How to Make Butter From Cream at Home, and How to Keep It

No. Half-and-half is about 10 to 18 percent fat and single cream around 18 percent, and neither holds enough fat to clump into grains. Use heavy or whipping cream at 35 percent fat or higher; the closer to 40 percent, the bigger the yield from the same 2 cups.

About 3 to 5 minutes with the standard blade, which is faster than a mixer because the bowl is sealed and the blade shears harder. Pour the buttermilk off the moment the grains form, or the blade whips it back in and the butter turns greasy.

Colour comes from carotene in the cow's feed, not from anything you did. Grass-fed summer cream gives a deep yellow; grain-fed winter cream is nearly white. Commercial butter is often tinted, which 21 U.S. Code 321a allows, so pale homemade butter is normal.

Yes, and it is the reward for the work. Two cups of cream leave about 1 cup (8 fl oz) of thin, sweet buttermilk. It is not cultured like carton buttermilk, so it lacks the acid that reacts with baking soda; add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice per cup for soda-leavened recipes.

Anywhere from 65 to 80 percent, depending on how hard you wash and press it. US law sets 80 percent milk fat as the minimum for anything sold as butter. A hand-worked block that still weeps water is nearer 65 percent, and that extra water is why it sours faster.

Yes. Wrap it tight in parchment and then foil or a freezer bag, and it keeps for months with no change once thawed overnight in the fridge. Freeze in 4 oz (115 g) portions so you thaw only what a two-day counter crock can use.

Only slower. Stir 2 tablespoons of live plain yoghurt or cultured buttermilk into 2 cups of cream, leave it covered at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours until it thickens and smells tangy, chill it, then churn as usual. The Maine extension says to keep cultured butter in the fridge, not on the counter.

No. Plain cool tap water is what the crock listing calls for. Change it daily in a room above about 70 F (21 C) and every few days when the kitchen is cooler, and rinse the base each time. Salt in the water does nothing the salt in the butter is not already doing.

The rinse water stays clear after a minute of pressing. Milky water means buttermilk is still trapped. Three or four changes of ice-cold water usually get there; warm water melts the surface and makes the butter smeary, so keep it cold.

It was probably ultra-pasteurised and stabilised, or it was too warm. Cream labelled UHT, or with carrageenan or mono- and diglycerides added, can take 20 minutes or more to break. Chill the bowl and cream to about 40 F (4 C) and keep going; it does eventually split.

Yes. A hand mixer on high takes 10 to 15 minutes for 2 cups of cream, a few minutes longer than a stand mixer, and you need to hold the beaters under the surface once the cream turns grainy so it does not spray. Use a deep bowl, 3 quarts or bigger.

About 1 1/4 cups (10 fl oz) of 36 to 40 percent heavy cream gives one 4 oz (115 g) stick once washed and pressed. Yield drops with lower-fat cream, so a 35 percent whipping cream needs closer to 1 1/2 cups for the same stick.

Yes, on low speed. A blender breaks 2 cups of cream in 2 to 4 minutes, but it whips air in first and can overheat the cream if run on high. Pulse, stop as soon as the grains separate, and drain before the blade recombines them.

No. Cold cream at 38 to 45 F (3 to 7 C) works and gives firmer grains; the old dairy target of 55 to 60 F (13 to 16 C) breaks a few minutes faster. Cream at 70 F (21 C) or warmer gives soft, greasy butter that is hard to wash.

Yes. A clean glass marble or a couple of ceramic pie weights in a 1 quart jar half-full of cream cut shaking time from around 20 minutes to 10 to 12. Rinse and remove the marble before you wash the butter.

Because the moment whipped cream breaks, it throws buttermilk in a ring about 12 in (30 cm) around the bowl. A tea towel draped over the mixer head and bowl for the last 3 minutes catches it. Some stand mixers ship a splash guard that does the same job.

Kneading the fresh butter grains in cold water, pouring the milky water off, and repeating until the water stays clear, usually 3 or 4 changes. Each rinse pulls out buttermilk the mixer left behind, which is the sugar-and-protein part that sours.

No. Water above about 60 F (16 C) softens the surface fat and turns the butter smeary, so it traps buttermilk instead of releasing it. Use water with ice in it, around 35 to 40 F (2 to 4 C), and work fast.

Fold and press the washed butter against the side of a cold bowl with a silicone spatula, tipping out the water each time, for 2 to 3 minutes until no beads appear. A wooden butter paddle or two flat spatulas work faster than hands, which warm the fat.

