# Butter in a Mason Jar...



## ShyAnne (Jun 18, 2008)

I was given a jar of cow milk cream. I was told to tip the jar for a couple of hours till it formed Butter, empty the butter and rinse with cold water until water runs clear. I did this and sure enough got 'butter'. 
The problem is it tastes nothing like butter. I added a bit of salt and olive oil. But the butter tastes milky. 
The cream was about a week old, could this be a part of the problem? It almost tastes spoiled.
I am going to try it again. Is there a better recipe for butter flavor? 
I also want to try it with my goat milk.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Lots of folks make their butter with old cream. I think it's nasty.

Use fresh cream.

It will have less "flavor" than store bought because it's really fresh.


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## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

I've made butter with fresh cream and with older cream. I like the fresh best. The older cream has the "spoiled" taste you describe. Even though I've made several pounds of butter, I still can't get it to taste like the butter from the store.

I haven't figured it out yet, and I really want to because I don't like my butter as well as the store bought kind. I want to be able to stop buying it and use my own.

Try fresh cream that's not more than a few days old next time and see if you like it any better.


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## homesteadforty (Dec 4, 2007)

How did you "rinse" it? Rinsing butter is not just running water over it. You must wash the butter by rinsing with running cold water as you gently knead it. Then you must work all the trapped water out by beating or pressing it out.

The milky, old taste is from the aged buttermilk trapped in the butter.


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## ShyAnne (Jun 18, 2008)

I rinsed it by running cold water and pressing the water through he butter with a fork. I would stir and mix the butter well to be sure it was rinsed.
I will try fresh cream next time.
I also wanted to try it with my goats milk but have a hard time getting the cream off the top of the milk.
I prefer store bought butter also.


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## George in NH (Jun 24, 2002)

I use fresh cream and rinse the butter good. I prefer the homemade butter over the store bought. I was talking with my father bout homemade butter and he said he'd always made butter with older cream and preferred that to fresh cream. I don't like sour so I will stick with fresh cream.


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

In the old days, butter was often made with sour milk (cream). There was sour milk butter and sweet milk butter. Each had different uses. Sour milk butter was often used in making biscuits and pie crust, and sweet milk butter was used for fresh eating. 

Cold, fresh cream is one secret to good tasting butter. The next trick is quick churning. You don't want your churning to take more than 20 minutes, or your cream will start to sour. I can't imagine "tipping" your jar for a couple of hours! Thorough washing with copious amounts of fresh, cold water is the last necessary step. You knead the butter, like you would bread dough, under a running stream of cold, fresh water. You don't wash it in a bowl of water because all you're doing then is rinsing in it's own watered buttermilk.
When we "churn" our butter in a mason jar, for demonstrations or whatever, (we have a butter churn we use for our own uses), we take a clean mason jar, put a clean marble or two in it, and start gently shaking the jar. Within 20 minutes, you should have butter.


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## Helena (May 10, 2002)

I do this with goats milk/cream. Let it sit a day or so and get the cream from the top but I just ..shake, shake, shake, shake the mason jar for about 10 -20 minutes and ..you have butter. Taste very good the way it comes from the jar. I don't understand the rinsing part of the butter receipe. Good Luck !!


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## oth47 (Jan 11, 2008)

My youngest daughter was about 2 and I worked on a dairy,had plenty of milk..I skimmed the cream,put it in a jar and we rolled it back and forth across the floor to each other till we got butter,,she was really impressed that we could make butter..one of my favorite memories..


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## House faerie (Apr 29, 2007)

This is off topic kind of but, does anyone ever can their butter?


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

Helena said:


> I do this with goats milk/cream. Let it sit a day or so and get the cream from the top but I just ..shake, shake, shake, shake the mason jar for about 10 -20 minutes and ..you have butter. Taste very good the way it comes from the jar. I don't understand the rinsing part of the butter receipe. Good Luck !!


Helena, you rinse butter to rid the butter of the buttermilk. The buttermilk will sour faster than the butter itself will, and will then lend an off taste to the finished product if it isn't consumed immediately. It simply will not keep as long as well rinsed butter will keep. This is why you knead it to work out all the buttermilk it may hold.


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## Feral Nature (Feb 21, 2007)

Rinsing with ice water makes it easier sometimes. Also, keep in mind that homemade butter does not taste like store bought. I grew up on my grandma's homemade butter and it was just different that anything you can get from a store. She made huge mounds covering whole saucers, covered them and froze them like that. Everyone who visited went home with pounds of these butter saucers. This was Hereford cow butter. Very milky Hereford cows.


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