Smooth as butter.

What better way to continue my trend of educating myself in self-sufficiency than by making my own butter?!  It doesn't matter what homesteading, country living, farming, or self-sufficient website, blog, or magazine a person reads, inevitably the easy recipe for butter will reveal itself.

Mason jar - check.  Whipping cream - check.  Patience - check.

Fill a trusty mason jar about 1/3 or slightly more with whipping cream, then shake.  You don't have to shake hard enough to make your teeth rattle.  Just gently roll the jar around in your hands.  Depending on the temperature of the cream and how vigorous you shake, a nice yellow blob of butter will form in ten to fifteen minutes.  Keep turning the jar and you will see more and more buttermilk separate from the butter.  Pour out the buttermilk into its own container.  The yellow blob is the butter!!!

To extend the life of the butter, put it under some ice cold water and squish the butter (technical term would be kneading).  The water will turn cloudy.  This means you're doing it right.  Keep rinsing with cold water until the water post-squishing runs clear.

This was my first attempt at making butter.  My conclusion...instead of saying "Piece of cake," I'm going to say "Easy as making butter!"  A quick taste test made me smile.  I had to track down Brent and make him try a small dollop of my first homemade butter.  He was impressed!

Butter                                                     Buttermilk

It's too late in my day to attempt to make anything with my buttermilk.  I may have to make more butter to get more buttermilk before I can make some pancakes or biscuits!!  

Mission Make Butter was a success!!