The cream was too warm when it broke, usually above 65 F (18 C). Warm fat smears instead of forming grains. Chill the bowl and cream for 30 minutes before churning, and wash in ice water so the butter firms up as you work it.

Buttermilk was left inside. A mass that weeps cloudy liquid when pressed still holds sugar and protein that sour in 2 to 4 days. Rewash in ice water until it runs clear, press again, and the sour note stops developing.

Yes, if it smells clean and has not thickened or curdled. Cream a day or two past its date is fine to churn, and the wash removes most of the buttermilk that would spoil first. Cream that smells sour or tastes sharp will make sour butter; throw it out.

Higher is better, and the Center for Dairy Research at Wisconsin gives 35 to 40 percent milkfat as the ideal range. Below 30 percent the grains are small and slow to form; a 40 percent double cream yields the most butter per cup.

Yes, but it takes longer. UHT cream has had its proteins changed by heat above 275 F (135 C) and can take 15 to 25 minutes to break on a mixer instead of 8 to 12. Chill it to 40 F (4 C) first and be patient; it does split in the end.

Yes, slowly. Stabilisers like carrageenan and mono- and diglycerides hold the foam together, so the cream stays whipped for an extra 5 to 10 minutes before it breaks. Check the label; cream with only 'cream' listed breaks fastest.

Yes, and it churns easily, but it goes off faster. Raw cream keeps its natural lipase enzymes, which split fat into soapy-tasting acids; pasteurisation at higher temperatures is what disables them. Keep raw-cream butter in the fridge and use it within about a week.

Yes. Goat and sheep cream churn the same way once separated, though goat milk fat globules are smaller and the cream is harder to skim. Expect nearly white butter, since goats convert carotene to colourless vitamin A, and a tangier flavour after 2 or 3 days.

About 20 to 25 minutes on a stand mixer: 8 to 12 minutes churning, 5 minutes washing through 3 or 4 changes of ice water, and 3 minutes pressing and salting. Jar shaking adds around 10 minutes to the churning stage.

When the foam collapses and you see yellow clumps swimming in cloudy liquid, usually 1 to 3 minutes after the cream turns grainy. Stopping earlier leaves a grainy whipped cream; running 2 minutes longer whips buttermilk back in and makes the butter greasy.

Because the fat globules in cream are wrapped in membranes, and beating for 8 to 12 minutes ruptures them so the bare fat sticks together. Air bubbles hold the foam for a while, then the fat clusters get too large, the foam collapses, and the water phase drains off as buttermilk.

Butter melts fully between 90 and 95 F (32 to 35 C), and starts to slump well below that, around 70 F (21 C). A counter near a hob or in direct sun in summer passes 90 F easily, which is why a crock belongs in the shade of the kitchen.

No. Sweet cream buttermilk is thin, mild and slightly sweet, with about 1 percent fat. Carton buttermilk is skim milk cultured with bacteria until it is sour and thick. For soda-leavened baking, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar per cup of the homemade kind.

About 3 to 5 days in a sealed jar in the fridge at 40 F (4 C) or below. It is low in fat and high in sugar and protein, so it sours faster than the butter. Freeze it in 1 cup portions if pancakes are more than a week away.

Pancakes, scones, soda bread and cornbread all take it at 1 cup per batch. It also replaces milk in mashed potatoes and can be drunk straight. Because it is uncultured, add 1 tablespoon of acid per cup when a recipe relies on baking soda.

Roughly 1.5 to 2 percent by weight, which is about 1/4 teaspoon of fine salt per 4 oz (115 g) stick. Match that at home by weighing: 2 g of fine salt per 115 g of pressed butter reads clearly salted on toast.

After. Salt added to the grains before washing rinses straight out with the buttermilk. Knead fine salt into the pressed, drained butter as the last step, about 1/4 teaspoon per 4 oz (115 g), and give it 10 minutes to dissolve into the water droplets.

Yes, but expect crunch. Flakes do not dissolve fully in the 15 to 20 percent water held in butter, so they stay as crystals, which some people like on bread. For an even seasoning use fine salt at about 1/4 teaspoon per 4 oz (115 g).

Yes, and it is the best use of it. Work 1 tablespoon of chopped herbs or 1 clove of crushed garlic into 4 oz (115 g) of salted butter. Because the herbs are wet, keep compound butter in the fridge and use it within 5 to 7 days, or freeze in a log.

Yes. Melt it gently over low heat, skim the foam, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes until the milk solids at the bottom turn golden and the fat is clear, then strain through a coffee filter. Ghee has no water or milk solids left, so it keeps at room temperature for weeks.

