How to Make Butter
Spring butter has been worshiped by primitive cultures due to its life-giving properties. We fall short of actually getting down on our knees to do so, but it is elevated to a place of honor in our homes.
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We keep tubs of frozen butter in the kitchen freezers, one in the refrigerator and one on our counters at all times. That’s in addition to the 20 to 50 lbs. being stored in our deep freezers. It gets put on our healing tables for nearly every meal.
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Butter is used as a vitamin vehicle on all cooked vegetables and most cooked fruits, enhancing and adding its own bounty of vitamins to boot. (Did you know carrot nutrients such as beta caroteen cannot even be converted to vitamin A without the addition of fats? We’re thinking: steamed carrots slathered in butter!) Butter can be found floating in morning coffee and in rich desserts. Cold butter is often sliced, like cheese, and placed on sourdough to eat with bone broth for an easy, nourishing, and satiating meal.
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We have learned to PURPOSE to eat and integrate plenty of butter in our diets and those of our loved ones. It is an all-purpose fat and oil, used in every way, cold or warm or melted.
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Butter stands alone in a class by itself!
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Wow! It sounds like we really do worship it.
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GOOD: Super Market butter
BETTER: Organic or Grass-fed Commercially Produced
BEST: Homemade from Local Grass-fed Milk
A Word on Margarine and Fake Butters
What would I say to the person who has been eating margarine all this time?
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You don’t know what you’re missing.
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Chemically, there is a world of difference between margarine and butter. But, culinary wise there is no limit to what you can do with butter in your kitchen.
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It’s an amazing substance. It’s a nourishing substance like no other. It changes you on the inside; it changes you on the outside. Butter is just par excellence.
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Try this: Pick up a package of margarine and look at the ingredients. Then, look up the ingredients and see if that might not just change your mind a little bit about margarine.
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Again, weird food makes weird bodies.
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And, as mothers we’re in the business of building strong bodies.
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Margarine doesn’t fit there. Margarine is one of those things that’s going to create weird bodies.
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Margarine is not a food that was consumed hundreds of years ago. It’s not a food that you can make in your kitchen. It may be approved as healthy, but we’re finding that it’s not.
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Stick to real butter. Butter that comes from the cream of healthy cows.
If you can get good raw milk, you can make your own butter.
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Here’s a bare bones, easy-peasy instruction on what it takes:
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Raw cream skimmed off of raw milk.
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Quart glass canning jar with lid.
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Bowl, spatula, strainer
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A little time
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Manual shaking power
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Place skimmed cream in glass jar. Ratio of space to cream is important here: never fill jar more than 1/3 full. Cover with air- and liquid-tight lid. Allow the cream to come to room temperature. Shake jar until butter buds appear, anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. Pour through strainer and collect buds into a small bowl.
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Press and work the butter, draining off the buttermilk liquid as you go. If desired, rinse with very cold water, and continue to press and drain. The extra cold water serves to better rinse out the buttermilk completely from the butter — and helps the butter to last longer. Add 1/8 tsp. Salt (for flavor and preservation), press, and work into a solid lump.
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When liquid is pressed out, tuck your butter into a small ceramic, covered bowl or jar. Enjoy as fresh immediately, or keep refrigerated/frozen for future use.
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Sure, you can make larger amounts in larger jars, or use an electric appliance for big batches. Make butter simply, or make it more ‘high-tech’.
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Just make it!