Making French butter at home is one of those satisfying skills that brings you closer to the roots of traditional homesteading. In a time when convenience often trumps quality, taking a step back and crafting your own butter from fresh cream gives you control over your ingredients and connects you to an age-old process.
The process is simple, requiring basic ingredients and tools like a large mixing bowl or food processor.
The end result is a rich, creamy butter that’s perfect for spreading on homemade sourdough bread or incorporating into your favorite recipes.
Whether you’re working with raw milk or store-bought cream, making butter at home is an easy way to add more homemade goodness to your homestead kitchen.
What Makes French Butter so Special?
French butter has a higher butter fat content than the typical American butter found in grocery stores. And a tangy flavor that comes from culturing the cream, making it richer and more complex.
European butter contains less water and more fat, contributing to its rich, creamy texture. Unlike American butter, the cream used in European butter is often unpasteurized, which means it retains the natural bacteria necessary to develop its signature tangy, nutty flavor.
In the U.S., however, most commercial creams are pasteurized, stripping away these beneficial bacteria.
Replicate the Live Cultures
To replicate the complex flavors of traditional European butter at home, we need to introduce live cultures, like yogurt or sour cream, to the process. This addition helps recreate the depth and tang that defines authentic French butter.
How to Make French Butter at Home
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Quart Heavy Cream
- 4 Tablespoons Cultured Buttermilk
- 1 Cup Cultured Plain Yogurt
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Into a large bowl add the heavy whipping cream, cultured buttermilk, and cultured plain yogurt and mix well. Cover the cowl and leave at room temperature for 24 to 48 hours.
- Then we’ll make the butter.
- Using a stand mixer and a whisk attachment, slowly begin mixing as it is thick and a bit messy when you start out mixing. Whip it until you have the consistency of whipped cream.
- Then switch to the paddle attachment, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and whip until the butter forms and starts to separate from the liquid.
- Then we have to clean up the solid butter. Scrape it off the paddle attachment and put the butter in a colander. Drain off the liquid. Form a ball with the butter and squeeze out the water.
- Place into a bowl of ice water and continue to squeeze out the liquid. Change out the water and ice two more times until the water stays clear when you’re squeezing out the liquid in the butter.
- You can keep it as unsalted butter. If adding salt, place on clean work surface and add the salt to the butter and knead it in. Give it one final bath in the ice water.
- Form into the rectangular shape, log shape, or other desired shape.
Nutrition
Use Fresh Dairy from Your Own Animals
For homesteaders, making your own sweet cream butter is a great way to use fresh dairy from your own animals or local farms.
If you’re using fresh dairy from your own animals, such as a cow or goat, the cream naturally rises to the top of the milk as it sits.
Growing up, I found that it is much easier to work with cow milk. The cream naturally floats to the top by just letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight. When I was a teenager, my parents had a goat farm.
My brother and I did all the milking by hand. You tend to get strong hands milking over 70 goats morning and night. The cream is naturally homogenized, which makes it harder to separate the cream from the milk.
Either way, both will work for making butter with the right tools.
Here’s how to separate the cream
Let the Milk Sit. After milking, pour the fresh raw milk into a large jar or container. Allow it to sit undisturbed in the refrigerator or a cool place for 12 to 24 hours. During this time, the cream will separate from the milk and rise to the top.
Skim the Cream. Once the cream has risen, use a ladle or cream skimmer to gently skim the thick layer of cream off the top. Be careful not to mix it with the milk below. You can collect this cream in a separate jar or bowl.
Use a Cream Separator. If you have a cream separator, this tool can make the process quicker and more efficient, especially if you’re handling large quantities of milk. This is a must for getting the most cream out of goat milk too.
Once separated, you can use the fresh cream to make butter or other dairy products.
Storing Butter
It is best to store butter in an airtight container in the refrigerator to keep it from absorbing odors from other things in the fridge. Homemade French butter can be stored in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks or frozen for up to 3 months.
Reference
Jean Pierre. How to Make French Butter: Your Guide to Creamy Perfection.
hhvicky
Friday 4th of October 2024
Thank you for sharing this recipe