Given my adoration of all things culinary (which sentiment is shared by my restaurateur protagonist, Sally Solari), I thought it was high time for another food-related post on the Chicks. So here’s a little love letter to butter:
I’ve been in love with butter from as far back as I can remember. When I was a kid, my mom used to leave a stick of butter out on the counter in a dish, and I’d sneak into the kitchen when no one was around and cut off a fat slice and eat it. No bread, no crackers; just the luscious butter, all by itself.
two cups of cream yields about six ounces of heavenly delight
I’ll never forget that fateful day—I must have been about eight years old—when I sneakily sliced a surreptitious hunk of golden pleasure, placed it on my tongue to melt, and then got the shock of my life.
What was this?! Not butter, that was for sure. I spat it out into the sink.
Alas, my mom had switched to margarine.
The history of butter, I learned from Jennifer McLagan’s fabulous book, Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, was largely dictated by climate. This makes sense: in warm climes butter wouldn’t keep, so you’d have to either alter its chemical makeup, or use some other kind of fat that was more easily preserved. Thus, in India they learned to make ghee, and in the Mediterranean they tended to use things like olive oil for cooking, and butter was used only for external purposes:
In fact, in many cultures the idea of eating butter was ridiculous; it was considered something only a barbarian would do…. The majority of people who ate their butter in its solid state lived in the cooler climes of northern Europe and the grasslands of Central Asia, where butter lasted better and the abundant pastures provided food for animals. The Vikings and Celts who spread butter culture throughout northern Europe also valued butter’s medicinal qualities, and their word for “butter” and “ointment” were the same….
Jennifer McLagan’s book provides instruction for making your own butter, so—being the avowed cream hound that I am—I decided to try my hand at it. (My best friend Nancy and I actually attempted to make butter once when we were about ten years old. But since we had resolved to make it “the old-fashioned way,” which—not knowing about butter-churns, we mistakenly assumed was with just a fork—not surprisingly did not turn out well. I think we tired of the game before the cream had even reached its whipped stage.)
Buy the best quality heavy whipping cream you can find and pour it into a large bowl, then whip the cream with a mixer as you would to make whipped cream. After a few minutes it will start to stiffen, and it will then reach the point where you would normally stop if you were using it to top a pie or mousse.
Keep going. I thought that it would turn to butter fairly soon after it had gotten to the whipped cream stage, but that ended up being only about a third of the way into the process (it took about 10 minutes for mine to turn to butter, but then again, I was stopping often to take pictures). The cream will start to have a lumpy appearance,
and then it will look kind of like cottage cheese. Use a baking spatula, as needed, to push the mixture back down into the bowl. Continue beating it with your mixer. The sign that you’re finally getting to the butter stage will be that the liquid (which is true buttermilk, hence the name) starts to separate from the butter.
From this point on, the mixing process becomes quite messy, as the liquid tends to splash all over the kitchen. So beware. (You might want to drape a dish cloth over the bowl as you mix.) Continue to beat until the butter is difficult to mix any further and starts to collect on the beaters:
The next step is to place all the butter into a fine-mesh strainer:
Then use a wooden spoon (or your hands) to press as much of the liquid out as possible.
Save this buttermilk (two cups of cream yielded almost one cup of buttermilk). It’s delicious to drink: sweet and flavorful and not at all like the tangy store-bought variety, which is just regular milk to which lactic acid has been added. Or you can use it to make biscuits or pancakes, to to marinate chicken in before frying.
The next step is to knead the butter for a minute or two, to get out any remaining liquid (which can hasten the butter turning rancid). Using a dough scraper will assist in this process.
Next, add salt (about ½ teaspoon for 2 cups cream) and work it into the butter with your hands, if you want salted, rather than sweet, butter. (I did not do this, as I prefer it sweet.) Then place the butter on a piece of wax paper, form it into whatever shape you want, and wrap it up.
I let mine chill for the afternoon, and then pulled it out of the fridge about a half hour before dinner so it wouldn’t be too hard. (See photo at top.)
We had it with a loaf of crunchy French bread which I had warmed in the oven.
It was so much better than commercial butter: very creamy in flavor, with a delicate, slightly tangy taste. Well worth the price, which was about double that of commercial butter.
Readers: Have you ever made your own butter, or had home-made butter? Did you think it was worth the effort?
Chicks on the Case 
I’m mostly vegan, so it has been a while since I’ve eaten real butter. But I can’t imagine making my own either way. It seems like way too much work. Just reading your post made me tired!
