Butter

by Michelle Lasley

Michelle Lasley is a mother, wife in Pacific Northwest learning to balance green dreams with budget realities.

December 20, 2008

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Categories: Food

I made butter the other night.  I’ll have to make it again for pictures.  I read on Instructables how to make butter after seeing a presentation at the Keep Portland Weird Festival.  It was so easy, even with my Black & Decker food processor.  All I did was pour about 1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream into the blender and let it spin.  I thought I did it for about 10 or 15 minutes, my husband thinks it was only 8.  I checked it every few minutes for consistency to monitor progress.  I watched it go from soft cream, whipped cream, firm cream, and finally it separated and made butter.  We have a lot of the “Chinese Diapers” from when we tried to do cloth diapers that have now been relegated to face wipes for our son’s mealtimes.  As soon as the butter separated, I put one of those cloths over a large bowl in the sink, and then I dumped the contents of the food processor directly onto the cloth.  I pulled the ends up, and I squeezed.  What was left was a perfectly moldable, soft, very pliable, cylinder of butter!  Because it didn’t yield a lot, I used it for my garlic mashed potatoes.  I had even thrown in about 3/4 of a bulb of roasted garlic knowing at minimum I would use it for dinner.

Overall, the process was easy and fabulous.  However, for us, it is not cost effective.  It is nice knowing that I can make butter, though.

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