Heat speeds the reaction between fat and oxygen. The University of Maine extension notes that a warm house makes butter go rancid quicker, and a kitchen at 80 F (27 C) turns a counter crock in a day. Move the crock to the fridge when the room sits above 70 F (21 C).

Two smells, and the Center for Dairy Research names both: oxidised fat smells like wet cardboard, and lipase rancidity smells soapy or like baby vomit. Either means the whole piece goes in the bin; it is not dangerous in small amounts but it ruins food.

No. The University of Maine guidance stops at 1 to 2 days on the counter for salted butter below 70 F (21 C), and unsalted should not sit out at all. After a week it is at best rancid and at worst growing mould on any milk solids left in it.

Yes, especially if it was not washed. The residual buttermilk and the 15 to 30 percent water phase feed mould, and dark specks on the surface after 5 to 7 days out are the sign. Well-washed, salted butter kept in a crock with fresh water rarely gets that far.

Not safely for long. The Maine extension says unsalted butter belongs in the fridge and comes out only to soften. If you want a crock on the counter, salt the batch at about 1/4 teaspoon per 4 oz (115 g) and keep the room below 70 F (21 C).

Tightly, in parchment and then foil or a lidded container, pressing out air. Air and light hasten rancidity, and a fridge full of onions adds smell. Wrapped this way, salted butter keeps for months at 40 F (4 C) or below.

Two to three weeks for well-washed salted butter is a safe working figure, and wrapped butter can go several months. Unwashed butter with visible buttermilk should be used within 4 or 5 days, because the water phase sours first.

No. Take the butter out and freeze it wrapped; a ceramic cup packed with expanding water-rich butter at 0 F (minus 18 C) can crack, and a frozen block will not seat back in the cup. Freeze in 4 oz (115 g) portions instead.

Not noticeably if it was pressed dry. Butter with large water pockets can turn crumbly after freezing because ice crystals split the mass. Thaw overnight in the fridge at 40 F (4 C) rather than on the counter.

It was cold and hard when packed, or the cup was underfilled. Soften the butter to about 65 F (18 C) first and press it firmly to the rim of the 4.7 fl oz (140 ml) cup so it grips the ceramic; a loose lump drops out when the lid is inverted.

Enough to meet the rim of the inverted lid cup, usually 1/3 to 1/2 in (about 1 cm) in the base. Too much overflows when the lid goes in; too little leaves the butter face open to air. Cool tap water is what the product page calls for.

Yes, but then it is just a covered dish. The water in the base is what shields the butter from air, and the product page says to add it before use. Without water, follow the covered-dish rule instead: salted butter only, 1 to 2 days, room below 70 F (21 C).

About 4.1 in (10.5 cm) tall and 3.9 in (10 cm) across, with a lid cup that holds 4.7 fl oz (140 ml). That is a footprint about the size of a coffee mug, so it fits beside a toaster or on a breakfast tray without crowding.

Dishwasher and microwave safety are not documented for it, so hand wash the 2 ceramic parts with mild soap in warm water, rinse, and dry before refilling. The satin reactive glaze is the finish you are protecting; abrasive pads scratch it.

Empty the water, wash both parts in warm soapy water, rinse well and dry fully before packing new butter, about 5 minutes of work. Do this at every water change if the water clouded or the butter smelled off, otherwise at every refill.

No. Reactive glaze varies piece to piece in rim pooling and speckling, and the three colours are warm gray, blue and green, but it is a fired ceramic finish with no effect on the butter. Keep it out of direct sun, which warms the contents, whatever the colour.

Indoor use is what the listing recommends. A camper or porch swings well above 70 F (21 C) on a summer afternoon, which is past the 1-to-2-day counter rule for salted butter, so put the butter in a cooler at 40 F (4 C) instead.

About 4 oz (115 g) when the butter is softened and packed firmly, which is one US stick. Packed cold and lumpy it takes less and falls out, so soften the butter to spreading temperature first.

Yes. The crock does not care where the butter came from; salted shop butter follows the same 1-to-2-day rule below 70 F (21 C). Soften one 4 oz (115 g) stick, press it into the cup, and change the water daily in a warm room.

Rarely. A pint (16 fl oz) of heavy cream at typical supermarket prices costs about the same as, or more than, the 6 to 7 oz (170 to 200 g) of butter it makes. The point is flavour, freshness and using cream before it spoils, plus 1 cup of buttermilk.

It was not pressed enough, and butter can hold up to 30 percent water when hand-worked. Beads of liquid on the surface after 12 hours mean water pockets are draining. Knead it again in a cold bowl for 2 to 3 minutes, tip off the water, and repack.