Butter Recipe: How to Make Homemade Butter

Butter is a water-in-fat emulsion made from cream. When unhomogenized, full-fat milk is left to sit, and fatty cream rises to the top within 12–24 hours. When that cream is agitated, it becomes butter, which has a longer shelf life than fresh milk or cream. Butter has many applications as a spread, condiment, baking ingredient, and cooking fat.

For thousands of years, butter was made by waiting for the cream to rise and then churning it into butter. The process of churning damages milk fat globules and encourages them to stick together, eventually forming a solid mass. Once this happens, the liquid buttermilk is drained off and the butter is kneaded. Washing the butter in cold water also helps to remove the buttermilk. Butter has a fat content of about 80 percent and water content of 15 percent.

In the nineteenth century, the development of centrifuges allowed for the fast and uniform separation of cream from milk. Today, it's easy to accidentally end up with butter when over-whipping whipped cream in a food processor or stand mixer.

Butter making is easy with store-bought cream and modern appliances. Consider these three different methods for churning butter at home:

1. 1. Food processor: You can use your food processor to whip cream, and if you keep processing, you'll eventually get butter.
2. 2. Stand mixer: A stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment makes for a great butter churner. Make sure to cover the mixer completely with plastic wrap to protect yourself from splatter. (A hand mixer will inevitably splatter buttermilk.)
3. 3. Mason jar: Making butter in a Mason jar is a low-tech option that's best done with friends since it can take about 20 minutes of sloshing to turn cream into butter.

You can add live bacterial cultures and herbs to your butter, or remove the milk solids for varying textures and flavors.

1. 1. Cultured butter: Cultured butter is butter that has been inoculated with lactic acid bacteria, which are naturally occurring in raw cream and milk. It has a complex, slightly cheesy flavor. Before ice became widely accessible, most butter was cultured.
2. 2. Compound butter: Compound butter is mixed with ingredients, usually finely chopped tender herbs.
3. 3. Clarified butter: Clarified butter is pure butterfat. Clarified butter is made by removing all milk solids and water.