# Butter trouble



## tickranch (Jan 6, 2007)

Help

I can't figure out what is going on with my butter making.

I have been making fresh butter with an electric churn twice a week for three years now with little trouble. The past two weeks is a different story

Previously I would put the cream in the churn and turn it on and in a few minutes it get real thick, almost whipped like and then it would start to separate and then become butter and buttermilk. Here lately I put the cream in and turn on the churn and it doesn't get thick. My churn will run and run until the motor starts to get hot, like an hour or more, but no butter.

What is going on? I have not changed anything that I do. Same cows, same diet, same method of skimming the cream off, same churn.

Please help, I need butter

Thanks


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## tickranch (Jan 6, 2007)

Buller...Buller...Buller...


just joking, I'm sure all the butter experts are busy...making butter.

I'm just impatient and very worried. I'm down to my last cup of frozen butter. I haven't bought butter in 3 or 4 yrs.


Sorry


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## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

Well, you know a lot more about butter than I do. :bow:

I've only made it a handful of times since last fall and I still haven't got it to taste the way I want it to. But, I do know that the stage of lactation can affect how the cream breaks into butter and also the temperature of the cream affects it too. Is the paddle on your ice cream maker turning like it's supposed to? Maybe its humming but not spinning??

That's about all I have to offer. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Hope you get an answer soon.


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## tickranch (Jan 6, 2007)

Thank you Carla

I'm using a butter churn that has a clear glass jar so I can see the cream churning.

I have never heard of the stages of lactation making a difference, I will try to find more info on that. These cows all birthed late winter so I know I'm not getting colostrum or anything. They have been out on the pasture for well over a month or two now so I don't think it has to do with their diet either.

I did a google search, I don't have a lot of luck with them, and all I have found was that I should stick a hot poker into the cream to cast out the evil fairies who won't let it turn 

I think I shall cry now
:Bawling:


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## tickranch (Jan 6, 2007)

Good morning ~ Thought I'd give an update in case someone else has a similar problem and does a search here.

It was suggested to me to put a little cream in a jar with a lid and shake it, if it makes butter than the problem is with the churn if not then the problem is with the milk :doh: I'm not sure why I didn't think of that, maybe I'm to emotionally attached to the situation.

Anyway...

The cream in the jar turned into butter, I was surprised actually at how fast it turned, it only took a few minutes.

So that would leave one to believe the problem lies with the churn BUT I'm having a hard time accepting that. 

An electric butter churn is a pretty simple machine. The motor spins a rod with a paddle at the bottom there by agitating the cream. After a few minutes the butter fat separates from the buttermilk and viola, you have butter.

As previously stated, my churn jar is clear glass so I can see the rod and paddle spinning in there agitating the cream. Why won't it separate?

I'm still confused but at least I have a little butter. 

Any thoughts or ideas are welcome (about the butter & churn situation)

Thanks


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Maybe it is turning too slowly. Maybe time for a new motor? Dunno, really.

Good luck though!


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

Could it be a temperature issue? If you start with refrigerated cream I bet it can take twice as long for it turn. Room temperature cream turns in less than 30 minutes for me.


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## jBlaze (Dec 26, 2007)

did you get a new churn?


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## tickranch (Jan 6, 2007)

Nope, no new churn. 

I am making butter again, I guess I could have updated this post sorry.

I don't really know what the heck was going on. For two weeks my cream wouldn't turn and then it did again.

Someone on another forum suggested adding salt to the cream, that sometimes helps when the cream doesn't want to turn. I guess if I have this problem again I will try that.

I have a supply of frozen butter again and I didn't have to buy any either.


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## JulieLou42 (Mar 28, 2005)

I had no problem with getting butter to come up in tiny, yellow chunks when I had my 3/4 Guernsey X 1/4 Angus cow's milk or when I had a Brown Swiss and churned in a clay butter churn with a dapper, but this Jersey milk? I just turns into a soft clump of fat, like over-whipped cream or something? I'm so frustrated. This is from a pastured cow fed very little grain...special, organic grain, and some alfalfa. I fed my cow 2 qts "wet" COB with alfalfa pellets twice a day when milked, beyond her mostly orchard grass with some Timothy in it hay all year long, whether pasture or hay-bales, which is the sort of hay we have around here. My Brown Swiss ate only alfalfa hay and some grain. I let my cream warm up to between 63>66 degrees F. I works well perhaps once in six churnings, or less. It's really disappointing, as we cannot even get any butter from the market any longer that comes close to tasting like butter...like 1% butter flavor to it. I have a one gallon jar butter churner that worked very well with the Guernsey-Angus cream, but don't have that cow any longer.


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