I've been reading some of the comments about making butter. I use only butter. Fat is fat, and if I'm gonna use fat, at least butter tastes good! Where do you find sources of unpasturized milk? Is it legal for that source to sell/give it? Any suggestions on proportions, i.e., the amount of salt to milk/cream? Don't have a blender or food processor. Would a hand mixer work? And does anyone know why butter prices have recently skyrocketted?? Aound here it has gone up over a dollar a pound. Thanks all. Great sites. Stef

-- stef (sbrogers@erie.net), June 15, 2001

Answers

Legality depends on local state/county regs. Most state governments are convinced they need to protect us from ourselves. Look for someone in your area with a goat herd. If you are really want to get into making your own dairy products why not consider getting two does of your own. A typical dairy goat will give about a gallon of milk per day. Our Nubians average between 4% and 5% butterfat. You need to have a cream separator and butter churn. There are sources for electric and hand crank butter churns. Cream separators are somewhat expensive and relatively few people have them. With a yogurt maker and ice cream maker you can make all your own dairy products. Where are you located?

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), June 15, 2001.

Sorry about the last post. I guess some feel that everyone has the means and ability to keep a cow. I personally think a lanai hanging on the side of a condo, for example, would be a little tight quarters for a cow! ;-D

In many states it is illegal to sell milk for human consumption that is not from a Grade A certified dairy. However, people can and do sell milk "for pet consumption" all the time. They are unlikely to advertise, however, for fear of bringing on the dogs.

You might call a country vet and find out who, other than a real dairy, has a milk cow in the area. The cows have to be tested, so a bovine vet should have an idea. If he can't give you the information, maybe he can point you to someone who can. Feed stores might be another source of info.

I keep saying cow because you'd have to be pretty dedicated to make butter from one or two goats. Cream separators have a LOT of parts to clean, and it's not really worth it unless you have several gallons of milk to separate.

Once you get the cream, there are lots of ways to make butter. Essentially anything that will keep the cream sloshing around for a period of time will do it. I think a hand mixer would do fine.

I seem to remember you get around a pound (or so) of butter from a gallon of cream. At that rate, the store prices may not seem so high once you price fresh cream, but you never know what you might find! Good luck!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), June 15, 2001.

Countryside provides one of the best sites around. Getting full sentenced comprehensive answers and comments(in real time, no less) is a delight. Thanks Skip and Laura for your help. Housing goats and a cow in my three room apartment would be a might difficult! (what would the neighbors think?)I'm sorry that a simple question about something as wholesome as making butter would elicit a profanity. The irony is that I just got done telling a family member what a wonderful net site this is. How it proves there are still many great, decent people in the world. Incidentally, this family member recalled his fourth grade class making butter in a quart jar and eating it on crackers. Laura, of course you are right. The amount of labor put into making a product deserves a decent return. And dairy farmers sure don't have it easy.

-- stef (sbrogers@erie.net), June 15, 2001.

Hi, Stef~ Not to be discouraging, but to make any decent amount of butter you're going to be buying an awful lot of milk, aren't you? No farmer is going to sell you cream off the top of their bulk tank because dairymen are paid according to fat content (and solids non fat content) in the milk; they'd lose too much money skimming the tank. Now, if you wanted to get into cheesemaking as well it starts to make more sense, because then you wouldn't be wasting the skim milk after you took the cream off for butter. I think you'd be looking at 3 or 4 gallons of milk or so to make a pound of butter. Not sure, but in that neighborhood.

Jennifer L.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@imcnet.net), June 15, 2001.

Dear Jen...well, now maybe that $2.90 for a pound of butter doesn't sound too bad. (smile) Stef

-- stef (sbrogers@erie.net), June 15, 2001.

The offensive post was deleted for not contributing constructively to the discussion.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), June 16, 2001.

Stef, price up a quart of heavy cream in your area, here it's cheaper than butter. Out of a quart of cream I get one pound of butter, and I also use the buttermilk for baking. I add one teaspoon of salt to one pound of butter. It takes about 20 mins in my mixer, but I have done it with a hand mixer also, try it, it's fun and easy.

-- Carol Koller (ckoller@netsync.net), June 16, 2001.

Stef:

Actually, we can and sometimes do buy milk from others, raw. One method is just to ask around and she who might be willing. I have a friend milking goats, and I can get it from her. We have an organic dairy farmer a couple of miles away who will sell it to us if I want. We have a lot of Amish around us as well, and they will do this. Another idea is a "cooperative". I don't know laws elsewhere, but at least in Wisconsin and Iowa you have drink raw milk IF you own the cow. For a while we were getting biodynamic raw organic milk from a farm 3 hours away that someone in the area had to drive to weekly. They had paperwork for us to sign, and we paid $20, to all buy a part of a cow we named. (We never did determine who owned what part of the cow. I wanted the moo). Our little cooperative then also paid four bucks a gallon for the milk for "maintenance"...paying the farmer to milk her and do all the chores for us...the milk was free.

