RE: Butter help? ine

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/23/02 1:24:49 PM Central Standard Time,

foodfromafar@... writes:

> As far as churning times go, my cold (60 degrees if I let it sit out for a

> bit or even colder straight from the fridge) fresh cream takes about 30

> minutes to churn. Cultured cream at ~70 degrees takes 1/2 that or less. I

> hope that helps.

>

> ine

>

>

>

>

Our's fresh from the separator takes anywhere from one hour to 3 hours

depending on the temperature of the room. Winter temps bring the cream temp

down faster. In the summer we are forced to refrigerate the cream before we

can churn it into butter.

Belinda

LaBelle Acres

www.labelleacres.com

[Guest guest]

ine,

This helps so much, thank you. We had never tried leaving the cream out to

clabber, but would really like to try. As I mentioned, our butter churn is

rather large, (will hold 100 gallons of cream) it is a drum type (stainless

steel) so we can't actually see the butter as it's churning. We have to stop it

and open the big door to see how it's doing. So far, we have not been able to

tell when it's done enough. What we see inside the churn is the creamy butter

floating on the surface of the buttermilk.

How long would you say it takes to churn cultured cream into butter - verses

fresh cream? I would like to try this next time.

Thanks so much ine,

Janet

Janet,

I'm not a dairying expert, but I do have a couple of thoughts. The best

churning temperature is probably 15-20 degrees cooler than your cooled

cream. Cream churned at higher temps takes a lot longer to churn and has a

much softer consistency which is harder to wash. The often recommended temp

is 60 degrees but I often make butter with cultured cream at room temp of

70-72 degrees with no problem. For some reason, cultured cream takes a lot

less time to churn. The farmer we buy raw milk from sets his cream out to

clabber at room temp for 24 hours before he makes butter; I do the same when

I make cultured butter. I have also found that if I let the butter churn

until it's really clumping together, most of the buttermilk is already out

of the butter. Maybe you aren't churning long enough? If I let it churn

until after the butter clumps up in a ball, I can pour off most of the

buttermilk quite easily. Washing the butter is really just a couple of

rinses to get the excess buttermilk off. I hope this helps.

ine

[Guest guest]

Hi, again, Janet!

>>we can't actually see the butter as it's churning<<

Can you hear what's going on inside the churn? If you can hear the butter

churning above the ruckus of the equipment, you'll develop an ear for when

the butter is ready. It starts making kind of a splashing sound. The motor

may sound like it speeds up as the butter clumps on the paddles and the

buttermilk comes off because the butter is balled up and the buttermilk is

splashing freely. Alternatively, the motor may sound like it's lagging as

the butter clumps up and prevents the paddles from moving as freely. I

don't know what your churn looks like or how the paddles work. You can also

check on the butter visually after a certain period of time and then turn

the motor on at a slower speed, if possible, for a few seconds a time or two

to encourage the butter to clump. I don't have a big churn like you do, so

I'm only guessing from my small batch experiences.

As far as churning times go, my cold (60 degrees if I let it sit out for a

bit or even colder straight from the fridge) fresh cream takes about 30

minutes to churn. Cultured cream at ~70 degrees takes 1/2 that or less. I

hope that helps.

ine