Butter: Old School Shaking

• Shaking heavy cream to make butter has some advantages. It only requires heavy cream and a large mason jar. The actual butter is nothing more than fat molecules that congeal when shaken, forming clumps. The leftover liquid is buttermilk, perfect as a tenderizing agent for meat or as an ingredient in baked goods. The entire shaking process takes anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, or more, depending on how much heavy cream you begin with. Physical fatigue is the obvious disadvantage of the shaking method.

Blenders and Mixers

• Blenders and mixers make for high-powered modern butter churns, yielding larger amounts of congealed fat from heavy cream than hand-shaking. There are no amounts of times etched in stone regarding how long you have to agitate heavy cream in a blender or mixer before butter begins to appear; eyeballing works best. While it's tempting to set the blender or mixer on high and walk away, stay close by and monitor the process.

Additional Butter-Making Steps

• After you have shaken or blended your cold heavy cream and produced butter, pour the buttermilk and butter clumps into a cheesecloth-lined strainer set over a bowl. Gather the ends of the cheesecloth. Twist the ends and gently squeeze downward on the mass of butter, allowing the buttermilk to drain into the bowl below. Set the butter back into the strainer and unwrap the cheesecloth. Pour cold water over the butter. While pouring, squeeze and fold the butter onto itself until the water runs clear. The butter might require several washings.

Advantages of Making Homemade Butter

• The process of making butter, either by shaking or blending, can be an educational project to share with children or a group of adult friends. While preparing a Sunday brunch, have your children shake a mason jar full of heavy cream. Or host a butter- and bread-making party for friends, and send each guest home with their own freshly made batch.