Recipe(tried): Homemade Butter

Homemade Butter

As a fourth grade teacher, I always let my students make butter, as a part of their social studies project. I would get a pint of half and half, plus a half pint of whipping cream, add to a quart jar and let them shake, until we made butter.

Usually there are milk particles left in the butter after you skim it from the milk. The butter will rise to the top, as you shake the jar, skim it off, drain as much milk from it as possible by pressing it wiht the back of a spoon. You wash it by adding cold water to it, knead or stir with a spoon and drain. You do this until the water runs clear, then add a little salt, the salt is not a must. Do not strain, the butter is so soft it will strain right through a sieve. If you do not get all the milk particles out, no harm is done, your butter will take on a tang after 2 or 3 days. Personally I like the tang, all that is happening is the milk particles are fermenting. Until I went to college in 1958, I thought all butter had that tang to it. True old time southerns will save the milk remaining and make a big pan of buttermilk biscuits to eat the butter on and if you are from South Louisiana you would eat the buttered biscuit with Steen's syrup. Hope this gives you some insight into my La. upbringing.