Then, in Iowa my good friend did the same thing, with a different twist. There was a farmer there who had been selling his milk raw to people for years until they tried to shut him down. He checked the laws and HE started a cooperative. ANYONE can join and sign a paper saying they are buying a share in the cows and they pay five bucks to join. Then, anytime someone wants to, they can drive up, walk into the "store", fill their own containers with milk, or cream (which is separated) and leave the money in a jar on the counter (Hmmmm....maybe a good homebusiness for someone out there). Sometimes the farmer has other things for sale too...extra vegetables, bread, etc. It is all on the honor system, and it works great for him! This farm is located about 20 minutes outside of Iowa City, and he has lots of folks from town driving out there. Now that she has moved south of Iowa City, she just gets it from her Amish clients.

Good luck!

-- marcee (thathope@mwt.net), June 16, 2001.

Dear Stef,

I'm surprised Your question elicited sooo many answers! At least it gives You lots of info.

A former girlfriend and I used to make butter with milk we bought from an organic / health food store on weekly trips to Columbus OH. The milk seemed expensive at first, but it came in a glass jar and was whole. The cream would rise to the top and we'd take a knife to cut our way to the milk! Considering the cream, the milk, and the butter we got from it the price was very reasonable.

Our method of making butter was pretty low tech. We'd pour out part of the milk and reseal the jar. Then we'd take turns shaking the jar until the butter came (was a great time to talk or visit with friends!) The milk is then poured through cheese cloth to strain out the butter, a LITTLE salt added, then we'd twist the cheese cloth around the butter to tie around a dowel placed across a bowl to drain.

What this butter did for hot rolls and whole-grain toast was truly decadent!!

Hope this helps!

Randle

-- Randle Gay (rangay@hotmail.com), June 16, 2001.

So in case any of you are wondering what I was apologizing about, and just to prevent any confusion that I had taken issue with Skip's answer, there was a rather nasty response posted right before mine that Ken or someone kindly got rid of. Thanks Ken!!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), June 16, 2001.

Reading further, it appears Ken had already explained it. That's what I get for not reading all the posts first. Thanks again, Ken!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), June 16, 2001.

Land O'Lakes butter in our stores is selling at $3.89 a pound. It is interesting the differences in prices throughout the country. Makes me want to join a co-op somewhere that shops around and finds the best prices for you. Unfortunately, I can't find any in my area (Virginia).

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), June 18, 2001.

My goodness, $3.89 a lb? WOW. I churned butter this morning, from the extra milk my cow is producing. If you are going to get a cow with making butter in mind, I would recommend a Channel Island breed, such as a Jersey or a Guernsey, as these breeds cannot convert the beta carotene from grass, into Vitamin A. This makes the butter a rich yellow, compared to the pale stuff you buy that is made mostly from Holstein milk.

Jerseys make milk with an extremely high butterfat content, compared to Holsteins. My cow's milk yeilds about 3 cups of thick cream atop each gallon. It took half a gallon of cream in the churn to yeild 1.5 lbs of butter. And it's the color of dandelions.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), June 18, 2001.

consider yourselves lucky-NY area Land O Lakes butter is 4.99/lb and no recent sales (2/$5)

-- Dale (DMDM444@aol.com), June 19, 2001.

Stef, I make butter with a hand mixer and it's quite easy. Hve you ever made homemade whipped cream? Just get some heavy cream (sometimes called whipping cream) pour it into a bowl and start mixing with your mixer. First you will get whipped cream, keep going. Then it will start to look grainy, then you'll get chunks of butter and a thin white liquid which is buttermilk. Take a spatula and smoosh all the butter over to one side of the bowl and squeeze out as much buttermilk as you can. Pour off the buttermilk. Add some ice cold water to the bowl and kind of stir and smoosh the butter around some to get out all of the buttermilk trapped in the butter. The water will turn cloudy white, dump it out and add more cold water. Keep doing this until the water is clear. On the last wash add a little salt to the water, smoosh the butter around and then taste it too see if it's salty enough for you. Start out with just a little salt, you can always add more but you can't take it away if you add too much. Hope this helps!

-- Sherri C (CeltiaSkye@aol.com), June 19, 2001.

Here's a some butter making directions for you.

Butter Making

Enjoy,

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), June 21, 2001.