Baby Food Jar Projects: Homemade Butter

Making your own butter may seem like a crazy thing to do, but it’s actually quite easy, very delicious, and a good way to use cream that might otherwise go bad. I made mine with sea salt and packaged it in a baby food jar; I would bring this to a dinner party as an alternative to a bottle of wine.

Learn how to make butter after the jump…
1.  Pour any amount of cream into your mixer with the whisk attachment:

2. Turn it on and watch as the cream goes through these stages.  In a couple minutes it thickens into whip cream:

 In a few minutes it gets sort of globby:
3.  Very soon after that it starts to separate.  The liquid released is the buttermilk.  At this point you want to pour the liquid out.  You can save this but it isn’t sour so don’t use it to replace buttermilk in recipes (you can use it to replace whole milk though):
Mix it a minute longer and it will thicken more and release more liquid, which you should also pour out:
4. Now take your butter and put it in a bowl of cold water and knead it.  You are rinsing off the buttermilk so your butter will last longer.  Your hands will be all buttery slimy, like a treat for your skin:
5.  Pour the water out and admire your butter.  If you want to you can (like me) put it back in the mixer with some sea salt or herbs or whatever you like and whip it to a fluffier consistency.
6. Package it up cute.  I put some in a baby food jar, and wrapped some in wax paper and tied with bows.  Add a cute label and you’re done:

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23 Comments

Anonymous

great idea! I bake cakes and make my own frosting: I've always got TONS of leftover whole cream that went to waste if I didn't have to make another batch of frosting within a week or so. So glad I stumbled across this!

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Jaime

hi sorry i just saw this! just heavy whipping cream. i've used any brand and it works, just rinse the buttermilk off well!

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Jaime

sorry – i meant rinse the buttermilk off well and it should last a long time. i've used it for up to a month. the buttermilk is what would make it go rancid so if you rinse it well you'll be fine.

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Jaime

yes, and yes even better! so funny, i was just working up a post about making corn muffins with it, but with honey in the butter. so yum.

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Sarah

Just wanted you to know, I am going to try making this for my blog and link it back to yours. I have never made butter before, but love your instructions!!

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Timmi

This is also fun for kids to make by putting it in a jar and have them shake and shake (works better with more than one kid cause they will get tired if they have to do it themselves) They will be so proud of themselves! We made it this way when we visited the pioneer museum.

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Karen

This can be a fun project for kids too (and keeps them occupied for a while 🙂 – instead of using the mixer for the whipping part, fill a jar that has a good sealing lid about 1/3 to 1/2 full of the cream and shake. It takes a while, but it will eventually go through the same stages of whipped cream and then butter, and it's easy to pour out the butter milk when you need to. I used to work in a child care center and we did this in the preschool room, and the kids took turns shaking the jar. They loved it!

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Payal

Ah, this explains what happened to my heavy whipping cream when I whipped it too long whilst making frosting. I am glad that my friend suggested I drain it. I ended up with butter cream frosting instead of whipped frosting. It all worked out in the end but it was a stressful process.

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HarmlessColor

I've made butter by accident before (the poor forgotten whipped cream…), but I'm glad you put this up, because I wouldn't have thought to rinse it!

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Erin

When I was in 2nd grade we did this as part of a class project, except we put it in a mason jar and took turns shaking it, then pouring off the liquid until we had butter. It was a really fun craft to do and then we ate bread and fresh butter when it was all done.

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Vitty's mom

what speed do you put the mixer on through the various stages???? we are trying new things all of the time and this is awesome!

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Michelle

I remember doing this as a science project in school! I don’t remember though..how long will it stay good?

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