Cultured butter

[Guest guest]

I've been reading stuff about making your own butter that said homemade is

always better tasting than bought. The kids wanted a project and liked butter

so we decided to make some and use my mesophilic dairy culture to culture it (I

have one that is supposed to impart a buttery flavor to brie). We got just store

cream because it was the only one that wasn't ultra-pasturized and let it sit at

room temperature for various amounts of time while the culture did its work.

Making the butter with an electric mixer was really easy. We used a well-washed

soap mold to mold it and will keep it in the freezer until it's used up (just a

few days the way they're eating it).

Next time I'll splurge and use the raw milk - that is $7 a gallon lately and

nobody here likes skim milk! I guess I'll use the remaining skim milk to make

paneer. I'm also not sure how to get the cream off the top - sure it rises but

you can't scoop it off the top of a regular small-mouthed milk jug - or decant

it either for that matter. Maybe I'll look around for a gravy separator to use.

I got the starter at www.thecheesemaker.com - they have a lot of starter

cultures there. I'm really curious about trying the other mesophilic cultures

to see what flavors they give the butter.