# Oops--Tried to make butter and got whipped cream



## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

This is my second time making butter from raw milk. The first try was a resounding success! My second try, however, gave me an unexpected surprise--whipped cream! As best as I can tell, I did everything the same both times: skimmed the cream off the milk, and shook in a mason jar. Is there something subtle in the process that makes cream go to butter, as opposed to whipped cream?


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2014)

Keep mixing it. Over mixed whipped cream creates butter.


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## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

Ah, thank you!


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2014)

No problem, I had the opposite problem once, tried to make whip and ended up with butter.


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## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

Ugh! Kept shaking, and just got thicker whipped cream!


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## farmerdan (Aug 17, 2004)

Got the same results. I think it has to do with the temp of the milk. Try room temp.


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## WildernesFamily (Mar 11, 2006)

We make ours in our mixer. Just keep whipping it until it butters. 

Now my daughter tried to make butter yesterday, but ended up with... I don't even know how to explain it, it was like whipped butter, tiny butter particles evenly distributed in the liquid. Whipping further didn't help, in fact I think it had been over-whipped. If you rubbed some of the thick liquid between your fingers you could tell that there were tiny solids in there. So I strained the whole lot through a clean tea cloth and squeezed it to get as much buttermilk out as possible. We got a solid but as soon as we added cold water to try wash it, it all separated again. So I strained the water off again and then put the blob in a fine sieve while I picked up sections and squeezed them really hard through my fingers, forcing the liquid out. Eventually it started holding together nicely and became butter.

Allowing the cream to come closer to room temp helps, as well as allowing it to slightly sour.

It's a mysterious thing to me - some days the butter will come quickly, other days it seems to take forever.


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## Skandi (Oct 21, 2014)

Old cream.. I found that out by accident when I wanted whipped cream, and got butter, same as someone else stated. 

I make my butter in a mixer, set it to make whipped cream, and just keep going till I hear thunk thunk thunk coming from the kitchen!


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## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

As I think back, there IS one thing that I did differently this time--I didn't bring the cream up to room temperature. In reading about making butter, it seems that this step is pretty essential. Some even suggest leaving the cream out overnight and letting it sour slightly.

So since at last one other person has experienced the same failure when using cold cream, I'm pretty sure now that it was the temperature that was the problem. Stands to reason that when _intending_ to make whipped cream, you're instructed to keep everything nice and _cold_.  Thanks, everyone, for your responses!


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## nick malek (Feb 7, 2009)

i have been making butter for a few years at least twice a week at a half to 3/4 lbs,
do not fill the jar more than 1/3 cool cream takes a few minutes longer to shake into butter and the butter is lighter yellow
warmer cream takes less time shaking and the butter is more darker yellow 
i let the milk separate from the cream over nite in the frig. and next morning make butter


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## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

I believe my jar was about 3/4 full, so that, in addition to the temperature, may have been a problem. When the contents of my jar got to the "whipped cream" stage, it completely filled the jar, and no amount of shaking could cause the stuff to rattle around any more.

I'm getting more fresh milk today, so we'll see what happens when these two problems are corrected! Thanks, everyone!


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## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

Just picked up another gallon of fresh milk yesterday, and tried the operation again--this time making sure the jar was only 1/3 full, and bringing it up to room temperature before shaking. What a difference those two changes made--the butter came out perfectly this time! I also noticed that the shaking time was much reduced.


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