Churning butter
 

I have a question for anyone who has used a Gem Dandy butter churn before. I tried my new (very old) one for the first time yesterday and ended up with whipped butter that would not wash. There was so much air in it that when I added the cold water to wash it, it turned into a slurry. I tried all kinds of things to get the air out, but finally had to give up on it.

I have been making butter succesfully in a stand mixer for several months now, but it is a slow process and I had concerns about running the mixer for a couple hours straight (except when the thermal reset would kick off.) So I got a used 10 qt. Gem Dandy from ebay and tried it out.

I had about 4 quarts saved over the course of a week and wanted to make butter before it soured. The dasher spins really fast. This is good because it makes butter in about 40 minutes, but bad because it is whipped so bad you can't wash it.

Does anyone have any tips for getting the air out, or better yet, not getting the air in to begin with. The only thing I can think of is that the cream level is not high enough and the dasher is able to force air down into the cream. This could be difficult to overcome since we only are able to save about a gallon before it goes bad. Could we add milk or water to the cream to get the level above the dasher, or would that create new problems?

Re: Churning butter
 

Hmmm

This certainly brings back the memories.

I haven't milked a cow for damn near 35 years now, but

Here's how I used to do it:

Milk the cow (Brown Swiss)

Take milking pail to house and transfer into gallon glass jars

Let the milk sit until the cream rises to the top.

My butter churn was a device with two wooden paddles

Attached to a rotary gear and a handle, kinda like

An old egg beater, which in turn had a screwtop lid

Which screwed on to a gallon glass jar.

Ladle off the cream into the jar, sit down and crank

Takes about 20-30 minutes

Before you have excellent butter.

Pour off any little bit of whey, then

Remove butter from jar with a spatula

And form into cakes

(I just used my hands and waxed paper)

I didn't even bother to wash it

- No need -

scyth

Re: Churning butter
 

We make butter in a kitchenaid stand mixer all the time but it sure doesn't take hours. You should get whipped cream in a couple minuites, it should turn yellow and fall down in a few seconds after that, and be butter separated from the buttermilk in another couple minuites--less than five minuites from cold cream to butter. I wash it in cold water changing the water a couple times till its clear, add a little salt and form a cake the size of a brick. Problem is we have been known to eat that brick if we are baking bread in a day!

Re: Churning butter
 

I know it's been a while, but I wanted to report back on my progress in case it could help anyone else.

Turns out my agitator was incomplete. It was missing a little propeller-like piece on the bottom. This piece helps keep the cream flowing through the beater properly and keeps it from whipping so bad. I got the best butter I have ever made last night. Completely churned and thick. So thick that I could barely wash it. Thats OK because I only had to wash it twice and it was clean. With the stand mixer I had to wash it about a dozen times to get all the buttemilk out.

Re: Churning butter
 

I just made about a pound of butter from a quart of organic heavy cream. I didn't actually weigh it, so I'm guessing on the amount of butter, but it looked like it was almost a pound.

I used the method that MattC described. I have a Hobart N50 mixer, and it was an amazingly simple process. I just let the cream warm up to room temperature, then I poured it in the bowl and attached the wire whip. I beat it on medium (the N50 has three speeds, I used the middle one, #2), and in a couple of minutes I had whipped cream, and then in a minute or two more I had butter.

I poured off nearly two cups of very delicious buttermilk. I'll cook something with it tomorrow, maybe some cornbread or some biscuits. I replaced the whip with the flat beater, added cold water, and whipped it some more on the #1 low speed settings for about 30 seconds, dumped the water, added some more, and repeated that three more times. I used iced water, so the butter was really cold by the time I finished.

Then I turned the butter out on a cutting board, added a little salt, and kneaded it to press out as much water as possible. I packed about half of it in my French butter bell, and put the rest in a glass crock and put it in the fridge.

I had made sourdough bread yesterday, so I toasted some and spread some of my fresh butter on it. It was delicious.

A note of warning. If you make butter in a stand mixer, be sure to cover the whole thing with a cloth or plastic wrap while washing the butter. If you don't, you'll end up with milky-buttery-water all over your table and nearby walls and cabinets!

Re: Churning butter
 

Thanks for re-opening this thread. I'll add a few more things I have learned over the past year.

1. Warmer cream makes butter faster. It also gives significantly less butter. Optimal temperature for yield is 58F. This consistently gives me 5/8#/qt of hand skimmed cream.

2. Cream will keep slightly longer if you skim it as soon as it rises. Our milk lasts 10-12 days in the fridge. When it goes bad, it will take the cream with it. If we skim the cream the day after milking, it will last at least 2 weeks.

3. If you are going to wash the butter, do it right after churning. I put a batch in the fridge overnight to wash the next day. It of course set up hard. Washing in warm water helped, but it still had plenty of lumps and would not slice or spread properly.

4. If you are using a churn instead of a mixer, do not fill more than 2/3 full. As the cream whips initially, it will erupt and make a mess.

That's all for now. If I think of something else, I'll add it.

Re: Churning butter
 

Thanks for the additional tips, horseshoe3. I measured the temp of my cream before making the butter, and it was 67 degrees. I'll try it a little colder next time.

I wish I had fresh raw milk to skim cream from, but I'm too far from any farms that sell raw milk.