When I go to Costco, I often buy a half-gallon of heavy cream. Some I use in cooking, like for a mustard cream sauce for chicken, but then I make butter. So I’ve been making butter like this since the 1970’s when, in fact, I drove with my friend Shelly over to a town called Cool. There was a cattle ranch, and the woman sold raw milk by the gallon. Some of my original gallon jars I still have are from that time. With the gallon of milk, I would separate the cream from the milk and make butter. But in those days, Barclay would use a quart ball jar and shake it till it was butter. Believe me, that was a workout, as it took maybe 30 minutes. Shelley worked for the Forest Service with Barclay on the fire crew and then later was the first female fire lookout for Duncan’s Peak. It was really her who influenced my bulk buying and buying/making simple things.
So, of course, this is not raw milk and I use a food processor.
First, leave the cream out for a few hours to warm up. It goes faster.
Just set the food processor on low and add the cream to the fill line. With the warmer cream it takes maybe 10 minutes. If it’s cold longer.
Then separate out the buttermilk. That can be used for pancakes, etc.
Then get a clean dish towel and squeeze all the remaining buttermilk out. Some people run it under cold water. Then I usually cut it in half and roll it into a log. Then I wrap it in parchment paper and usually freeze until ready to use. Sometimes I do herbs or salt-and-pepper ones. When cooking, sometimes there will be some residual liquid, and that’s fine; it’ll just cook off.
Let me know if you try it.
