There is an article in today’s New York Times magazine about making your own butter. It looks insanely easy, and I’m going to try it. Anyone here ever try it? Is it really that much better than a really good storebought?
I’ve done it before. It was, indeed, delicious and easy. My only advice is, if you want it to be salted, then grind the salt nice and fine by putting it in a plastic bag, lying it on the counter, and rolling over it with a jar or heavy drinking glass.
It is very easy, but instead of going whole hog for your first time, just go buy a pint of whipping (Heavy) cream and pour some of it in a little jar with a tight fitting lid. Shake the heck out of it until you have butter. Scoop it out and rinse well, then add salt if you like before you put it in the fridge.
When the boys were little, they got a kick out of shaking baby food jars of cream, then using their own butter on their meals.
T.
I’ve inadvertently made my own using heavy cream and a blender. I completely missed the “stiff peak” phase and found myself with buttah.
I have, and it’s very good. (I think I tried salting one batch by adding some salt to the heavy cream prior to shaking the crap outta it, and that it came out ok as well.) It won’t (probably) be yellow though, just for the record. It will be pale yellow, or white, but still nummy!
We did this (for some reason…) in second grade. For reference, it was 1969 ish. Mrs. Foster (God love her 
) brought in half pints of heavy cream for us all. We shook and shook and voila!, butter! We spread it on Saltines and it was incredible! Delicious.
A semi hijack… I want to make cheese. It seems as simple as butter. Add a few drops of acid (squeeze a lemon…) into whole milk, shake, and you should get mozzarella. More or less…
Real easy to make with a hand mixer and heavy whipping cream. You just keep going past whipped cream and soon you’ve got butter.
As an added bonus, you also get buttermilk- NOT the horrid vinegary stuff they sell in stores but the non-cultured variety. Sort of like very sweet skim milk.
It was easy enough for one aide to teach about a dozen of us 10-year-olds during a summertime day care program, if that helps at all. We didn’t use blenders. I don’t remember how it tasted, but I have fond enough memories of the exercise that it couldn’t have been horrible.
We also made our own mayonnaise, but I chucked that in the trash ASAP. I hate mayonnaise.
I made butter once by mistake. Mrs Seenidog and I were campground hosts at a state park. A good gig, we got free camping and our only real duty was to make sure the latrines were clean and had toilet paper. One night we decided to make ice cream, we got an electric ice cream maker from Sears (a perk of being host is your site has electric, and a phone). Well this Ice cream maker worked by turning a paddle around in the tub until it got too hard and then it stopped. I used a recipe which was insanely rich, mostly cream. Heart attack in a dish. we invited everyone around us to enjoy, even so after all was done there was about a quarter of the tub still full of ice cream. It was very late, and there had been a drink or two tossed back, and in the ultimate state of laziness I threw the last of the ice in the machine, and we went to sleep. Well, with only a quarter tub the friction never got high enough to kick the motor off, so it churned all night. The next day it was still running. I turned it off and started to clean things up, only to discover that the stuff left was not ice cream. It was butter.
Inspired by this thread, and needing something to divert my six year old, we put some whipping cream in a plastice container, went outside and shook it. Much fun for both of us. It was kind of amazing – one minute cream, next minute butter.
I do it occasionally, when I want to impress guests, with heavy cream and a mason jar. Party fun!
I am likewise inspired, and will go get some cream tomorrow to butterfy with the toddlers. I used to do it every year with my circle at Spring Equinox, but we haven’t done it the last few years.
Ditto! Mrs. Crumley - Holiday Hill Elementary in Jax, FL - about the exact same time. 
VCNJ~
I recall making butter in baby food jars back in first grade, but I hated it. I was used to margarine, and thought butter tasted weird.
Happily, my taste evolved and I now appreciate the joy that is real butter. That might be a fun project with my boys…
I did the same thing, but it would have been '72-ish. I don’t remember what grade it was, but 2nd or 3rd sounds about right.
I’ve done it with my own kids, and they loved it.
I’ll have to try it with my mixer. That would make it very easy.
I rarely lactate, but it’s on my to-do list. Don’t miss my butter balls at the next Dopefest!
“Have you tried the butter balls?”
“Were they beside the pan fried semen?”
What do you think would be a good salt ratio for salted butter?
Up to 1 Tablespoon per pound of butter. Depends how salty you like it, really. For spreading on bread or crackers, I like a salty butter myself, and that’s the best way to enjoy your homemade butter, IMHO.