Making your own butter is one of those things that seems like witchcraft until you do it, and then you can't believe how easy it is. A tub of double cream, a few minutes of churning, and you have fresh butter and a jug of real buttermilk.
The one step that makes or breaks it is washing the butter properly, which is what makes it keep. The recipe is below, with a cultured option and more on how it works underneath it.
How to Make Butter at Home: A UK Guide
Makes About 300g butter plus 250ml buttermilk (from 600ml cream)
Prep
20 min
Total
20 min
Makes
About 300g butter plus 250ml buttermilk (from 600ml cream)
Ingredients
For the butter
To season (optional)
For the cultured version (optional)
Method
- 1
If you're culturing it, stir the yoghurt or buttermilk into the cream, cover, and leave at warm room temperature (21 to 24°C) for 24 to 48 hours until it smells tangy, then chill it before churning.
- 2
Pour the cold cream into a stand mixer with the paddle (not the whisk), or a food processor, and drape a cloth over the top to catch splashes.
- 3
Churn on medium-high. It passes through soft peaks, then stiff whipped cream, then turns grainy, and finally splits into yellow butter clumps and thin buttermilk, usually in 4 to 10 minutes.
- 4
Slow the machine down as it splits to stop it splattering, and stop once the butter has clumped and liquid pools in the bottom.
- 5
Strain the buttermilk off through a sieve and keep it.
- 6
Tip the butter into a bowl of iced water and press and knead it with a spoon or clean hands. The water clouds; pour it off and repeat with fresh iced water 3 to 6 times, until the water stays clear.
- 7
Press the butter firmly against the bowl to squeeze out every pocket of trapped water, and pour it away.
- 8
Work in the salt if using, then shape into a block or roll, wrap tightly, and chill.
Cook’s notes
- Use real double cream, the fresher and higher-fat the better. UHT and extra-thick spooning cream may refuse to break.
- Don't bin the buttermilk. This thin, tangy liquid is real traditional buttermilk, perfect for scones, soda bread and pancakes.
- The washing is not optional if you want it to keep. Butter that still tastes of milk has buttermilk hiding in it and will sour within days.
- Cultured option: souring the cream first gives a tangy, continental butter and probiotic buttermilk, well worth the wait if you like a richer flavour.
- Salting seasons and preserves. Unsalted butter is best used within a few days; salted keeps 2 to 3 weeks chilled, and it freezes for up to 3 months.
What you’ll need
- Stand mixer (paddle, not whisk) or a food processor
- Sieve
- A bowl of iced water, for washing
Troubleshooting
It won't turn to butter.
The cream is too cold or ultra-pasteurised. Let it warm a little and keep churning, or switch to fresh pasteurised cream.
The butter is greasy or weeps water.
You didn't press out the trapped water. Knead and pat it harder after washing.
It sours or smells off after a few days.
Buttermilk was left in. Next time wash until the water runs completely clear, and salt it.
Buttermilk splattered everywhere.
You hit the split point at full speed. Slow the mixer right down as it starts to separate, and keep it covered.
The butter is pale and bland.
That's normal for sweet-cream butter. Try the cultured method, or a richer Jersey cream, for a deeper colour and flavour.
More about making butter
Butter is simply churned cream. Cream is fat droplets suspended in water, and agitating it long enough smashes those droplets together into a solid mass of butterfat, squeezing out the watery liquid, which is the buttermilk. No additives and no heat, just movement.
Why washing matters for keeping. The buttermilk left clinging to fresh butter is what spoils, as its milk sugars and proteins ferment and turn rancid within days. Rinsing in iced water and working out the water removes that food source, which is why properly washed butter lasts weeks rather than days.
Cultured versus sweet. Sweet-cream butter is churned from fresh cream and tastes clean and mild. Cultured butter is churned from cream soured with live cultures for a day or two first, giving a tangy, nuttier flavour and a naturally slightly longer keep. Before refrigeration, most farmhouse butter was cultured, because the cream soured naturally before there was enough to churn.
The buttermilk by-product. Real buttermilk is the thin liquid left after churning, not the thick cultured drink sold in cartons. It's low in fat, slightly tangy, and prized in baking, where its acidity reacts with bicarbonate of soda to lift scones, soda bread and pancakes. Making butter always leaves you with two ingredients, not one.
Frequently asked questions
Written by
UK Homesteading Team
Editorial team
The UK Homesteading editorial team, offering UK-specific, evidence-led guidance on growing, keeping, preserving and the law.
