Making Raw Butter

After all that holiday cheer with trimming the tree and all, the kids wanted to make gingerbread cookies.  However, we did not have enough butter.  Enter in Ms. Resourceful.  I grabbed the pitcher of raw milk.  The cream was sitting right on top.  I scooped it right off and poured it into some canning jars.  I ended up with 2 cups without dipping into the milk.  There was still about a 1/2 inch of cream sitting on top, but I didn't want to risk dipping into the milk.  Plus, that cream is yummy in the milk!
I put the lids on, handed them to the kids and told them to shake.  I hope this video makes you smile.  It makes me giggle...a lot.

I've made butter with pasteurized cream before. It doesn't take that long. This took forever. My kids shook, and shook. I ended up holding a jar in each hand and shook. And shook. And shook. I finally poured them into a bowl, grabbed the beaters and beat that cream. And beat. And beat. I didn't time it, but it took at least five minutes on the highest speed available before it even began to resemble something that had been whipped. I then poured it back into the jars.



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Once I put the whipped cream into the jars I started shaking again.  It quickly turned consistency. 



Before shaking and after shaking




Starting to separate the buttermilk




Buttermilk surrounding the butter




1 gallon of milk yielded 3/4 cup of butter

It took longer than anticipated, but it was such a great experience for us.  My boys were amazed at the transformation.  It was also very satisfying to be able to create butter for the cookies we then made.  I love really knowing what we put into our bodies.