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Ha! Indeed. Which is why they used to use churns (and now have industrial-sized versions of that). But it was fun to do it just the once.
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I love butter. ❤
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My father loved butter. He felt if a little butter was good, then a little more was even better. ( I am inclined to agree. ) And when I introduced him to radishes, crusty bread and butter, he was in seventh heaven.
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Oh, yes! French bread, sweet butter, radishes, and a sprinkle of coarse salt is the best!
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Making my own butter is something I’ve never considered doing, but may have to reconsider!
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I’ve heard you can shake the cream up in a large mason jar and that it goes faster that way. (And you can pass the jar around to other people to share the work–maybe have a butter party!)
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I, too, have a long love affair with butter, but I’m way too lazy to make my own. (It was cool to see you do it, so I wouldn’t be too lazy to eat any you give me!) I have discovered whipped butter which makes me feel virtuous, even though I slather a ton of it on. In my new manuscript I have an argument in the diner where they debate the definition of “heavy on the butter.” I think if you ever say that, no matter how much you get, it won’t be enough.
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I once made butter by mistake after over-beating whipping cream. I didn’t save the buttermilk; now I ‘ll know better.
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Wow, Leslie, making your own butter — I’m so impressed! I’m also hankering for a pile of butter on crusty bread. My mom was/is a margarine user. (Lots of her recipes call for Oleo.) But, we only buy butter at my house. 🙂
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“Oleo” is a popular crossword puzzle word. (And I bet Becky knows that!)
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So ambitious. It probably would taste great on the no-knead bread I make. Send me some and I will send you a loaf – just kidding, but I’ll be it is delicious.
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I think the bread would do far better in the mail, so how about you just send me some bread and I’ll tell you how it goes with my butter! 🙂
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I feel like I’ve had homemade butter on field trips as a kid. It’s been so long I can’t remember how it compared.
Honestly, butter has always been something rare in my life. Didn’t have it much growing up and I still rarely eat it now. It‘ always tastes so good when I do have it, however.
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I’m thinking you need to treat yourself to butter more often, Mark! Maybe as a treat after your mud run!
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Per Julia Child:
“If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.” As Leslie showed us, cream turns into butter!
“Fat gives things flavor.” Hence using butter instead of margarine!
“With enough butter, anything is good.” Oh yeah! Even butter with butter is good. How about some deep fried butter?
“You are the butter to my bread, and the breath to my life.” I believe hubby Paul said that.
Butter is the essence of gold, IMHO. Not sure if I would ever make homemade butter. don’t think I have the patience Leslie had. That is amazing what you did. Although I did find a glass butter churn on Amazon, which is kind of cute, even just to display. Considering buying it. And I definitely prefer Euro butter when baking.
But I’m taking a rustic European bread class this weekend, and they are talking homemade salted butter. I hope it means stick butter we just add our own chosen amount of salt to!
As far as your next foodie post? What about one based on this quote?
“I think every woman should have a blowtorch.” Oh yeah!
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Julia Child is my hero. And yes, I do in fact have a blowtorch, which I use to finish off my crème brulée when I make it for dinner parties!
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OMG, I love this!!! There is nothing, NOTHING like real butter. Although I can’t imagine eating it right off the stick, Leslie, lol. When I was a kid we took a school trip to one of those historical sites where they made butter in a churn. We were told that if we put heavy cream in a jar and kept shaking it, we’d eventually make our own butter. Which of course I did. I didn’t get all the way, but I got enough of the way to create butter for a slice of toast. Delicious. Occasionally I’ve whipped cream too long, but I’m never disappointed to end up with almost-butter!
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GORGEOUS!! Your homemade butter is a thing of beauty. Now all I want is a thick slice of bread slathered in that goodness!
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I have not made my own butter, but like you I just like to eat a pat of it all by itself. We only use butter. Bu t when I was growing up my family switched to I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter. It was okay. But then when I married we did real butter and I would never go anywhere else. An 83 year old neighbor who goes to Mayo Clinic every year for his physical was told by a doctor there how bad oleo margarine was to your health.
He said, if you want to die early just keep eating that junk and it was I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.
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Oh, how I love this post! I, too, was a butter thief as a kid (along with the dog). I actually have made my own—and also ice cream—by hand. It’s a lot of work, especially as my patience is generally zero, but definitely worth it!! I don’t think my butter looked as pretty as Leslie’s, though.
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Wow–impressive! One time on a field trip, we got a turn at the butter churn…that was hard work!
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