I Can't Believe I Made Real Butter!

Sparrow saw something on Pinterest today that brought up sweet (cream) memories of a childhood in Pennsylvania- making home-made butter!

The ingredients are so simple:

-heavy cream (best if raw...good luck finding that)
-salt

That's it.

The directions are almost as simple.

1. Add the desired amount of cream to a mixer or bowl.
2. Salt the cream to taste, if desired.  For unsalted butter, leave the salt out.
3. Whisk or beat until the cream separates into milk fat and buttermilk.
4. Separate the butter and buttermilk (the milky water in your bowl) using cheesecloth, a strainer, or (like sparrow did) a thin metal kitchen utensil. 
5. Refrigerate until use.

Note: there is a point where you'll see a familiar sight...whipped cream.  Keep whipping!  You're not done until you have a big ball of butter stuck in your whisk and pool of buttermilk in the bottom of  your bowl.

You can make any amount of butter and buttermilk like this.  Sparrow used a pint (16 oz) of heavy cream and came away with roughly 8 ounces each of buttermilk and butter.

This experiment brings up so many options for the future- add herbs for savory herb butter, or sugar for a sweeter breakfast option.  Stay tuned for future butter ideas.