Last updated

02 May 2012

Quest for the Good Life

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Welcome to our home made butter making page.

This should be a fairly short page because this is so easy to do.  It helps if you have some basic kitchen equipment and an electric mixer/whisk will save time and effort.  Other than that you simply need to get your hands on some double cream.  We found that the discount supermarkets offer the best price.  We will look at the crude economics of making your own butter towards the end.

So we started with 3 x 300 ml tubs of fresh double cream.  Cost about 89p each (Jan 2012)

Let these get up to room temperature first (could take a while if just out of the fridge)

Empty the cream into your mixer bowl and start it off at a medium speed.  The cream will thicken and then after about 3 minutes start to form lumpy peaks.  This is the beginning of the separation process.

Slow the mixer down at this point.  All of a sudden the solids form on the side of the bowl and the liquid gathers in the middle.  This liquid is the buttermilk.

Pour out the buttermilk, but don’t waste it you can use it in your bread or other cooking.  Then we refill the mixer bowl (still with solids in) about a third full of cold water.  Then switch the mixer on low to wash the remaining buttermilk out of the butter.  If you leave buttermilk in the solids, it will go off quickly and become rancid.

The mixer water will go cloudy as the buttermilk gets washed out of the butter.  Empty this water away (do not keep) and repeat two more times until the water stays clean.  That means you have washed all of the remaining butter milk out of the butter solid.

Then take out the butter, divide up into 3 pieces and shape using your hands.  You can freeze the spare pats until you need them.

So what does it taste like?  Well commercial butter tends to be a bit hard.  This is still firm but once at near room temperature spreads nicely and has a smooth creamy taste.  It really is a pleasure to eat (in moderation of course!)

How much does it cost?

Well cost will vary according to how much you pay for your double cream.  Look for special offers or use discount stores to get the lowest price.  We paid 89p per tub, but we have seen it as high as £1.30.

So there are no ingredients, just cream, so 3 tubs @ 89p makes £2.67.  From this we got 3 pats of butter which could be the same size or slightly smaller than a commercial pack.  Commercial butter can cost from the cheapest, around £1.19, to brands at £1.40 and above.  Our butter has to be as good as the best butter so we are comparing to brands at the £1.40 end.  Three packs would cost you £4.20 !.  Ok ours could be smaller, but even if you compare to the cheapest stuff (not so nice to eat) then you are looking at £3.57.  Even if you reduce this by 25% to allow for smaller pack sizes this brings it down to £2.67 (strangely enough).  

So even being hard on ourselves and pulling our pack size apart, we still cannot get commercial butter to be cheaper than making your own, and that’s using the low price not so good stuff.  Our butter is top notch, fresh as a daisy.  Even when frozen it comes out tasting as good.

So have a go, make your self some butter as a treat.  Spread some on toasted home made bread with home made plum jam.