How to Make Butter in a Bottle
In 2010, the United States produced 1.56 billion lbs of butter from dairy farmers across the country. It takes about 21 lbs of whole milk from those farms to produce that 1 lb. of butter. If you have guests coming over or you just wish to make your very own butter spread, you can do it with two simple ingredients: heavy cream and a sanitized bottle. In about 15 to 30 minutes, the fresh spread will be ready to enjoy. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Soap
- Hot water
- 1 pint heavy cream
- Pinch of salt, optional
- Sanitized bottle
- Strainer
- Bowl for straining
Instructions
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1
Wash your bottle with warm soapy water. You want to make sure the bottle has been properly cleaned. Rinse thoroughly so there is no residual soap. Set the bottle aside for a few minutes and allow it to cool and dry.
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2
Refrigerate the bottle for about one hour. You want the glass to become chilled.
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3
Pour a pint of heavy cream into the bottle. Add a pinch of salt if you wish. Seal the bottle with the top.
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4
Shake the bottle vigorously. The goal is to turn the liquid heavy cream into fat solids, thus making butter. As the shaking process continues for 15 to 30 minutes, the heavy cream will first turn to whipped cream, before eventually turning to butter. Periodically check the consistency of your butter by removing the top to the bottle until you see the thick solid shape of butter.
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5
Place a strainer over a bowl. Pour the butter from the bottle into the strainer. The excess heavy cream will strain through to the bowl. Return the butter in the strainer to the bottle or butter dish of your choice and serve.
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Tips & Warnings
In Step 4, there will be some heavy cream that does not completely convert to butter. The excess liquid is referred to as buttermilk. After straining in Step 5, you may save this buttermilk and use it in other recipes such as pancakes. However, the buttermilk you purchase in the store has been cultured and will be whiter in color than homemade buttermilk which will have a yellowish tinge.
Many butter recipes call for heavy cream, double cream or whipping cream for making butter. These three creams have higher fat contents than whole milk or light cream. Because you are essentially distilling the fat when you make butter, the higher the fat content, the easier it will be to turn into butter. The fat content of these creams range from 30 to 48 percent. Using products with a lower fat content will take much longer to produce butter, if it is produced at all. The fat content might not be high enough for the molecules of fat to combine and solidify during the butter-making process.
Experiment with different flavored butters such as garlic, herb or maple.
References
- Photo Credit David De Lossy/Valueline/Getty Images
