BRRR...It's freezing here in Podunk. A whopping 12 degrees with a feels like temperature of -1. But inside it's sunny and 70 with the plans of A Podunk Picnic(the name of the quilt) this afternoon.
While shopping and stocking up for the Apocalyptic snowfall(eyeroll). I decided to buy this half gallon of Heavy Cream and try my hand at butter making. I blame YouTube for this impulse buy. Watching cooking videos is one of my favorite time wasting activities. I'm not sure what I watched that made YouTube put butter making into the suggested videos for me but they were right, I watched it and loved it. Those algorithm's know me too well, I find that kind of scary.
The gal in the video used a food processor but I decided to use my stand mixer instead. Using the stand mixer took a little longer than the food processor but it worked great. Look how the butter stuck to the whisk! How neat is that?! This made the next step a little easier.
Who knew you had to wash butter?
You're basically kneading the butter to get out any white milky stuff. Would that be buttermilk? She said in the video but I don't remember. Anyway I washed my butter.
Then kept kneading until it stopped releasing water.
Two cups of heavy cream made 6 ounces of butter. How does it taste? Like butter but not the butter I like. It's not as rich as my preferred brand. Mr. Podunk couldn't tell the difference between his butter(different than my preferred brand) and my homemade butter. So will I make this again? Probably not, but it's nice to know how to make it just in case. It may come in handy someday.
In my opinion Kerrygold butter is the best tasting butter. It's more expensive ($4.50 for 2 sticks) but worth every penny. It adds a richer flavor to your food. It definitely makes baked goods better. I know not everyone is a butter eater or connoisseur but it plays a big roll in my very limited low histamine diet.
Since it's so important to me and it's so expensive, I preformed a little taste test a couple of months ago to see if I could find a new yummy butter. The test was simple, just taking bites of butter.
The butters tested were
Land-o-Lakes
Great Value(Walmart brand)
Vital Farms
Challenge
Land-o-Lakes and Vital Farms were okay, but lacked a rich buttery flavor.
Great Value and Challenge tasted like a chemical. Is it possible the waxy paper they were wrapped in had leached into the butter?
Mr. Podunk said he couldn't tell a difference in any of them. I guess I'm picky when it comes to butter.
If you're interesting in making butter, here's the video I used to make my butter.
As a dairy farmer we drink our own raw milk. We really went through milk when we had teenage boys at home. I would skim some of the cream off the top after letting the milk set all night. I made homemade butter for years until I got so tired of making it. I always used my mixer. I would beat 2 quarts of cream at a time. I did a lot of baking in those days too. There is a big difference in the taste of butter but not everyone realizes that. The quilting on Podunk Picnic looks wonderful, she a true beauty. She is so bright and happy looking, definitely summerish. Have fun binding her then sleeping under her. Sweet dreams of summer!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'm loving your quilt, Lea Anne! Second, you are absolutely correct in that Kerrygold is the absolute BEST butter there is! Even one of my grandsons can taste the difference! He always asks for "that good butter!!" And third, we raised cows growing up, mostly for our own consumption but we would also sell raw milk and homemade butter to a few people! My grandmother and then my mother would churn the butter with an old fashioned churn. I loved trying to do it. Mama then got an electric churn and was in butter heaven! She would really have loved using a blender or electric mixer, but that electric churn was like an electric mixer, just bigger! LOL Thanks for the great memory! We too, are having some winter weather here in the south. Ice yesterday and woke up this morning to snow! The grandloves are SO happy!!
ReplyDeleteI don't even like making dinner.... wow 2 cups make only 6 ounces. Agree on kerry gold butter... tastes better. Horizon tastes better to us too.
ReplyDeleteI made whipped cream for a cake ganache layer this weekend... whip whip whip for 5 min to get it into soft peaks, and it tasted like.... the canned organic whipped cream... heh heh with the tablespoon of bailey's mixed in of course, it was a wonderful chocolate cake made with guiness stout, the ganache layer done with baileys. Milo REALLY wanted some...poor dog
LeeAnna
Your quilt looks lovely! I always love the bright and happy colors you work with. And I'm assuming you put salt in the butter? Just in case, thought I'd mention it. And I'd never be able to taste the difference between the butters: I don't have very good taste buds: it's just the Costco butter for me, and I'm happy. :-) hugs, H
ReplyDeleteOne of my sisters told me about Kerrygold Butter, so I am familiar with it. I think it is harder to find if one lives remote, like we do, so I buy Tillamook butter. That is an upgrade from any margarine Mother used to buy!
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