My wife and I have read alot of stuff about butter making and have made butter with our 1 gallon electric butter churn, a couple of times. We can buy fresh milk for 2.00 a gallon and have an endless supply. What we have been doing is taking 3 one gallon plistic milk jugs and having them filled, bring them home and letting them sit in the frig over night to allow the cream to come to the top. Then we pour the cream right out of the jugs into the churn, let it worm up to room temp. and churn it. We use the left over milk to drink. How long can you keep fresh milk?? I've read and heard stuff about letting the milk sour by setting it out at room temp for 24hr or so, but I've never really read anything about it that made alot of sence?? My wife feels that we are not really getting all of the cream out of the milk, by just pouring it off the top of the jugs??? Is there a better way?? I think a person should leave some of the cream in the milk for taste??? Our butter comes out good, in that I mean it looks good sets up good and so fourth but the taste isn't anything to jump up and down about. I like the thought of being able to buy milk for 2.00 a gallon, having fresh cream and butter, but I would like to get everything out of the milk that I can. I love good butter milk and tried the buttermilk left over after churning the butter. I told my wife that the buttermilk would gag a magget. haha. I've read enough on this subject to drive me crazy, and could really use some simple tips, ideas, thoughts, and maybe some good old down home advise.

Mike Settle Central Ky.

-- Mike Settle (vantage2@yahoo.com), November 11, 2000

Answers

Hi, Mike!

Terrific price on that fresh milk - we get ours at the same price, nothing tastes like fresh, raw milk! I store mine in glass iced tea jugs, which come with a plastic spigot at the bottom. This way, you drain out the milk from the bottom and the cream is accessed much easier. Just pour out the cream when you get to it, or scoop it from the top!

As far as how long it'll keep, a week seems to be the limit, as long as the fridge is kept very cold. But, when it starts to "turn", don't be in too much of a hurry to dump it down the drain. Raw milk truly sours - it doesn't go "bad". I use soured milk in lieu of fresh in my baking, sauces, and other cooking. My neighbor across the street pours any excess sour milk around her plants outside, and suggests we use it mixed with the chicken feed, mash style in a pan. If you have pigs, the sour milk and buttermilk are excellent for the porkers; again, just mix in with the tater scrapins and supper's leftovers.

Unfortunately, the farmer we get the milk from just dried up his girls, so we won't be getting any for a while :-( And, my kids and hubby are missing it already! It cracks me up to hear my kids complaining about how they wish we could get more "cow's milk"!!! They don't think the stuff at the store comes from the same animal!!

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), November 11, 2000.

Mike, I have several suggestions for you. First of all locate yourself some glass jugs instead of plastic. Don't wash them with regular dishwashing soap either. Check with your dairy friend and see if you can buy some dairy soap. This won't leave a residue on your jugs. Your butter probably doesn't taste as good as it could because of the bacteria or soap residue in the plastic jugs. Also make sure you get enough salt in your butter and you get all the water out of it....just keep adding and tasting till it's right. This is best done on homemade bread :o). You are right about leaving some cream on your drinking milk for taste. To get your buttermilk to taste like the store bought stuff all you have to do is buy some buttermilk from the store and add about a half cup to your homemade buttermilk. Leave this sitting on the counter at room temperature overnight in the winter and not quite as long in the summer. After you have your buttermilk going (your just introducing a culture and it will keep living if handled right) just add a good glug of it to your next batch so you won't have to keep buying buttermilk. Add just a wee bit of salt to your buttermilk too will help it. As to how long fresh milk will keep.....I always use mine for drinking within 3 days...after that it starts to taste a bit funny. I know all the books recommend letting your milk sour a bit before churning. I don't care for the butter when you do that.....we are used to sweet cream butter as most folks are. You might want to look into making cheese with getting your milk at that price. It's not hard and can be a lot of fun. Good luck

-- Amanda S (aseley@townsqr.com), November 11, 2000.

Mike, where in Central Kentucky are you? We are close to E-Town and Rineyville. All we want for Christmas is one milk cow! I am going to sell 4 of my 25 goats to put the money towards one, and we are looking for one allready milking. I don't want to wait 3 years for milk. I too, want to make butter. We made butter from goat's milk, tiny bits of it, and it tastes just 'clean'. Without all those flavorings in it. Have fun.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), November 12, 2000.

Thanks for the help. I've heard people talk about letting the cream curddle before churning. Whats the deal with that??? Ok lets say I have just removed the cream from the milk. The cream is in the frig. and it's cold. Is there any thing I need to do before putting it in the electric butter churn, things like letting it age a week or so in the frig before churning, leaving it out at room temp. for 12 hr. or so???? Oh have any of you ever tried to make sour cream, the sour cream that you use on your baked patato?? I'm pretty much a green horn when it comes to butter making but I'm learning fast due to all off the help. I've been a vege gardener for about 20 years so if you have any garden questions I'll be glad to help in any way I can.

-- Mike Settle (vantage2@yahoo.com), November 12, 2000.

Mike I'm not a sourcream enthusiast but as I recall you can make it by buying sour cream from the store for a starter.....take cream and let it come to room temperature and add a dollop of sour cream to it...let it work for several hours and taste it. I have an electric churn similar to yours. No need to ripen the cream or even warm it up. Just dump it in and turn it on....the action of the machine will warm it to the right temperature fairly quickly. When I first started out with my milk cow I tried to follow the directions in various books to the letter and had some disappointing results. Your best source for advice is some of the 'old timers' in your area. The people that grew up with this sort of thing. A lot of times they won't remember exactly since it has been so long ago but if you talk to several people about the same thing you will get a feeling for it. It is a shame these people and the knowledge they have are passing away so quickly and we aren't learning from them.

-- Amanda S (aseley@townsqr.com), November 12, 2000.

The taste of the butter may be because of the kind of cow. Holsteins do not make good butter, but Jerseys and Brown Swiss do. That's been my experience anyway. I couldn't even eat the butter that came from two different holsteins here - it tasted sour. I get my milk for $1.50 (the Amish guy I buy it from only asked $1 a gallon, but I pay him more hoping he won't bump me off his list!)

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), November 13, 2000.

I've never had the problem with holstein milk making lousy butter. My last cow was a holstein with (I suspect)a bit of Jersey in her background. The butter was better than my full blood Jerseys butter. I think it depends on the individual cow even more than the breed.

-- Amanda S (aseley@townsqr.com), November 15, 2000.

If you let your cream sour before making butter you get a different flavor and true buttermilk. You can make buttermilk from sweet milk by adding culture (like already made cultured buttermilk). This is what you buy in the store. Soured milk can easily be made into cottage cheese so don't throw it away! Don't try to churn cold cream because it takes longer and you won't get as much butter. Let it warm up a bit before you churn. If you don't have a churn, a food processor makes wonderful butter. You just can't do alot at a time. Whirl it in the processor until when stopped the butter is floating in big globs in the milk. Consider yourself lucky to be able to get raw milk at all especially at that price. If there is anyone in the Franklin, Ky, Nashville, TN area that would be willing to sell milk let me know!

-- Kathy (DavidWH6@juno.com), November 15, 2000.

And if you don't have a food processor OR an electric churn, go back to the old standby -- fill a pint or quart jar about half full of warm cream and shake to beat the band!! It really doesn't take very long to get butter that way, and a jar (with lid on tight!!) is a lot cheaper than an electric appliance! (Just don't slip and throw the jar across the room!)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 15, 2000.