Nana’s Goat Farm Butter

Making butter is the easiest dairy to make. I learned it when I was a child at age 12, when I milked a cow. I had to rise at 5:30 on school days to milk. My cow was a beautiful cream-colored Guernsey. She became too scary for me, though, as she was huge and liked to kick. So my dad sold her and bought me a gentle little Jersey named Blossom.

Blossom gave enough milk to drink and create butter. My dad knew how to make it fun as he did all things in life, and he taught me the creation of butter.

He had to show me only once, and then I was on my own. We used the milk from the day before to give the cream a chance to rise to the top. I skimmed off the cream, being very careful not to include any milk in my spoon. When you skim toward the end of the cream, you can accidently include milk in your spoon. If you get too much milk, the butter will never firm into a clump.

Daddy showed me how to put the cream in a quart jar and tighten the lid and screw band. It had to be tightened tight so no cream leaked out of the jar. He had one of my siblings and me and sit across from each other on the kitchen floor about three yards or so. We then rolled the jar of cream back and forth to each other.

What a fun way to make butter!

My kid brain couldn’t imagine on that first butter making how all the cream would turn into all butter. Well it really doesn’t work that way, and I found out soon enough.

After rolling it for a long while, Daddy took the jar and showed us the clump of butter within the liquid now called sweet buttermilk.

Daddy said we had to take the clump of butter and wash the buttermilk out of it with cold water. Because our family was big, we left the butter in a dish on the counter and used it within that day. Otherwise, the butter should be stored in the refrigerator.

About the sweet buttermilk, we used it in making pancakes. This way nothing goes to waste.

Ten years ago, when I acquired my first milking goat named lily, I made butter. I would shake the jar in my hand until I felt the butter clump in the jar, with a soft thump against the ends of the jar. I learned that if you leave the cream on the counter until room temperature, the butter forms in only five minutes.

I also found out the cream cannot take more than 2/3 of space in the pint or quart jar. And leaving the space in the jar at half is even better. It has to have plenty of room to churn in your jar. Otherwise, it won’t clump or at best take way too long to make into butter.

After the butter making, you can salt it or leave it plain. I like mine plain, even though on the whole, I enjoy salt. I have to store mine in the refrigerator as I make it last a few days. I’ve even frozen it when my goats have given an abundance of cream. This way I store my extra butter in the freezer for the long winter months when my goats don’t give enough cream to make butter.

You too can make butter at home. If you don’t have a cow or goat, buy the thick cream at the market and get to work.

If you have any questions about the process of creating butter, please let me know in the comments. If you decide to make butter, please share your experience in the comments.

Here’s to happy butter making!