Skip to main content
Dessert

To Make Butter

A method for churning cream into butter with salt, using a wooden bowl and ladle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

To Make Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the churn

  1. Scald the churn with hot water.

  2. Rinse the churn with cold water without wiping.

  3. Chill cream in ice water or a cellar.

  4. Warm cream in a warm room for 1 hour.

  5. Churn cream at 50°F to 58°F.

  6. Add warm water in the churn.

Churn the butter

  1. Pour in cream quickly.

  2. Slow down as butter forms.

  3. Transfer butter to a scalded wooden bowl with a ladle.

  4. Do not wash the butter to preserve its flavor.

  5. Work out the buttermilk.

Salt and shape

  1. Add fine salt.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Pack in jars.

  4. Shape into balls.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Cream
Its fat separates into butter when agitated, forming the solid base of the dish.
Fine salt
Adds flavor and helps preserve the butter.

The step that matters

Slow down as butter forms. Churning too vigorously once the butter begins to form can overwork it and push out the buttermilk unevenly, affecting texture and keeping quality.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes