Unless you’re using all the butter right away might I suggest you wash the butter before forming it. Just knead the butter in very cold water and repeat till the water is clear. Drain well and form. It will last a little longer.
Stephanie; The buttermilk does contain the culture after separation. I've never tried to culture cream with just the buttermilk. I don't know if there would be an advantage to doing that. If you are asking if it is the same as cultured buttermilk then the answer is no. Buttermilk is a byproduct of churning cream to make butter. Cultured buttermilk, like you buy in the store, uses a different culture to produce. You can buy the culture to make cultured buttermilk from sources like Culturesforhealth,com. The buttermilk produced by the churning process is buttermilk like your great grandmother might have known. It's high in acids so it works well for marinating meats and leavening baking power biscuits. It's also a very refreshing drink in hot weather!
I'm curious about a couple things. I make my own cultured butter and, as I was taught, first I press out the buttermilk and then I rinse the resulting butter while working the butter until the rinse water runs clear. I was told that removing as much of the buttermilk as possible helps prevent the butter from spoiling or going rancid (micro-organisms love the phospho-lipids in buttermilk). The butter still has that good cultured flavour. At the end of the process, I add salt. It acts as a preservative for the tiny amount of buttermilk left in the butter. If I were going to make an herb butter or garlic butter, I'd wait until the butter was done to make additions to it. I don't store herbed or garlic butter for more than 3 days because there is a risk of botulism from spores that may be on the herbs or garlic. Combined with the anaerobic nature of the butter, it isn't a good risk to take. I may be overly cautious but I'd rather be cautious than food poisoned.
You're right. Many old sources use the same method you describe for the same reasons. The buttermilk can go rancid and in the days before refrigeration food poisoning was a real threat. When I make butter I immediately divide it into small balls that will fit in a butter bell, wrap them and freeze them. When removed from the freezer individual balls are placed in the bell for use and consumed in usually three day. I've never had any problems using this method but it's always wise to be cautious. I am going to try your method the next time I make butter. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for your gracious response. I thought of something else, as well. The reason cooks chill cream before turning it into whipped cream is that chilled cream has a longer window of time during continued beating before it breaks into butter. So if the cook is a little distracted, cooled cream gives a bit more of a window before the cream is 'ruined' for whipped cream. So if your goal is butter, it follows that the process could be shortened by starting with room temperature cream in order to hasten the break.
Grainne Dhu That's interesting! The explanation you just stated seems to be just the opposite of what I learned. I recall reading that the reason for chilling was to hasten the butterfat's separation from the buttermilk. Not being a scientist I have no way of confirming or disproving either method. My experience has been that chilling the cream overnight causes the butter to break much faster than chilling a couple of hours. Even then the time it takes for the butterfat to separate can vary from four minutes to almost twenty all other things such as room temperature being equal. I don't know why. A friend of mine just made butter for the first time recently and told me he forgot the chilling step and his cream didn't break at room temperature. It was only after chilling the cream that he was finally able to make it break. If you ever have occasion to try a batch at room temperature as compared to a batch chilled I'd love to hear your results!
I'm not sure what the variations are caused by. I know I usually refrigerate the cream/yogurt overnight, which seems to help, but sometimes it separates quickly and other times not. Sometimes a food processor will heat up and slow the separation down. It usually take ten to fifteen minutes for my butter to separate but it can vary.
you're right, I think it's the garlic you have to worry about, I did see on one video that you had to watch out adding garlic, unless maybe you could freeze it, but anyway, I would leave out the garlic. I think the dried herb's may be fine, but not for sure, will have to research it more. thank's for telling ppl how to wash the butter, that's important. Nicky
The next step is to make Ghee , this recipe from the old country Palestine , put butter in suitable pot on low heat and allow butter to melt slowly until water separates from the ghee , to make it little tastier take couple ounces of fenugreek and about a large tablespoon turmeric added to couple of cups of water and bring it to a boil then pour it to Ghee , sometimes you have to skim whatever floats to the surface , let it cool little bit then put it into a mason jar or whatever is available separating the ghee from the fluids , it will last for months without Refrigeration and that's what we use to fry eggs and cook with especially with rice .
Wonderful recipe! I've made ghee before, but never flavored it in that way. It sounds delicious and would be worth making an extra batch of butter just to have the ghee on hand. Thanks for sharing!
@@KuonysKitchen In 1970: Thor Heyerdahl sets sail with his crew from Safi, Morocco, aboard Ra II. He attempted to cross the AtlanticOcean in a boat built of reeds and succeed where the previous expedition aboard Ra I had failed , supposedly he had a theory that this is the way thee gyptians cross the Atlantic , as he consulted Egyptian Mariners Ghee was one of the food suggested , GHEE last for extremely long time without Refrigeration that's what we use for all of our history in Palestine , if butter is showing signs of spoilage Simply make GHEE out of it and this way you don't have to throw it out , to the best of my knowledge GHEE have been used for thousands of years ,
@@nidalshehadeh6001 I was fascinated by Heyerdahl's recount of his voyage when I first read it years ago! The logistics of such a voyage were as challenging and the trip itself. Ghee is one of the few foods that will remain usable under those conditions. In his book "Nutrition And Physical Degeneration" Weston A. Price, DDS relates adding high quality butter to the diet of low income school students and notes their increase in concentration and learning retention as a result. High quality butter, especially butter from grass fed animals, is one of those super foods that we often ignore. Ghee is a wonderful way to preserve that almost perfect food. Thanks for sharing!
@@KuonysKitchen Question, how long can butter last under the right environment ? Man finds 22-pound chunk of butter estimated to be more than 2,000 years old in Irish bog , I understand at one point of History it was used as currency it is one of the few time-traveling fantastic Foods , I wonder what did the first human who discovered butter thought of it ? if it was me I will run down the street naked yelling Eureka . Thank you for the Fantastic show
No, you're heating it slowly to remove the cream solids that cause butter to burn. The water is the whey. What's left over is the ghee. And some Americans, like myself, bloom spices in the ghee to release oils from the spice, making them fragrant for things like currys.
Hundred's of years ago, the wheel was invented. Since then, politicians, inventors, scientist, etc., have said.........."Why reinvent the wheel?" YOU and TH-cam have made it possible for all of us newbies to learn new and interesting things to do around our homes. My compliments to you for these wonderful teaching videos. This one on make butter was outstanding and I am now anxious to try this. I couldn't think of eating my homemade sour dough bread without using some of this butter. Thanks a BUNCH!
I've never seen homemade butter made that didn't also include the step of rinsing the butter after removing it from the buttermilk. There's still a lot of bits of buttermilk within that butter. Rinsing removes those, and makes the butter last much longer. Without this, it would go rancid pretty quickly. I'm guessing that perhaps you just have one butterbell's worth thawed at a time and keep the rest in the freezer. If that's the case, I guess it's not that big of a deal, but if you were to want to keep out a whole pound at a time and have it last a while, rinsing is pretty necessary.
As far as cost, I can buy a half gallon of heavy cream for $8.89 on sale. I use buttermilk as my starter. When all is said and done, my butter costs about $0.03 more per 113g stick compared to Kroger's brand. So I'd call that a wash.
First off ..... I used to have that tin chicken when I was a kid! Little wooden eggs you put in the tail, crank it and the eggs would pop out! Okay, now for a question the yogurt culture. I always buy whole fat organic kefir yogurt. I forget the name but it's expensive. Am I understanding correctly that I can just use that or are you using something quite different. Love the video. I watch videos to learn, not be entertained and so many people try to force a personality on you and talk too much. You get right to it. I like that. And thank you for this one because I was looking to make just regular butter but now I'm shooting for cultured butter.
I'm glad you enjoy the videos! Thank you! The trick with the butter is the fat. You can make butter without a culture. I think the culture not only makes the butter healthier, but better tasting. When you make butter you are collecting the fat (the butter fat) of milk. Therefore you want to use heavy cream or whipping cream which are both almost all butter fat which are both in the high 90% range. Whole fat organic kefir or yogurt will still have a much smaller percentage of fat than cream. For example; whole fat milk has all of its original fat with it, but still does not contain the fat that cream does because cream is the butter fat separated from whole milk. Using anything short of cream to make butter leads to a lot of work for very little butter. Culturing the cream at home enables you to make butter with the culture of your choice. I hope this helps.
I have never seen whole fat organic Kefir Yogurt, can you tell me, if you remember, where to get it. thank's. Nicky in Michigan, hope you are in the states, I really would like to find it.
Even if you don't do this on a regular basis I alway find that I have extra heavy cream lying around after holidays/dinner parties or really anytime I am making a recipe with it. Would be a fun way to use it up in that kind of situation.
You're right. Most people won't make their own butter all the time but it's worth the effort since the quality and nutritional value is so much better then store bought. Also being able to customize the butter for special needs is an asset. Something you can't get from a store. Try adding garlic, oregano and basil for garlic bread. Add fresh tarragon to sauté fish in. Use your imagination and enjoy!
This is awesome. Will be making butter and butter milk after my Matsoni, filmjolk and piima are ready. Just to see if there is a taste difference for each strain.
I kind of like the fact that Cultures For Health is offering all four together as a package. When I bought my Matsoni, you had to buy them individually. Sadly, that's the only one of their Heirlooms that I've tried. I'd like to hear you reactions.
That grocery store cream you used was almost certainly “ultra pasteurized” which means almost certainly there are added gum stabilizers included. That means your butter will also have those chemicals as an unwanted extra ingredient. It is necessary to find regular pasteurized cream in order to make pure cultured butter. These stabilizers are put into the Ultra Pasteurized product because the super hot temperatures used severely damaged the proteins in the cream.
That's a great question and I'm a little embarrassed to admit I hadn't thought about it before now! I went right to my refrigerator and tasted some cultured cream I was cooling to make butter. It has a milder flavor than grocery store sour cream, not as much acidity or tang. The Matsoni yogurt itself is not an overtly sour yogurt. I'll have to do a little research and see if I can come up with an answer for you. Or, if you find and answer let me know. Now you've got me curious!
Loosh; I've now tried several approaches to making a sour cream. I tried it with kefir, with matsoni yogurt culture and using the buttermilk from making butter to start the sour cream. The kefir seperated before it ever developed a sour flavor. The experiments with matsoni were best. Using both the yogurt and the buttermilk produced the same result. The "sour" seemed to be more a function of fermentation time then anything else. 24 hours on the counter and perhaps additional time in the refrigerator seemed to produce the best results. If you make sour cream keep your main culture in reserve as the longer culturing times may cause the culture in the sour cream to run out of food and become inactive. The resulting sour cream was not as sour as commercial sour cream but was very tasty. It did separate slightly when put on a hot potato but otherwise performed well. I would suggest trying a small batch yourself and see if you are happy with the results. I was unable to find a commercial sour cream that contained a live culture for testing. I hope this helps.
Michelle Ridad You are very welcome! I'm glad you found it informative. I'm sure you'll enjoy making you own butter (and so will your friends and family!)
Or... you could make it with a bucket and a stick in the time tested method! But seriously, you'll love it. The butter is luxurious and the buttermilk is a wonderful summertime drink or use it to marinate meat, especially game. (Just don't drink it after you've soaked meat in it! ;o) Have fun!
Doug, I read the comments below and just want to confirm that I can use my keifer to culture my butter. I make keifer so I always have it on hand, but it is truly sour and I don't want that taste in my butter. just wonder if you noticed a difference between the yogart and keifer in your butter.....thank you for all your great vids.
Hi Doug, loves your video. I wonder why your method does not include “washing” the butter in water several times until the water comes clear? Does that wash away the cultured properties?
That's a very good and much asked question! There are two reasons. The first is that I'm lazy and I don't feel it's necessary! Here's the backstory on washing. I know several traditional churners who use the old wooden churns and have no access to refrigeration. They do extensive rinses to remove the whey which is more likely to become rancid. It was necessary before we could pop butter into cold storage for long periods of time. As a result, it's became a ritual that is still performed by modern butter makers without question. While leads me to reason two. I have a refrigerator and I'll bet you have one also! So extensive washing is not a necessity. I also don't leave butter out at room temperature for long periods. If I need to for serving guests, I put it in a butter bell so that it is submerged and not exposed to the air for long. Having said that, if your butter will be setting out at room temperatures a lot, by all means, wash it as much as you can (or even if you just enjoy washing butter). If it's going right into your fridge or freezer and won't be setting out, why go to all that extra work? Hope that makes sense!
No. Not if you want to culture it at room temperature. Matsoni, the yogurt I use in the video is mesophilic, which means it doesn't need to be cultured at a higher temperature. It is also an heirloom variety. Once you have the culture, you can maintain it forever if you care for it. You can obtain several different varieties from Cultures For Health. Each has a different character, texture and flavor. They're worth checking out. shop.culturesforhealth.com/collections/yogurt/products/heirloom-yogurt-starters
Kefir will work fine. I used to make butter with kefir. I switched to yogurt because, when kefir thickens the cream, it is difficult to remove the grains. Using yogurt eliminated that step. I also like the slight sourness yogurt gives the butter. If you use kefir simply remove the grains before it gets too thick, then let it continue to culture and thicken without the grains. Good luck!
Thanks! The particular yogurt I use in the video is called Matsoni and is an heirloom variety that will continue culturing as long as it's cared for. It also cultures at room temperature, no special heating necessary. I've been using the same culture for perhaps ten years. Back when I bought it, you could get Matsoni individually. Now it comes bundled with several other heirloom varieties that I haven't tried (although I've been thinking about sampling them!) I've had very good luck with Cultures For Health. You can buy the Matsoni yogurt here; shop.culturesforhealth.com/collections/yogurt/products/heirloom-yogurt-starters I tried culturing commercial yogurts and the results were disappointing at best. In some brands, the culture is no longer alive when purchased. Even in brands that claim to contain live cultures, they only reproduce for a few cycles. (I suspect there is some genetic modification going on so you have to buy more.) Hope you enjoy your new yogurts!
@@KuonysKitchen It's not about 'modifications'. It's about storage. People put up dairy in the refrigerators and perhaps leave it out of cold storage so the bacteria dies. Then people shop, put the item in the cart and go shopping for an hour. Then a half hr to an hour home with it not being refrigerated, so it's nearly all dead. People do the same with orange juice, it dies completely in 5 minutes OUT of the refrigerator, or they use hot water to reconstitute frozen concentrate which kills it immediately. Best to fresh squeeze oranges and drink immediately.
First of all I love your video, but I am just wondering if you can use Kefir that has the whey strained off for the culture.? I have over a quart of strained Kefir, some call it cream cheese and some call it yogurt. I know I have to use heavy whipping cream, I just made butter with it, but would like to use some of the Kefir, since I am getting an over abundant of it. thank's Nicky
I've never tried it, but my first inclination would be to say you could, at least once. The strained Kefir is a kind of cheese, but even though they are similar in texture, Kefir and yogurt are two very different cultures. Not that it matters much in this case, since you can use either to culture cream for butter. My first question would be, why don't you just eat the strained kefir? Just enjoy it so you don't have to worry about it sitting around. When you say the Kefir is strained off. I'm assuming that any extra whey has been removed along with the grains. As far as using it to culture again, it might work for a short time. When I first started experimenting with Kefir years ago, I tried starting batches with Kefir I'd bought commercially. It worked for a while, but the results were less than satisfactory. It seems you really need those Kefir grains to produce a good product and continue culturing. The strained Kefir will still hold some of the Kefir culture so you might be able to make another batch from it before it's played out. I used to make most of my butter from Kefir, but found that removing the grains from fully fermented, thick Kefir was inconvenient. As a result, I switched to Matsoni yogurt for making butter. I would suggest you experiment with using a little of the Kefir to start a small batch and see if the results meet your needs. If not, you can simply eat the leftover Kefir as is. If you're wondering if the strained Kefir can be whipped into butter, again, I would say you should try it and see what happens. Churning chill fermented dairy usually causes the butterfat to clump into butter and the whey (buttermilk) to separate off. Since your Kefir is already strained, I would imagine it would simply produce less buttermilk. I'm not sure if I answered your question, but I hope this helps.
@@KuonysKitchen thank's and yes it did help. I use kefir grains, and getting more grains everyday it seem's sometimes I put them to sleep, I do drink the kefir, but just 2 glasses a day, it has more probiotics than yogurt, but I still make yogurt, just adding fruit to it. had the pleasure of making mascapone cheese, surprisingly it turned out perfect, now to find out what to make with it. you have a good day or night. I'm snow bound in Michigan today. so will be making something new. Nicky
I've tried using the strained kefir to culture new batches. I got mediocre results. Without the grains, the culture simply doesn't thrive. If you are making kefir with cream, there's no reason that you can't consume it on its own. I believe, from a health stand point, kefir made with cream if better for your body than made with other kinds of milk. (Don't waste your money on skim!) If you don't want to eat is as is, try adding some sliced cucumbers, dill and salt it well with sea salt.
@@KuonysKitchen thank's doug, I did come up with several thing's to make with the kefir, I made a dip with a pk of Lipton onion soup mix, taste's like french onion dip, the grandchildren didn't know the difference. then I made feta cheese with it, by letting it hang until very dry, then I added some herb's, really I couldn't tell the difference, then I made ricotta cheese with the whey I had been saving, turned out good, all this I did in one day and evening, plus making butter. I have the cultured butter I made before, I froze it. now all I need to know is how to make your yogurt, I haven't seen it in the store, or can I use greek yogurt to mix with the heavy cream for butter, tks Nicky, still watch your video, but I just wonder why you don't rinse the milk out of the butter? is it because it's cultured? just curious, thank's Nicky
@@NICKYM26 I'm pleased your projects all turned out so well! I've had a lot of people ask about rinsing the whey (buttermilk) out of the butter. I squeeze as much as I can out by hand. From there, I freeze it in small portions for use later. There's nothing wrong with the buttermilk. It's a wonderful refreshing drink! However, left exposed to heat and air, it will become rancid, which is not good. In the days before refrigeration, the buttermilk had to be removed (it was never thrown away!) so that the butter could be preserved at room temperature. Today, rinsing thoroughly as out ancestors did is time consuming and wastes product. Get as much buttermilk out as you can, freeze or refrigerate the butter, drink the buttermilk or use it to marinate game meat. (Throw it out after using it as a marinate.) As for the yogurt, you can't buy it in stores. You have to make it at home. I think there is a link below by Matzoni (pronounced mat-zoon) video. If not search the company Cultures For Health. You may have to buy the culture in a sampler pack, but it's worth trying several different kinds of yogurt cultures. Matzoni will culture at room temperature, so no need for a heating pad or yogurt maker. Just follow the instructions. Good luck!
I was always told not to leave milk out unrefrigerated for long, how long is it safe after adding the yogurt? Is there a difference using raw cream vs pasteurized? Thank you.
Part of the reason, besides it tasting good, that human beings began fermenting foods is that the cultures introduced, as in yogurt, or developed naturally, as in sauerkraut, create an environment in the food that inhibit spoilage. When a yogurt culture is introduced into dairy it begins to thrive and turn the dairy into yogurt, which is spoilage resistant. The kind of yogurt I use in the video ferments at room temperature. Most other yogurts require you maintain the fermenting dairy at a warmer temperature for a given period of time. I've never left the yogurt I made sit at room temperature long enough to spoil. I've always eaten it or used it in recipes. I've left it for two or three days at normal room temperature with no ill effect. (I did do an experiment with fermented bread starter in one of my videos to answer a viewer's question about what happens to starter when it dies. I was surprised how long it took for any spoilage to begin! The video is somewhere in the playlist.) Some sources say not to use ultra-pasteurized dairy for culturing. The problem with that is that it's sometimes difficult to find dairy products that aren't! I've never had any difficulty culturing ultra-pasteurized. In regard to unpasteurized dairy, I've never used it since it isn't readily available in my area, but I've read articles that say that milk/cream right from the cow have cultures of their own that might inhibit the growth of other cultures, like yogurt. However, if you don't own a cow or know someone who does, that wouldn't be an issue when making yogurt. Hope this answers your questions!
I use whatever is available. The brand hasn't seemed to effect the culturing as far as I can tell. I've read articles that say not to use the super pasteurized milk products for culturing (I think that's they proper term), but that is all that's available at times and it still cultures without any problems. (If you're just curious about the packaging, I think the brand I'm using in the video is distributed by Kroger.)
It does work fine. Buttermilk is still a cultured milk product and it's readily available. You can also make butter with cream without culturing it at all, which is most common in America. But the culturing add additional flavors and what health benefit might accompany a living culture. If you wanted to experiment with some variety at home, you could culture your own buttermilk or any number of other yogurts or kefir. I'm sure there are plenty of other possibilities of which I'm not aware. This certainly isn't the only way to make cultured butter. The biggest difference between buttermilk and heavy cream (besides the culture) is butterfat content. Heavy cream usually contains around 35-38% butterfat. Most commercial buttermilk is low fat with contains about .5% butterfat although, if you can find regular buttermilk it would contain a higher percentage. I think the difference in making butter with buttermilk or heavy cream would simply be the higher yield of butter to buttermilk (whey) due to its higher fat content. I've never made butter from commercial buttermilk so I don't know what the difference in yield would be. If you ever make butter from heavy cream, let me know what the difference is!
I'm sorry for any misunderstanding. I do use the heavy cream, but use buttermilk rather than yogurt to culture it. I don't use yogurt as much as I should, perhaps, but have buttermilk around all the time as I just love the stuff. I do let it ferment for a day and a half, but then become too impatient and make butter. I will try letting it sit for a couple or 3 days and try to see if the difference in taste is to my liking. Thanks for all the info, and also thank you for your prompt reply. Merry Christmas!
Oh! I get what you're saying! Yes. That would work. I us yogurt primarily because I always have it on hand. I use an heirloom variety that remains active as long as you feed and care for it. It's been my experience that commercial cultures are altered so that they eventually lose their reproductive power. Then you have to buy the product again. If you're not trying to culture your own buttermilk over a period of years, there's no reason not to use commercial buttermilk. I was a little stumped trying to figure out how you were making butter with low-fat buttermilk! I just figured you must have some super power with dairy products!
If you're asking about culturing, the answer is no. I had the same question when I started working with kefir. I tried using some active commercial kefir to culture milk at home. It would, in fact, culture for a short period of time, but then the culturing ceased. I wasn't successful culturing kefir until I eventually bought some grains. The good news is, I've been using the same grains (or their descendants) for well over ten years. So if you take care of them, they are a one-time investment. In regard to making butter, you always want to strain the grains out for later use, otherwise the grains just get churned into butter!
The only keifer I'm familiar with has the last name of Sutherland. That aside, I noticed that you didn't "wash" the butter in ice water until the water becomes clear, as most others on TH-cam suggest be done. Instead, you simply squeezed the butter balls, placed them on foil, and then presumably froze them until needed. Do you think the washing of butter is unnecessary? In one video I saw, a person "washed" the butter in ice water in a food processor several time. Then, if I remember correctly, you just squeeze out the clean water before storing the butter in the fridge. I'm getting ready to try making butter using a powdered buttermilk culture. The cream I will use is ultra pasteurized because that is what's available. We'll see how it works. I can't find anyone selling raw milk or cream online. I think maybe it's illegal. Oh, wow. I just noticed you've got comments on this video going back 4 years. Are you still there?
I'm still here, although scheduling hasn't allowed me to do many videos recently, maybe in the future. In regard to Keifer, isn't it amazing that his parents had the foresight to name him after such an amazing dairy product! But seriously, I never really understood that pronunciation, except that it's the god-given duty of Americans to murder the queen's English. The few times I attempted to pronounce it Ka-fear', the way most of the world pronounces it, I was confronted with unknowing, blank stares and snickering. In regard to washing the butter in ice water. Most people do things the way they were taught without question. I think this is one of those things. While there is nothing wrong with buttermilk, it tends to be esthetically unpleasant to have it ooze out of your butter while you're trying to spread it on your morning muffin! Besides, unless buttermilk is kept cool it spoils, which ruins your butter. Several friends of mine make butter in the traditional fashion in wooden churns. They do not have the advantage of AC or refrigeration and the weather is often very hot while they are churning. They wash the butter thoroughly after squeezing out the buttermilk to add to its storage life. The buttermilk is consumed immediately. They do not have the option of using ice water for washing. At best the water is warm. However, the ice water would make the butter stiffer, so less of it would be washed away. Having said all that, if you are going to freeze the butter for long storage or refrigerate it for use over a few weeks, there's really no reason to go to extremes with washing. I will often store my butter in a butter bell on the counter if I'll be using a lot of it in a short time. I've used the method I show in the video for years and have suffered no noticeable ill effects from it. Once you've made a few batches, you'll decide what method works best for you. I've read a lot about not using ultra pasteurized milk for culturing. Like you, I'm unable to find raw milk and ultra pasteurized is all that is available. It's worked fine for me. Also, I've read several times that the naturally occurring cultures in raw milk will sometimes counteract fermentation cultures (which is why it's suggested that you do low-temp home pasteurization before culturing raw milk.) Since what I've been buying works, obtaining raw milk and pasteurizing it seems like an unnecessary extra effort! I've never had occasion to culture raw milk right out of the cow so this is only my opinion! Good luck!
Can I ask where you live? IOW, where, pray tell, are people living where they still use churns and live without electricity? And just for clarification, I was serious about keifer. I've never hard of it before, but I see a youtube video on how to make it. So even though it sounds like something I'm not interested in using, I'l have a gander at that one next.
I live in the midwest. We have power, AC and refrigeration. However, I'm a living historian and have worked with a state historical program for over twenty-five years. During our active season, we portray life on an 1820s military post. No AC, power or running water. Some of our women make butter and they sometimes do it under brutally hot conditions. (No ice water to be had!) I guess that's why I find it amusing when people tell you butter has to be made under all of these idea conditions! As for Kefir, it's a fermented dairy product that originated in the Caucasus region. Its fermentation produces a thick yogurt or cheese like substance. The taste and fermenting process are unique. I do have a video on it, but there is a wealth of information online. If you do a search, you'll find more information that you ever wanted to know!
I thought perhaps you were in some remote, northern region of Alaska or Canada. Then it occurred to me that some people live "off the grid" by choice, as some folks do in the NC and VA mountains and all throughout the country. The video about kefir that I alluded to was in fact your video and I did watch it. In my area (eastern NC) we have a lot of Civil War historians and people who like to reenact the various battles of the region. One guy likes to come down from Canada to join in. We even have a Civil War fort that I love to take visitors to, though its significance during the war was, generously speaking, negligible. Oh, and BTW, I did make that cultured butter this morning and put some on toast. It's delicious! Will probably be doing that again when I run out even if it does take two days. :-) I wonder whether I need the granulated buttermilk culture if you use yogurt and others use buttermilk. I guess I can just buy buttermilk or yogurt with active cultures and uses that instead.
You could perhaps use commercial yogurt or buttermilk. I don't know what the butterfat content is for commercial versions. You can make butter with heavy cream and not culture it. That type is more common in the US than in Europe. I like the taste of cultured butter. The higher the butterfat content the higher the yield. If you enjoy yogurt I would suggest checking out what Cultures For Health carried. If you buy an heirloom variety, it will last for as long as you care for it. I've been making yogurt (and butter) with mine for over ten years. When you make your own yogurt, you can culture milk, Half And Half or heavy cream depending on what you will use it for. I use a culture call Matsoni which is mesophilic, which means that it cultures at room temperature. No heating necessary. Did you sample the buttermilk? It's real buttermilk and different than the cultured buttermilk we buy in the store. In days gone by it was a favorite summertime drink for rural families. Its sour flavor makes it wonderfully refreshing. (It's acid content also works well as a marinate for tenderizing meat.)
That's great! I've always had good luck with CFH. When I bought my yogurt starter from them years ago, they sold the different cultures separately so I've never tried the other varieties in the heirloom pack. I'd be interested in hearing your impressions of the other yogurts included.
I have put Viili to sleep temporarily (freeze) and have tried lately the Filmjolk heirloom culture. It is a much milder flavor than Viili and is more loose than Viili and seems a bit more sour. Will try the other two cultures in the packet in the coming months (Matsoni, Piima).
I'm looking forward to your report. How does the freezing work out for you?. I've done it with bread starter, but never with yogurt. I simply make yogurt too often to freeze it.
Oh, you bet! I probably called it heavy cream in the video. Sometimes the terms are used interchangeably. (At least I do!) Good luck with your butter making!
Doug Kuony churning the whipping cream without the starter also produces buttermilk right? Does the starter change, improve, or add complex/different flavors to the buttermilk?
When you say "starter", I'm assuming you mean the yogurt you make with the cream. (For a moment I had the idea of bread starter stuck in my head!) You make butter by churning cream, or in this case whipping it in the food processor. I've seen plain cream churned with old fashion wooden churns and it works, but is much slower. Butter can be made with plain cream or cream that has been cultured in some way. In the USA, "sweet creamery butter" is common. It's made without culturing the cream. Europeans seem to prefer their butter cultured before it's churned. When it comes to butter making, I'm firmly in line with the Europeans! The cream can be cultured with any number of different cultures including various yogurts, kefir, etc. Each produces unique flavors and textures. In addition, culturing your cream before churning produced beneficial probiotic cultures that many people want to add to their diet. The main objective of this recipe is to produce cultured butter. Although the process does render the byproduct buttermilk, don't confuse it with the commercial product bought in stores call "cultured buttermilk." Cultured buttermilk and real buttermilk are much different. Real buttermilk is much thinner, but still has a rich buttery taste and makes a refreshing summertime drink. It's also useful for baking and as a marinade for meats. When you are done churning your butter you will have both butter (the butter fat) and buttermilk (the butter whey.) PS After your previous question, I had to look up the difference between whipping cream and heavy cream. It turns out the terms are usually used interchangeably. However, there is a difference. Whipping cream contain about 30% fat. Heavy cream contains about 35%. That's really the only difference and either one will work well for making butter.
I see. Thanks for taking the time and effort for responding me with detailed facts. I will try this out. It seems like a fun experiment to try on. Another great thing I've learned today!
You're very welcome! I'm sure you'll enjoy having homemade butter. Remember that you can mix in herbs, etc after it's churned for spreads and cooking. Have fun!
Yes it would. I only use heirloom yogurt because it eliminates the step of separating kefir grains from the thick kefir made with cream. You can use any other yogurt culture if you wish.
I've always washed my butter to remove the remaining buttermilk.... then I use wooden spoons (the handle end) to knead the salt into the butter, which also removes even more buttermilk. The buttermilk will go into cooking.... I use sour cream for the culture, not yogurt............ Guess there's a million ways to get it done...............
Unless you’re using all the butter right away might I suggest you wash the butter before forming it. Just knead the butter in very cold water and repeat till the water is clear. Drain well and form. It will last a little longer.
Stephanie;
The buttermilk does contain the culture after separation. I've never tried to culture cream with just the buttermilk. I don't know if there would be an advantage to doing that.
If you are asking if it is the same as cultured buttermilk then the answer is no. Buttermilk is a byproduct of churning cream to make butter. Cultured buttermilk, like you buy in the store, uses a different culture to produce. You can buy the culture to make cultured buttermilk from sources like Culturesforhealth,com.
The buttermilk produced by the churning process is buttermilk like your great grandmother might have known. It's high in acids so it works well for marinating meats and leavening baking power biscuits. It's also a very refreshing drink in hot weather!
I'm curious about a couple things. I make my own cultured butter and, as I was taught, first I press out the buttermilk and then I rinse the resulting butter while working the butter until the rinse water runs clear. I was told that removing as much of the buttermilk as possible helps prevent the butter from spoiling or going rancid (micro-organisms love the phospho-lipids in buttermilk). The butter still has that good cultured flavour.
At the end of the process, I add salt. It acts as a preservative for the tiny amount of buttermilk left in the butter. If I were going to make an herb butter or garlic butter, I'd wait until the butter was done to make additions to it.
I don't store herbed or garlic butter for more than 3 days because there is a risk of botulism from spores that may be on the herbs or garlic. Combined with the anaerobic nature of the butter, it isn't a good risk to take.
I may be overly cautious but I'd rather be cautious than food poisoned.
You're right. Many old sources use the same method you describe for the same reasons. The buttermilk can go rancid and in the days before refrigeration food poisoning was a real threat.
When I make butter I immediately divide it into small balls that will fit in a butter bell, wrap them and freeze them. When removed from the freezer individual balls are placed in the bell for use and consumed in usually three day.
I've never had any problems using this method but it's always wise to be cautious. I am going to try your method the next time I make butter.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for your gracious response.
I thought of something else, as well. The reason cooks chill cream before turning it into whipped cream is that chilled cream has a longer window of time during continued beating before it breaks into butter. So if the cook is a little distracted, cooled cream gives a bit more of a window before the cream is 'ruined' for whipped cream.
So if your goal is butter, it follows that the process could be shortened by starting with room temperature cream in order to hasten the break.
Grainne Dhu That's interesting! The explanation you just stated seems to be just the opposite of what I learned. I recall reading that the reason for chilling was to hasten the butterfat's separation from the buttermilk. Not being a scientist I have no way of confirming or disproving either method.
My experience has been that chilling the cream overnight causes the butter to break much faster than chilling a couple of hours.
Even then the time it takes for the butterfat to separate can vary from four minutes to almost twenty all other things such as room temperature being equal. I don't know why.
A friend of mine just made butter for the first time recently and told me he forgot the chilling step and his cream didn't break at room temperature. It was only after chilling the cream that he was finally able to make it break.
If you ever have occasion to try a batch at room temperature as compared to a batch chilled I'd love to hear your results!
I'm not sure what the variations are caused by. I know I usually refrigerate the cream/yogurt overnight, which seems to help, but sometimes it separates quickly and other times not.
Sometimes a food processor will heat up and slow the separation down. It usually take ten to fifteen minutes for my butter to separate but it can vary.
you're right, I think it's the garlic you have to worry about, I did see on one video that you had to watch out adding garlic, unless maybe you could freeze it, but anyway, I would leave out the garlic. I think the dried herb's may be fine, but not for sure, will have to research it more. thank's for telling ppl how to wash the butter, that's important. Nicky
Accidentally found your channel and loving all the information and knowledge you shared. 👍🏻
You're very kind! Thank you very much!
The next step is to make Ghee ,
this recipe from the old country Palestine ,
put butter in suitable pot on low heat and allow butter to melt slowly until water separates from the ghee ,
to make it little tastier take couple ounces of fenugreek and about a large tablespoon turmeric added to couple of cups of water and bring it to a boil then pour it to Ghee ,
sometimes you have to skim whatever floats to the surface ,
let it cool little bit then put it into a mason jar or whatever is available separating the ghee from the fluids ,
it will last for months without Refrigeration and that's what we use to fry eggs and cook with especially with rice .
Wonderful recipe! I've made ghee before, but never flavored it in that way. It sounds delicious and would be worth making an extra batch of butter just to have the ghee on hand. Thanks for sharing!
@@KuonysKitchen
In 1970: Thor Heyerdahl sets sail with his crew from Safi, Morocco, aboard Ra II. He attempted to cross the AtlanticOcean in a boat built of reeds and succeed where the previous expedition aboard Ra I had failed ,
supposedly he had a theory that this is the way thee gyptians cross the Atlantic ,
as he consulted Egyptian Mariners Ghee was one of the food suggested ,
GHEE last for extremely long time without Refrigeration that's what we use for all of our history in Palestine ,
if butter is showing signs of spoilage Simply make GHEE out of it and this way you don't have to throw it out ,
to the best of my knowledge GHEE have been used for thousands of years ,
@@nidalshehadeh6001 I was fascinated by Heyerdahl's recount of his voyage when I first read it years ago! The logistics of such a voyage were as challenging and the trip itself. Ghee is one of the few foods that will remain usable under those conditions.
In his book "Nutrition And Physical Degeneration" Weston A. Price, DDS relates adding high quality butter to the diet of low income school students and notes their increase in concentration and learning retention as a result. High quality butter, especially butter from grass fed animals, is one of those super foods that we often ignore. Ghee is a wonderful way to preserve that almost perfect food.
Thanks for sharing!
@@KuonysKitchen
Question,
how long can butter last under the right environment ?
Man finds 22-pound chunk of butter estimated to be more than 2,000 years old in Irish bog ,
I understand at one point of History it was used as currency it is one of the few time-traveling fantastic Foods ,
I wonder what did the first human who discovered butter thought of it ?
if it was me I will run down the street naked yelling Eureka .
Thank you for the Fantastic show
No, you're heating it slowly to remove the cream solids that cause butter to burn. The water is the whey. What's left over is the ghee. And some Americans, like myself, bloom spices in the ghee to release oils from the spice, making them fragrant for things like currys.
Hundred's of years ago, the wheel was invented. Since then, politicians, inventors, scientist, etc., have said.........."Why reinvent the wheel?" YOU and TH-cam have made it possible for all of us newbies to learn new and interesting things to do around our homes. My compliments to you for these wonderful teaching videos. This one on make butter was outstanding and I am now anxious to try this. I couldn't think of eating my homemade sour dough bread without using some of this butter. Thanks a BUNCH!
Thanks so much! You are very kind.
I've never seen homemade butter made that didn't also include the step of rinsing the butter after removing it from the buttermilk. There's still a lot of bits of buttermilk within that butter. Rinsing removes those, and makes the butter last much longer. Without this, it would go rancid pretty quickly. I'm guessing that perhaps you just have one butterbell's worth thawed at a time and keep the rest in the freezer. If that's the case, I guess it's not that big of a deal, but if you were to want to keep out a whole pound at a time and have it last a while, rinsing is pretty necessary.
You're right. See the comments below.
v nicely done
As far as cost, I can buy a half gallon of heavy cream for $8.89 on sale. I use buttermilk as my starter. When all is said and done, my butter costs about $0.03 more per 113g stick compared to Kroger's brand. So I'd call that a wash.
First off ..... I used to have that tin chicken when I was a kid! Little wooden eggs you put in the tail, crank it and the eggs would pop out!
Okay, now for a question the yogurt culture. I always buy whole fat organic kefir yogurt. I forget the name but it's expensive. Am I understanding correctly that I can just use that or are you using something quite different.
Love the video. I watch videos to learn, not be entertained and so many people try to force a personality on you and talk too much. You get right to it. I like that. And thank you for this one because I was looking to make just regular butter but now I'm shooting for cultured butter.
I'm glad you enjoy the videos! Thank you!
The trick with the butter is the fat. You can make butter without a culture. I think the culture not only makes the butter healthier, but better tasting. When you make butter you are collecting the fat (the butter fat) of milk. Therefore you want to use heavy cream or whipping cream which are both almost all butter fat which are both in the high 90% range.
Whole fat organic kefir or yogurt will still have a much smaller percentage of fat than cream. For example; whole fat milk has all of its original fat with it, but still does not contain the fat that cream does because cream is the butter fat separated from whole milk. Using anything short of cream to make butter leads to a lot of work for very little butter.
Culturing the cream at home enables you to make butter with the culture of your choice. I hope this helps.
I have never seen whole fat organic Kefir Yogurt, can you tell me, if you remember, where to get it. thank's. Nicky in Michigan, hope you are in the states, I really would like to find it.
Even if you don't do this on a regular basis I alway find that I have extra heavy cream lying around after holidays/dinner parties or really anytime I am making a recipe with it. Would be a fun way to use it up in that kind of situation.
You're right. Most people won't make their own butter all the time but it's worth the effort since the quality and nutritional value is so much better then store bought. Also being able to customize the butter for special needs is an asset. Something you can't get from a store. Try adding garlic, oregano and basil for garlic bread. Add fresh tarragon to sauté fish in. Use your imagination and enjoy!
nice
nice
This is awesome. Will be making butter and butter milk after my Matsoni, filmjolk and piima are ready. Just to see if there is a taste difference for each strain.
I kind of like the fact that Cultures For Health is offering all four together as a package. When I bought my Matsoni, you had to buy them individually. Sadly, that's the only one of their Heirlooms that I've tried. I'd like to hear you reactions.
That grocery store cream you used was almost certainly “ultra pasteurized” which means almost certainly there are added gum stabilizers included. That means your butter will also have those chemicals as an unwanted extra ingredient. It is necessary to find regular pasteurized cream in order to make pure cultured butter. These stabilizers are put into the Ultra Pasteurized product because the super hot temperatures used severely damaged the proteins in the cream.
Thanks!
Doug Kuony you are most welcome sir! I enjoy your videos. I’m just a foodie geek! Lol. Cheers! 👍🏼
amazing video, thank you so much for teaching us how to make butter! keep making videos
Thank you! I'm very glad that you found it helpful!
Very interesting video, I'll have a go at that
I think you'll enjoy it. Good luck!
OMG i made another favor of buttermilk > CHOCOLATE BUTTERMILK OMG ITS GOOD, add Nestles Quick to it or Hershey Chocolate syrup
Would the cultured cream make a good sour cream? How similar is it to standard grocery store sour cream?
That's a great question and I'm a little embarrassed to admit I hadn't thought about it before now! I went right to my refrigerator and tasted some cultured cream I was cooling to make butter.
It has a milder flavor than grocery store sour cream, not as much acidity or tang. The Matsoni yogurt itself is not an overtly sour yogurt.
I'll have to do a little research and see if I can come up with an answer for you. Or, if you find and answer let me know. Now you've got me curious!
Loosh; I've now tried several approaches to making a sour cream. I tried it with kefir, with matsoni yogurt culture and using the buttermilk from making butter to start the sour cream. The kefir seperated before it ever developed a sour flavor. The experiments with matsoni were best. Using both the yogurt and the buttermilk produced the same result.
The "sour" seemed to be more a function of fermentation time then anything else. 24 hours on the counter and perhaps additional time in the refrigerator seemed to produce the best results. If you make sour cream keep your main culture in reserve as the longer culturing times may cause the culture in the sour cream to run out of food and become inactive.
The resulting sour cream was not as sour as commercial sour cream but was very tasty. It did separate slightly when put on a hot potato but otherwise performed well. I would suggest trying a small batch yourself and see if you are happy with the results.
I was unable to find a commercial sour cream that contained a live culture for testing.
I hope this helps.
thank you for sharing the method and some infos!! from the Philippines!!
Michelle Ridad You are very welcome! I'm glad you found it informative. I'm sure you'll enjoy making you own butter (and so will your friends and family!)
This was really cool! I need to get a new container for the food processor but once I do, I'm definitely going to try this!
Or... you could make it with a bucket and a stick in the time tested method! But seriously, you'll love it. The butter is luxurious and the buttermilk is a wonderful summertime drink or use it to marinate meat, especially game. (Just don't drink it after you've soaked meat in it! ;o) Have fun!
Doug Kuony I'll stick with the food processor! XD Great idea to use the milk as marinade. Thank you!
You're welcome! You'll be the envy of all your neighbors. Good luck!
You can even put the cream into a mason jar and shake it until it forms the butter! No food processor needed!
Doug, I read the comments below and just want to confirm that I can use my keifer to culture my butter. I make keifer so I always have it on hand, but it is truly sour and I don't want that taste in my butter. just wonder if you noticed a difference between the yogart and keifer in your butter.....thank you for all your great vids.
I realize it is quite off topic but do anybody know a good place to watch newly released tv shows online ?
@Dangelo Valentin flixportal :P
@Brody Max thanks, I signed up and it seems to work :) Appreciate it !!
@Dangelo Valentin glad I could help xD
Hi Doug, loves your video. I wonder why your method does not include “washing” the butter in water several times until the water comes clear? Does that wash away the cultured properties?
That's a very good and much asked question! There are two reasons. The first is that I'm lazy and I don't feel it's necessary! Here's the backstory on washing. I know several traditional churners who use the old wooden churns and have no access to refrigeration. They do extensive rinses to remove the whey which is more likely to become rancid. It was necessary before we could pop butter into cold storage for long periods of time. As a result, it's became a ritual that is still performed by modern butter makers without question.
While leads me to reason two. I have a refrigerator and I'll bet you have one also! So extensive washing is not a necessity. I also don't leave butter out at room temperature for long periods. If I need to for serving guests, I put it in a butter bell so that it is submerged and not exposed to the air for long.
Having said that, if your butter will be setting out at room temperatures a lot, by all means, wash it as much as you can (or even if you just enjoy washing butter). If it's going right into your fridge or freezer and won't be setting out, why go to all that extra work?
Hope that makes sense!
Any plain yogurt would do the culture process?thanks for the amazing info.
No. Not if you want to culture it at room temperature. Matsoni, the yogurt I use in the video is mesophilic, which means it doesn't need to be cultured at a higher temperature. It is also an heirloom variety. Once you have the culture, you can maintain it forever if you care for it.
You can obtain several different varieties from Cultures For Health. Each has a different character, texture and flavor. They're worth checking out.
shop.culturesforhealth.com/collections/yogurt/products/heirloom-yogurt-starters
if we put milk kefir instead of yougurt in cream??
Kefir will work fine. I used to make butter with kefir. I switched to yogurt because, when kefir thickens the cream, it is difficult to remove the grains. Using yogurt eliminated that step. I also like the slight sourness yogurt gives the butter.
If you use kefir simply remove the grains before it gets too thick, then let it continue to culture and thicken without the grains.
Good luck!
Doug, great video! Where did you get the yogurt culture you mentioned? Can you use plain yogurt say a Fage brand?
Thanks! The particular yogurt I use in the video is called Matsoni and is an heirloom variety that will continue culturing as long as it's cared for. It also cultures at room temperature, no special heating necessary. I've been using the same culture for perhaps ten years. Back when I bought it, you could get Matsoni individually. Now it comes bundled with several other heirloom varieties that I haven't tried (although I've been thinking about sampling them!)
I've had very good luck with Cultures For Health. You can buy the Matsoni yogurt here; shop.culturesforhealth.com/collections/yogurt/products/heirloom-yogurt-starters
I tried culturing commercial yogurts and the results were disappointing at best. In some brands, the culture is no longer alive when purchased. Even in brands that claim to contain live cultures, they only reproduce for a few cycles. (I suspect there is some genetic modification going on so you have to buy more.)
Hope you enjoy your new yogurts!
@@KuonysKitchen It's not about 'modifications'. It's about storage. People put up dairy in the refrigerators and perhaps leave it out of cold storage so the bacteria dies. Then people shop, put the item in the cart and go shopping for an hour. Then a half hr to an hour home with it not being refrigerated, so it's nearly all dead. People do the same with orange juice, it dies completely in 5 minutes OUT of the refrigerator, or they use hot water to reconstitute frozen concentrate which kills it immediately. Best to fresh squeeze oranges and drink immediately.
Nice video .. does the cream need to be heated before the yogurt culture is added??
The matsoni yogurt will culture at room temperature. No need to heat it or keep it at a particular temperature.
Can I use coconut milk or cream in stead?
First of all I love your video, but I am just wondering if you can use Kefir that has the whey strained off for the culture.? I have over a quart of strained Kefir, some call it cream cheese and some call it yogurt. I know I have to use heavy whipping cream, I just made butter with it, but would like to use some of the Kefir, since I am getting an over abundant of it. thank's Nicky
I've never tried it, but my first inclination would be to say you could, at least once. The strained Kefir is a kind of cheese, but even though they are similar in texture, Kefir and yogurt are two very different cultures. Not that it matters much in this case, since you can use either to culture cream for butter.
My first question would be, why don't you just eat the strained kefir? Just enjoy it so you don't have to worry about it sitting around. When you say the Kefir is strained off. I'm assuming that any extra whey has been removed along with the grains. As far as using it to culture again, it might work for a short time. When I first started experimenting with Kefir years ago, I tried starting batches with Kefir I'd bought commercially. It worked for a while, but the results were less than satisfactory. It seems you really need those Kefir grains to produce a good product and continue culturing. The strained Kefir will still hold some of the Kefir culture so you might be able to make another batch from it before it's played out.
I used to make most of my butter from Kefir, but found that removing the grains from fully fermented, thick Kefir was inconvenient. As a result, I switched to Matsoni yogurt for making butter.
I would suggest you experiment with using a little of the Kefir to start a small batch and see if the results meet your needs. If not, you can simply eat the leftover Kefir as is.
If you're wondering if the strained Kefir can be whipped into butter, again, I would say you should try it and see what happens. Churning chill fermented dairy usually causes the butterfat to clump into butter and the whey (buttermilk) to separate off. Since your Kefir is already strained, I would imagine it would simply produce less buttermilk.
I'm not sure if I answered your question, but I hope this helps.
@@KuonysKitchen thank's and yes it did help. I use kefir grains, and getting more grains everyday it seem's sometimes I put them to sleep, I do drink the kefir, but just 2 glasses a day, it has more probiotics than yogurt, but I still make yogurt, just adding fruit to it. had the pleasure of making mascapone cheese, surprisingly it turned out perfect, now to find out what to make with it. you have a good day or night. I'm snow bound in Michigan today. so will be making something new. Nicky
I've tried using the strained kefir to culture new batches. I got mediocre results. Without the grains, the culture simply doesn't thrive.
If you are making kefir with cream, there's no reason that you can't consume it on its own. I believe, from a health stand point, kefir made with cream if better for your body than made with other kinds of milk. (Don't waste your money on skim!) If you don't want to eat is as is, try adding some sliced cucumbers, dill and salt it well with sea salt.
@@KuonysKitchen thank's doug, I did come up with several thing's to make with the kefir, I made a dip with a pk of Lipton onion soup mix, taste's like french onion dip, the grandchildren didn't know the difference. then I made feta cheese with it, by letting it hang until very dry, then I added some herb's, really I couldn't tell the difference, then I made ricotta cheese with the whey I had been saving, turned out good, all this I did in one day and evening, plus making butter. I have the cultured butter I made before, I froze it. now all I need to know is how to make your yogurt, I haven't seen it in the store, or can I use greek yogurt to mix with the heavy cream for butter, tks Nicky, still watch your video, but I just wonder why you don't rinse the milk out of the butter? is it because it's cultured? just curious, thank's Nicky
@@NICKYM26 I'm pleased your projects all turned out so well!
I've had a lot of people ask about rinsing the whey (buttermilk) out of the butter. I squeeze as much as I can out by hand. From there, I freeze it in small portions for use later. There's nothing wrong with the buttermilk. It's a wonderful refreshing drink! However, left exposed to heat and air, it will become rancid, which is not good. In the days before refrigeration, the buttermilk had to be removed (it was never thrown away!) so that the butter could be preserved at room temperature. Today, rinsing thoroughly as out ancestors did is time consuming and wastes product. Get as much buttermilk out as you can, freeze or refrigerate the butter, drink the buttermilk or use it to marinate game meat. (Throw it out after using it as a marinate.)
As for the yogurt, you can't buy it in stores. You have to make it at home. I think there is a link below by Matzoni (pronounced mat-zoon) video. If not search the company Cultures For Health. You may have to buy the culture in a sampler pack, but it's worth trying several different kinds of yogurt cultures. Matzoni will culture at room temperature, so no need for a heating pad or yogurt maker. Just follow the instructions. Good luck!
If you buy your heavy whipping cream at Aldi, 2 cps cost about $1.52
Holy smokes! Thanks!
I was always told not to leave milk out unrefrigerated for long, how long is it safe after adding the yogurt? Is there a difference using raw cream vs pasteurized? Thank you.
Part of the reason, besides it tasting good, that human beings began fermenting foods is that the cultures introduced, as in yogurt, or developed naturally, as in sauerkraut, create an environment in the food that inhibit spoilage.
When a yogurt culture is introduced into dairy it begins to thrive and turn the dairy into yogurt, which is spoilage resistant. The kind of yogurt I use in the video ferments at room temperature. Most other yogurts require you maintain the fermenting dairy at a warmer temperature for a given period of time.
I've never left the yogurt I made sit at room temperature long enough to spoil. I've always eaten it or used it in recipes. I've left it for two or three days at normal room temperature with no ill effect. (I did do an experiment with fermented bread starter in one of my videos to answer a viewer's question about what happens to starter when it dies. I was surprised how long it took for any spoilage to begin! The video is somewhere in the playlist.)
Some sources say not to use ultra-pasteurized dairy for culturing. The problem with that is that it's sometimes difficult to find dairy products that aren't! I've never had any difficulty culturing ultra-pasteurized. In regard to unpasteurized dairy, I've never used it since it isn't readily available in my area, but I've read articles that say that milk/cream right from the cow have cultures of their own that might inhibit the growth of other cultures, like yogurt. However, if you don't own a cow or know someone who does, that wouldn't be an issue when making yogurt.
Hope this answers your questions!
What brand whipping cream are you using?
I use whatever is available. The brand hasn't seemed to effect the culturing as far as I can tell. I've read articles that say not to use the super pasteurized milk products for culturing (I think that's they proper term), but that is all that's available at times and it still cultures without any problems.
(If you're just curious about the packaging, I think the brand I'm using in the video is distributed by Kroger.)
I've always just used buttermilk for the culture rather than yogurt. It works just fine for me.
It does work fine. Buttermilk is still a cultured milk product and it's readily available. You can also make butter with cream without culturing it at all, which is most common in America. But the culturing add additional flavors and what health benefit might accompany a living culture. If you wanted to experiment with some variety at home, you could culture your own buttermilk or any number of other yogurts or kefir. I'm sure there are plenty of other possibilities of which I'm not aware. This certainly isn't the only way to make cultured butter.
The biggest difference between buttermilk and heavy cream (besides the culture) is butterfat content. Heavy cream usually contains around 35-38% butterfat. Most commercial buttermilk is low fat with contains about .5% butterfat although, if you can find regular buttermilk it would contain a higher percentage. I think the difference in making butter with buttermilk or heavy cream would simply be the higher yield of butter to buttermilk (whey) due to its higher fat content.
I've never made butter from commercial buttermilk so I don't know what the difference in yield would be. If you ever make butter from heavy cream, let me know what the difference is!
I'm sorry for any misunderstanding. I do use the heavy cream, but use buttermilk rather than yogurt to culture it. I don't use yogurt as much as I should, perhaps, but have buttermilk around all the time as I just love the stuff. I do let it ferment for a day and a half, but then become too impatient and make butter. I will try letting it sit for a couple or 3 days and try to see if the difference in taste is to my liking.
Thanks for all the info, and also thank you for your prompt reply. Merry Christmas!
Oh! I get what you're saying! Yes. That would work. I us yogurt primarily because I always have it on hand. I use an heirloom variety that remains active as long as you feed and care for it. It's been my experience that commercial cultures are altered so that they eventually lose their reproductive power. Then you have to buy the product again. If you're not trying to culture your own buttermilk over a period of years, there's no reason not to use commercial buttermilk.
I was a little stumped trying to figure out how you were making butter with low-fat buttermilk! I just figured you must have some super power with dairy products!
LOL!
Ha! I'm glad we got that cleared up! :)
Can we use kefir but not kefir grains?
If you're asking about culturing, the answer is no. I had the same question when I started working with kefir. I tried using some active commercial kefir to culture milk at home. It would, in fact, culture for a short period of time, but then the culturing ceased. I wasn't successful culturing kefir until I eventually bought some grains.
The good news is, I've been using the same grains (or their descendants) for well over ten years. So if you take care of them, they are a one-time investment.
In regard to making butter, you always want to strain the grains out for later use, otherwise the grains just get churned into butter!
If the kefir grains are difficult to take out then why not just add kefir that's made... Just the liquid to the cream... Can't that culture it
Because only a really smart person would think to do it differently than he's always done it! Well done!
Doug Kuony thankyou keep up the good work... May the Lord bless us all
hussayn19 Thanks so much!
+Doug Kuony no problem may goodness and light noor come to you in this life n the next
I was just wondering the same thing ...
Thank you.
The only keifer I'm familiar with has the last name of Sutherland. That aside, I noticed that you didn't "wash" the butter in ice water until the water becomes clear, as most others on TH-cam suggest be done. Instead, you simply squeezed the butter balls, placed them on foil, and then presumably froze them until needed. Do you think the washing of butter is unnecessary? In one video I saw, a person "washed" the butter in ice water in a food processor several time. Then, if I remember correctly, you just squeeze out the clean water before storing the butter in the fridge.
I'm getting ready to try making butter using a powdered buttermilk culture. The cream I will use is ultra pasteurized because that is what's available. We'll see how it works. I can't find anyone selling raw milk or cream online. I think maybe it's illegal.
Oh, wow. I just noticed you've got comments on this video going back 4 years. Are you still there?
I'm still here, although scheduling hasn't allowed me to do many videos recently, maybe in the future.
