Butter Butter Butter

I told myself that when spring came around and the local cows started noshing on the new green grass, that I would buy some pastured cream and try to make some butter.  I read in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration how the isolated alpine Swiss celebrated the milk at this time in the year as sacred.  Butter made from spring milk is full of Weston Price's Activator X. 

Spring is here in Georgia and I have noticed lately that our milk has turned from white to beige as the cows eat the lovely green grass.  The new grass is so full of carotenoids that the milk gets a little yellow with it.  And apparently, butter and cheese made with this milk will be yellow as well.  This past winter I was buying butter made from local, grass fed milk but since the cows were eating hay, the butter was white. 

So, I got myself a gallon of cream (not raw, but vat pasteurized from a local grass fed dairy, Johnston Family Farms.) and I started making butter.

First, I made sweet cream butter, meaning that I just used the fresh cream and did not culture it.  I poured about a pint of cream into my Kitchen Aid mixer and used the whisk attachment.  It takes a lot of high speed whisking to finally get to the butter.  It also spatters quite a bit.  Note to self:  try using the food processor next time.  You know you've gotten there when the cream starts to clump and separate from the liquid.  I drained off the liquid (buttermilk) with my mesh strainer.  Tiny globs of butter made it through the mesh. Note to self: strain it through a cloth next time.  Then I poured about a half a cup of ice cold water into the bowl and mixed again.  And strained again. And again.  This is called "washing" the butter.  You want to keep at it until the strained water is clear. This process helps preserve the butter.  It won't go rancid as quickly if it has all the milk solids washed out.  I added some salt as I worked it. Salt helps to preserve the butter, as well. I didn't really measure; I just sprinkled it on as I went.

I turned the big glob of butter out on to my big cutting board and worked it with my plastic spatula until I couldn't squeeze out any more water.  It was a lovely, creamy yellow.  Fresh butter is amazing--light and sweet.  I could almost taste the fresh green grass.

The second time around, I used my food processor with the dough blade.  It didn't spatter but it also required more stopping and scraping the sides.  I think I prefer using the stand mixer.  Washing and working the butter to remove the milk solids is a bit tedious.  This time, I kept the butter in a bowl as I worked it with my spatula.  I think they used to use a paddle for this job and I could see how my spatula was not an efficient size or shape for the job..  As I worked the butter against the side of the bowl, a little pool of water would form at the bottom and I just tipped it out as I went.  This was an easier and neater method than working it on my cutting board. 

I wrapped the balls of butter in some wax paper, put them in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer.  Butter is supposed to stay good in the freezer for 6 months. 

The third time I made butter, I used cream that I had cultured.  I couldn't find any buttermilk or sour cream in the store that had active, live cultures, so I decided to use my piima culture.  I've been using piima to make sour cream and it has a lovely, mild taste.  I figured it would make good butter.  I used the stand mixer and after just a few minutes the buttermilk separated.  I washed it a little but the butter seemed light and airy, it didn't get thick like fresh cream had.  I decided to whip it for awhile longer...and ended up with very light, whipped butter.  I am not sure if I made a mistake or if this is what the piima culture did to my butter.  I ended up putting it into mason jars and storing it in the fridge--it'll be lovely on veggies and rice but probably not great to cook with.   I am going to try piima again...I'll edit this post if my results are any different.

I bought another gallon of cream this weekend...so I'll continue butter making for a little while, at least.  I am not sure that it is worth the time to make this a regular part of my Real Food Revolution...I can buy good butter (Kerrygold) from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and even Costco.  It's pricey but not unreasonable.  But for the time being, butter making is fun and interesting.  And I am excited about stocking my freezer with locally sourced Activator X.

Spring Brings Green Grass and Yellow Dairy

This morning I saw that Sarah at The Healthy Home Economist was writing about the wonder of rapidly growing spring grass.  She tells how the color of her grassfed milk changes to a darker beige as the cows feed on the vitamin rich new spring grass.

We switched to raw dairy at the end of this past summer and I read Nutrition and Physical Generation just a few months ago, in the middle of winter.  Weston Price tells of the isolated Swiss who regard the milk they harvest during the spring as a sacred food, thanking God for providing them with the means to make nourishing cheese that will sustain their families through the year.  After analyzing butter made from spring milk, he found that it had a special, uniquely vital component that he called "Activator X".  I think I saw somewhere else that this turns out to be vitamin K2.  Price used butter oil from spring butter as a supplement for undernourished children and now I give my own children this same butter oil, mixed with fermented cod liver oil.

Late last summer I switched to raw, grassfed milk, butter, and cheese because I wanted to provide my children with optimal nutrition.  Since it was the middle of winter (and the cows were eating hay) when I was learning about the special properties of raw dairy harvested in the early spring, I  felt a little frustrated that I would have to wait to see that subtle color change. I bought grassfed butter that was a pale, off white color but made a plan in my own mind that when spring arrived and the butter turned yellow, I would buy as much of it as I could and store it in my freezer to use year round.  Since then, I have lost my original source of butter and need to find a new one (I still have butter in my freezer, so it hasn't been at the top of my list).

Perhaps this spring I'll try making butter myself, using the grassfed raw milk I get from Carlton Farms.  If I do, I will be sure to tell you about the experiment and the results.