Botter | Butter

[hatjohan]

Using a separator and a karring is really not difficulty, as E has explained. But both is rather boring and gives you a lamé arm at the same time. Come to think of it, milking as such is also rather tedious.
How do I know this?
Well, as a child and student, we had two milk cows and it was my chore to work the separator and the butter churn, and do the milking during school holidays (if only Ipods were available at the time)
During my student years, I delivered the surplus cream to PUD, next to Iscor, one gallon at a time. Dropping off the full can and exchanging it for our empty one.
Never complained about the above, since that "room geldjie" was my pocket money that saw me through varsity.
So, I have a very close relationship with cream and butter

[Emmie L]

The science behind it all

It's Friday, so I can put my science nerd hat on and geek out a bit. The science of cream and butter is quite interesting. I have so far just given you more of a how to. So let's get to the why. That should clarify the behaviour for you.

In science, we distinguish between various types of solutions (where one thing is dissolved in another) depending on it's characteristics.

One type is called a colloid. A colloid is a homogeneous non-crystalline substance consisting of large molecules or ultramicroscopic particles of one substance dispersed through a second substance. Colloids include gels, sols, and emulsions; the particles do not settle, and cannot be separated out by ordinary filtering or centrifuging like those in a suspension.

Jelly is a colloid. That's why it's a gel. Mayonnaise is also a colloid. Because it's an emulsion.

Emulsions are one of the sub groups of colloids. The important characteristics of a colloid that we are focusing on here is homogeneous. That means the same throughout. A colloid has large molecules suspended in something else. Also, the large molecules don't settle at the bottom. They can't be filtered out or centrifuged out. (Unlike your coffee grounds that you stir and then sink to the bottom).

[Emmie L]

Milk is a colloid. The large molecules part of milk are the fat globules. They consist of a variety of lipids (lipids are the scientific name for fats). The solution part is the water based part of it.

The most common is a triglyceride. Fatty acids are carboxylic acids with long carbon chains attached. That's why they are a bigger molecule.

Fat is non polar and water is polar. The triglyceride is protected by a membrane of phospholipids that have hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions. The polar hydrophilic head will face the water and the non polar hydrophobic tails will gather around the fatty triglycerides.

Creaminess is fatty without being greasy. It's emulsion that provides that. Lots of fat globules suspended in a small amount of liquid. Although they are large molecules they are too small for our tongues to feel, therefore it's smooth, velvety texture.

Fresh from the cow is unhomogenized milk. But since the fat globules don't like water and are lighter than water, they are going to float to the top and form a layer of cream that we can then skim off, leaving skim milk behind.

[Emmie L]

This is an opportune time to explain to the guys who had to turn the milk separator until their arms were jelly why this was the case.

If you are processing larger volumes of milk, it's not practical to put the milk aside and wait for time to separate the cream from the milk.

When the milk separator was invented, it was designed to make use of centrifugal force. We have already learned that cream is a colloid and therefore naturally resistant to centrifugal force.
One of the cool things about centrifugal force as a separation tool is that very few things can resist or escape it. That's why the use of centrifuges is so common in liquid liquid or solid liquid extractions.
So the milk separator's centrifugal force will overpower the cream's natural resistance eventually. But it's that natural resistance that means you first have to overcome it which makes it take longer than it would have otherwise.

The most boring battle ever.

[Emmie L]

We now have separated out the cream from the milk sugars and some of the proteins left behind in the skim milk.

We want to turn the cream from a liquid into a solid. We are going to achieve that by mechanically agitating it through churning. Whether by paddle or whisk.

Air is going to forcibly be introduced. Bubbles of gas will form and pop almost as soon as they form. The surface tension of cream isn't strong enough to trap them.
But after a few more minutes of being klapped around, the phospholipid membranes of the fat globules are broken apart by the force of the whisk destabilizing the fat globules.
This exposes the hydrophobic portions of the triglycerides, causing them to seek each other out. But some of these may not find another triglyceride to attach to and because they will do anything to avoid the dreaded water, they will align with the fairly neutral air pockets.
A network of fat globule surrounded air pockets develop. It's somewhat stable and whipped cream is suddenly a thing.

So you see why you need at least 30% fat in your cream to get lift off. The more fat, the denser the whipped peaks will be. So we can manipulate this to our advantage for our intended use.