In regard to Keifer, isn't it amazing that his parents had the foresight to name him after such an amazing dairy product! But seriously, I never really understood that pronunciation, except that it's the god-given duty of Americans to murder the queen's English. The few times I attempted to pronounce it Ka-fear', the way most of the world pronounces it, I was confronted with unknowing, blank stares and snickering.
In regard to washing the butter in ice water. Most people do things the way they were taught without question. I think this is one of those things. While there is nothing wrong with buttermilk, it tends to be esthetically unpleasant to have it ooze out of your butter while you're trying to spread it on your morning muffin! Besides, unless buttermilk is kept cool it spoils, which ruins your butter.
Several friends of mine make butter in the traditional fashion in wooden churns. They do not have the advantage of AC or refrigeration and the weather is often very hot while they are churning. They wash the butter thoroughly after squeezing out the buttermilk to add to its storage life. The buttermilk is consumed immediately. They do not have the option of using ice water for washing. At best the water is warm.
However, the ice water would make the butter stiffer, so less of it would be washed away. Having said all that, if you are going to freeze the butter for long storage or refrigerate it for use over a few weeks, there's really no reason to go to extremes with washing. I will often store my butter in a butter bell on the counter if I'll be using a lot of it in a short time.
I've used the method I show in the video for years and have suffered no noticeable ill effects from it. Once you've made a few batches, you'll decide what method works best for you.
I've read a lot about not using ultra pasteurized milk for culturing. Like you, I'm unable to find raw milk and ultra pasteurized is all that is available. It's worked fine for me. Also, I've read several times that the naturally occurring cultures in raw milk will sometimes counteract fermentation cultures (which is why it's suggested that you do low-temp home pasteurization before culturing raw milk.) Since what I've been buying works, obtaining raw milk and pasteurizing it seems like an unnecessary extra effort! I've never had occasion to culture raw milk right out of the cow so this is only my opinion!
Good luck!
Can I ask where you live? IOW, where, pray tell, are people living where they still use churns and live without electricity? And just for clarification, I was serious about keifer. I've never hard of it before, but I see a youtube video on how to make it. So even though it sounds like something I'm not interested in using, I'l have a gander at that one next.
I live in the midwest. We have power, AC and refrigeration. However, I'm a living historian and have worked with a state historical program for over twenty-five years. During our active season, we portray life on an 1820s military post. No AC, power or running water. Some of our women make butter and they sometimes do it under brutally hot conditions. (No ice water to be had!) I guess that's why I find it amusing when people tell you butter has to be made under all of these idea conditions!
As for Kefir, it's a fermented dairy product that originated in the Caucasus region. Its fermentation produces a thick yogurt or cheese like substance. The taste and fermenting process are unique. I do have a video on it, but there is a wealth of information online. If you do a search, you'll find more information that you ever wanted to know!
I thought perhaps you were in some remote, northern region of Alaska or Canada. Then it occurred to me that some people live "off the grid" by choice, as some folks do in the NC and VA mountains and all throughout the country.
The video about kefir that I alluded to was in fact your video and I did watch it.
In my area (eastern NC) we have a lot of Civil War historians and people who like to reenact the various battles of the region. One guy likes to come down from Canada to join in. We even have a Civil War fort that I love to take visitors to, though its significance during the war was, generously speaking, negligible.
Oh, and BTW, I did make that cultured butter this morning and put some on toast. It's delicious! Will probably be doing that again when I run out even if it does take two days. :-) I wonder whether I need the granulated buttermilk culture if you use yogurt and others use buttermilk. I guess I can just buy buttermilk or yogurt with active cultures and uses that instead.
You could perhaps use commercial yogurt or buttermilk. I don't know what the butterfat content is for commercial versions. You can make butter with heavy cream and not culture it. That type is more common in the US than in Europe. I like the taste of cultured butter. The higher the butterfat content the higher the yield.
If you enjoy yogurt I would suggest checking out what Cultures For Health carried. If you buy an heirloom variety, it will last for as long as you care for it. I've been making yogurt (and butter) with mine for over ten years. When you make your own yogurt, you can culture milk, Half And Half or heavy cream depending on what you will use it for. I use a culture call Matsoni which is mesophilic, which means that it cultures at room temperature. No heating necessary.
Did you sample the buttermilk? It's real buttermilk and different than the cultured buttermilk we buy in the store. In days gone by it was a favorite summertime drink for rural families. Its sour flavor makes it wonderfully refreshing. (It's acid content also works well as a marinate for tenderizing meat.)
you sound just like stone cold steve austin lol
Thanks?
Kitchen aid butter
what type of yogurt did you use?
+Debbie Collier Matsoni (sp?) from Cultures For Health. www.culturesforhealth.com
i make kefir from store bought kefir, no grains needed, just save some old kefir for starter.
not as many probiotics as the kefir grains.
Just made this today. Used Viili culture (from Cultures for Health) with 24-hour ferment, and it came out well. Thanks for the video.
That's great! I've always had good luck with CFH. When I bought my yogurt starter from them years ago, they sold the different cultures separately so I've never tried the other varieties in the heirloom pack. I'd be interested in hearing your impressions of the other yogurts included.
Have only made Viili in the pack, but will can let you know when I try the others.
I'm looking forward to it!
I have put Viili to sleep temporarily (freeze) and have tried lately the Filmjolk heirloom culture. It is a much milder flavor than Viili and is more loose than Viili and seems a bit more sour. Will try the other two cultures in the packet in the coming months (Matsoni, Piima).
I'm looking forward to your report. How does the freezing work out for you?. I've done it with bread starter, but never with yogurt. I simply make yogurt too often to freeze it.
Will this work on whipping cream?
Oh, you bet! I probably called it heavy cream in the video. Sometimes the terms are used interchangeably. (At least I do!) Good luck with your butter making!
Doug Kuony churning the whipping cream without the starter also produces buttermilk right? Does the starter change, improve, or add complex/different flavors to the buttermilk?
When you say "starter", I'm assuming you mean the yogurt you make with the cream. (For a moment I had the idea of bread starter stuck in my head!) You make butter by churning cream, or in this case whipping it in the food processor. I've seen plain cream churned with old fashion wooden churns and it works, but is much slower. Butter can be made with plain cream or cream that has been cultured in some way.
In the USA, "sweet creamery butter" is common. It's made without culturing the cream. Europeans seem to prefer their butter cultured before it's churned. When it comes to butter making, I'm firmly in line with the Europeans! The cream can be cultured with any number of different cultures including various yogurts, kefir, etc. Each produces unique flavors and textures. In addition, culturing your cream before churning produced beneficial probiotic cultures that many people want to add to their diet.
The main objective of this recipe is to produce cultured butter. Although the process does render the byproduct buttermilk, don't confuse it with the commercial product bought in stores call "cultured buttermilk." Cultured buttermilk and real buttermilk are much different. Real buttermilk is much thinner, but still has a rich buttery taste and makes a refreshing summertime drink. It's also useful for baking and as a marinade for meats. When you are done churning your butter you will have both butter (the butter fat) and buttermilk (the butter whey.)
PS After your previous question, I had to look up the difference between whipping cream and heavy cream. It turns out the terms are usually used interchangeably. However, there is a difference. Whipping cream contain about 30% fat. Heavy cream contains about 35%. That's really the only difference and either one will work well for making butter.
I see. Thanks for taking the time and effort for responding me with detailed facts. I will try this out. It seems like a fun experiment to try on. Another great thing I've learned today!
You're very welcome! I'm sure you'll enjoy having homemade butter. Remember that you can mix in herbs, etc after it's churned for spreads and cooking. Have fun!
kefir starter i think would work.
Yes it would. I only use heirloom yogurt because it eliminates the step of separating kefir grains from the thick kefir made with cream. You can use any other yogurt culture if you wish.
I've always washed my butter to remove the remaining buttermilk.... then I use wooden spoons (the handle end) to knead the salt into the butter, which also removes even more buttermilk. The buttermilk will go into cooking.... I use sour cream for the culture, not yogurt............ Guess there's a million ways to get it done...............
Good ideas! Thanks for sharing!
I was studying for an AP Bio exam and ended up here. Help.
I had to give back all my text books and I don't watch TV, so I guess I'm of no help to you. Sorry...