Making Butter (again)

It is going to be a cold weekend. Bitter cold temperatures will start tomorrow, January 19, 2025 and continue until Wednesday. A lot of other things will happen in this time period too, but I will not mention or focus on that. If you read this in 2035, then Google (or whatever means of researching is happening in ten years) about a situation we are having now. You will probably just be able to think it, and the Wikipedia chip in your brain will know the answer but I digress.

Today I thought I would clean out the refrigerator and start fresh. I had soup that was past its prime and other things to sort through. I came across an unopened container of heavy cream. During the holidays I was going to make whipped cream for something and didn't. The container was not past the expiration date, but I sure didn't need a bunch of whipped cream. I could have eaten it from a bowl but knew it wasn't a smart idea. I decided to make it into butter rather than toss it in the trash.

I had blogged about making butter several years ago. Here is the link. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2016/11/make-your-own-butter.html I had purchased a little butter churn at the time. A lot of you know my youngest grandchild Ewan. He likes to experiment with making random things just like me, so I gave the churn to him a few years ago. Today I used my Kitchen Aid mixer. Not the authentic way to make butter, but today was about getting the job done and not acting like a pioneer. 

All it takes is pouring the cream into the mixing bowl, turning it on and letting it mix until you get butter. You drain off the buttermilk to use in something else. I think I will make bread. Next rinse the butter under cool water until it runs clear and add some salt which makes it taste better and preserves it some.

 I have a Butter Bell crock. It is a small crock where the butter is put in the top section and a small amount of water is put in the bottom. The top part with the butter packed inside is the lid. This keeps the butter fresh and makes it easy to spread. I put half of this batch into the bell and refrigerated the other half. I mentioned in the previous blog that 1 pint of cream makes one stick of butter (4 ounces). I got a little more this time. I got almost seven ounces. It still isn't very economical, but in this case I would have thrown it away. Now I have almost one half pound of butter to use up. I am a bit of a cheap skate so it works for me.

Now I have a clean refrigerator and I am ready to hunker down and ride out this weather. I have a lot of firewood so I might even make a fire in the fireplace. Right now it looks beautiful outside. I know it's only temporary, but the way time flies at my age the cold snap will be over before I even notice.