Smooth like Butter

Actually, it is butter.

Lately I've been buying raw, organic, milk from grass-fed cows at a organic dairy about 25 miles from here. I and my daughter, 6, like to see the cream at the top of the jar the next morning. In the spirit of self-sufficiency and curiosity, I figured I'd try to make butter from the cream.

There's a number of websites that give instructions for making butter. My wife recently bought a cookbook based on the Little House series and followed most of the steps. Tried cooking milk and grated carrot to make an orange coloring, but that didn't turn out.

Here's how I did it:

1. Skimmed the cream off two quart jars of milk. I'm guessing it came to a cup - by eye it was about half of the pint jar I poured it into.
2. Screwed on the jar lid and started shaking. My daughter started, but she got bored with that after about 30 seconds. I kept shaking for about 15 minutes. When I peeked in the jar, the butterfat had formed a ball smaller than tennis ball, but bigger than a golf ball.
3. Poured the contents of the jar through a strainer and into a bowl. The remaining liquid, actual buttermilk, I saved for making pancakes later.
4. In a bowl, covered the butter with cold water. I kept rinsing with cold water and working the butter until the water was clear. You're working out the remaining milk, so the butter doesn't go rancid.
5. Worked in a little salt and put in a little ramekin thing.

All in all it I got about half a stick of bright yellow butter of out it. My wife gave it high marks. Used some on mashed potatoes from the LFM. Mmm.