To Make Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the churn
Scald the churn.
Cool the churn with ice or spring water.
Pour in the thick cream.
Churn fast at first, then more slowly as the butter forms.
In warm weather, add a little cold water if the butter forms slowly.
In winter, add a little warm water if the cream is too cold.
Once the butter has formed, rinse the churn with cold water.
Collect and wash the butter
Use a perforated dasher or wooden ladle to collect the butter from the buttermilk.
Plunge the dasher into very cold water to free the butter.
Gather the butter with a wooden ladle.
Drain off the water.
Salt and shape
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt per pound of butter.
Work the salt into the butter.
Set the butter in a cool place for an hour to harden.
Knead the butter until no more water exudes and it is smooth.
Shape the butter into rolls, balls, or pats.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Thick cream
- Its fat separates into butter when agitated, so it forms the butter itself.
- Cold water
- Added in warm weather to help the butter form when it churns slowly.
The step that matters
Churn fast at first, then more slowly as the butter forms. Vigorous agitation first breaks the cream's fat globules so they clump into butter. Once clumps form, slower churning keeps them from being over-beaten and smeared into the buttermilk.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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