We can't observe what happens at molecular level, but there are some observable clues. First you will see trails in the cream that don't immediately disappear. Next some soft peaks sitting on top of the surface, but no real change in volume. When the volume starts increasing, accompanied by firmer peaks you have made it.

This is why you don't want to whip at full speed when whipping cream. You don't want to completely wreck the walls, you want to create the foam network.

[Emmie L]

It is interesting to note that because whipped cream is a fat foam as opposed to whipped eggs which is a protein foam that their mouth feel is significantly different. The egg is much more leathery by comparison and the fat foam much smoother.

The more irrelevant things you know.

[Emmie L]

But we are making butter, not whipped cream so we are going to churn away aiming to break down the phospholipid membranes exposing even more fat. The fats will clump together. The more this happens, the more air escapes. The foam deflates and you are left with something greasy and granular. Stiff, yellowish whipped cream with little clumps in it. This is your warning that you are close to the tipping point. This is the point where enough fat is exposed where everything can cling together... forming a lump of butter.

I'm often taken off guard because it feels kind of abrupt when it happens. The water that was held suddenly separates from the solid mass.

[Emmie L]

Place the butter in a clean bowl of cold (even ice water) water. Fold it and press it around the bowl. Keep on dumping the water until it rinses clear. Continue to knead the butter a little longer, excelling (autocorrect you miserable beast, EXPELLING) as much excess liquid as possible.

Water promotes microbial growth. Failure to remove the watery buttermilk can result in the butter souring. It is worth doing this step properly.

[Emmie L]

It can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes for the cream to turn into butter.

[Emmie L]

As we are aiming at the fat portions, it makes sense that everthing being cold will help things along. So it's not a bad idea to stick everything in the fridge and cool it down before starting.

[hatjohan]

I will never again be bored with the process of making butter. Oh wait, that was a dream of some 50 - 60 years ago.
Thanks Emmie, you make the simple task of butter churning sound like a major accomplishment - proud of my young self

[Toxxyc]

My dairy farmer said slightly sour cream makes the best butter. Is that true?

I just took the leftover cream I had and shook it in a protein shaker into butter. Salted it, stuck it in a tub and it's setting in the fridge. Initial taste is AMAZING.

I also tasted the buttermilk and it was FANTASTIC, so I just drank it all. Is this a new thing for me? I'm already planning a compound butter with salt, smoked paprika, black pepper and rosemary to use on steak...

[Emmie L]

Can I type in a size 6 font "I told you so"

So easy. And as always, fresh is yummy. You can see how easy compound butter is when fresh because there's no resistance. And because you freeze it, the compounded bits stay fresh until you need them. It's a quick weekly task.

[Toxxyc]

Alright, so second batch of soured butter made. This is the best one yet. My method for this was was stupidly simple. I bought cream, let it sit for a bit (unpasteurised, raw cream) and after around 3 weeks it was just-just sour enough so you can't enjoy it in your coffee anymore. I learned from my first rodeo, so I didn't use a shaker or hand whisk, but broke out the electric whisk. Whipped the cream thick and beyond, and the second it started crumbling (just before it gets to separate the butter from the buttermilk) I switched the mixer to the dough hooks.

When it was properly mixed the sour buttermilk went to the dogs (I had no use for it). From fresh cream I drink it, it's lovely, but soured I'm not a fan.

Anyway, I then salted the butter quite heavily. Mixed more with the dough hooks and let it stand for a minute every now and then to pour off the liquid that came out. I think the salt helped with this. I then took ice cold water and mixed the butter through the water. This did 3 things:

1. It washed out the excess salt in the butter and balanced out the salt flavour in the end product WONDERFULLY.
2. It washed out the rest of the proteins and whey in the butter that didn't come out on their own. I mixed until the rinse water came out crystal clear.
3. It cooled down the butter and prevented it from splitting really well. It also came together better, so I had less waste.

Once done I smeared the butter in a thin layer around the outside edge of the mixing bowl, poured off as much water as I could, and sat it in the fridge overnight. This morning the water that was still on the surfaces evaporated, and the butter was transferred into its dish. Toast made, butter on, it's MARVELLOUS. By far the best butter I've made so far. The next batches will see flavours being added - black pepper, rosemary and garlic is first on my list.