You need fresh milk. Cow milk will settle a good creamline at the top. Goat milk has to be separated first. Regular milk from the grocery won't work. The cream has already been removed. Skim the cream off the milk. The butter is better if the cream sits a couple of days in the refrigerator but this is not a requirement. Also almost soured cream yeilds more butter than fresh cream. But ignor all of this for now. LOL Beat the cream in a covered blender to keep the splashing milk down. The cream will seperate into liquid (buttermilk) and yellow granules (butter). Pour off the liquid (save it!) . Pour a bit of ice cold water over the butter and blend for just a bit more (this washes the butter). Pour off the water and save the butter. Using a spatula press the butter forcing out any liquid caught in the lumps. At this point you can also salt it or leave it unsalted. Store in a tightly covered clean dish in the refrigerator. Then bake some biscuits and slather them with your fresh home made butter! Cow milk should yeild some really beautiful cream, Ozark hen. As well as a fairly good amount from a nice fresh gallon. You will enjoy it so much. It is unlike anything commercially produced for the grocery store shelves. Yummy! I can't remember the yeild of cream to butter but if you save a good bit of cream (1 gallon or more) you'll get over a pound of butter not to mention the great buttermilk for baking! You can find this covered in our ongoing homemade yogurt thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9738 Enjoy! Updated to add - you can buy heavy whipping cream and beat it to whipped cream state then keep beating until it breaks and you can get a little butter from it.
Yes, finding the fresh milk is the hard part. I live in an area full of huge dairies, and you'd think it would be easy to find, but it's not. We do have a pregnant heifer, but she hasn't started producing milk yet, and even if she does, I can't imagine her letting us milk her - she's a real pain! I remember making butter from heavy cream when I was in 2nd grade. I think we put it in a jar and shook it???? Didn't know you could use a blender, Prissy. If I can find fresh milk to get the cream I'm definitely going to try it!!
I know... I was very much looking forward to making my own butter and cheese but guess what... you CAN'T buy fresh milk legally in Ohio. None of the local dairies are willing to lose their licenses to sell fresh milk to local consumers! I'm a bit surprised by this but yet not surprised. The government regulates nearly everything. I guess I will have to give up my dreams of making fresh cheese and butter. For now... I'm going to have to get a dairy cow next Spring. Take care, Tami
Quote:Check in an Amish comunity, not sure where you are, but I'/m sure there is one somewhere close, just remember no sunday sales
You can find the milk. Some places call it 'creamline'. You just can't buy raw milk in some places. Pasturized milk works just not grocery store milk because they have already removed the cream from it.
When you say goat milk has to be separated first do you mean you have to skim the cream off the top or what?
Yes. But - goat milk doesn't separate like cows milk does. You have to put it in a separator which costs lots of money. Or develop your own method with wide shallow pans and a beater to get the cream to rise to skim off.