Butter ... and assorted dairy products

Well hello there.

I made butter this week. It was very exciting, and now I'm going to tell you a secret. It's very easy. And it tastes super good, just the loveliest thing to put on your home-made scones with your friend's jam!

All you need is some room temperature cream, and your friendly kitchen mixer. Here it is in the Magimix, just after turning into butter:

(click to see this picture larger)











All the white liquid dripping down the sides is - buttermilk - yes, the real stuff, not the cultured whizz that gets sold at the supermarket. It tastes very like milk, but I'm using mine to put in some more scones. I got about 1 cup of buttermilk and probably 2 1/2 cups of butter from 1 litre of double cream. Then I put all the butter in a big lump in a bowl, shoved it under the cold tap and kneaded it gently until the water ran clear - apparently this is important because any remaining buttermilk not washed out might make the butter go rancid - big yuk! Then into my lovely new IKEA glass bowls for pretty. It's been in the fridge to keep fresh as it's been warmish lately, but it spreads well from cold unlike shop butter, so that's no problem.

I don't think it's any cheaper than buying butter (from Lidl or Aldi where it's about £1 for a 250g packet), as I paid £2.50 for the cream, but 2 approx. packs of butter and a cup of buttermilk from fresh seems to be worth it, rather than buying at the grocery store. Also, I got the cream at the local dairy, so the food miles are lower.

If you want a recipe, this is the one I used (but as you can see I went for the option that didn't involve shaking your arm till it falls off).
http://www.allotment.org.uk/allotment_foods/Making_Butter_at_Home.php

The next task is to try making yoghurt. This will be tricky for me because it involves ..... waiting ...... this is not something I am especially hot on. Mostly I like fairly instant results, but I can see this will be a test for me. And I will be a better person for learning patience I'm sure. I'll report back, erm, when it's ready then!