellent for lashing on one’s toast or experimenting à la Maria Schneider. Have a jolly time with it.

churning butterchurning butter

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