It’s hard to imagine a world without butter! Butter is what makes so many different foods delicious. Everything from popcorn to chicken is improved when you add a little bit of butter, and most people can’t imagine taking a bite out of a pancake or waffle without it being loaded with butter.
However, butter doesn’t exactly grow on trees, as the saying goes. The process of making butter is actually somewhat complicated, and it takes a lot of effort and know how to ensure that the golden goodness is perfected to be the product we all know and love.
The Art of Making Butter
The process of making butter is something that has been passed down generation to generation. Our ancestors loved the taste of butter just as much as we do. While the core concept behind making butter is churning, the process is not that simple. You need to know the nuance of how long to churn, and how much to strain. Using a poor quality strainer or not having a good idea of how much churning is needed could leave you without the buttery goodness you’re after.
Here is a breakdown of how to make butter:
- The first step in making butter is to separate cream from whole milk. Once the cream is isolated, the cream should be churned by shaking or beating it as vigorously as possible, until it starts to thicken.
- Once it begins to thicken, you need to remove the remaining liquid with a high quality strainer, like SaniClean strainers.
- This remaining liquid is called buttermilk, and can be a great ingredient in many different recipes, so shouldn’t be discarded either.
- Then, it is time to wash and form the butter into the shape that you prefer. Before you know it, the butter is done and ready to eat.
Broken down like this, the process of making butter probably sounds really easy to do. While it isn’t the most difficult thing to do, there are several complications that one may run into along the way.
For example, here are a few complications to be wary of:
- First of all, make sure that you are getting high quality cream that isn’t already separated. The best thing to do is to procure fresh cream from a dairy farm, though if that isn’t possible you can definitely find fresh cream at a local farmer’s market, or likely even from your local grocer.
- Be prepared to churn vigorously! You may recall making butter in elementary school, having everyone in the class take a turn at shaking a cup of cream as fast as they could. However, this isn’t the best way to churn your butter. There are ways to use an electric mixer to churn the butter, and this may be the most efficient way to make butter.
- Finally, don’t make the mistake of using a low-quality strainer. Having a solid brick of butter is entirely dependent on your ability to remove the unwanted moisture and imperfections from the butter as you proceed through each step. Buttermilk is a great ingredient on its own, but it is not ideal to have leftover in your butter. SaniClean strainers are a great resource for this step, as they will ensure a clean, sanitary and thorough straining of the buttermilk out of the butter. Using a low quality strainer can interfere with your ability to remove the remaining moisture, and this could destroy the entire butter making process.
Making your own butter is a great activity to try at home, especially with the kids. Make sure that you have the right tools at hand to be successful, and you’ll be rewarded with a wonderful plate of delicious butter. There is nothing worse than attempting to try something on your own for the first time and realizing that the tools you are using aren’t up to the task. If you attempt to strain butter with an inferior strainer, you will wind up with a mess on your hands. Rely on SaniClean strainers to ensure that you end up with the product you are looking for.