Thanks so much for all of your tips about making butter! You all rock. So, I made this fabulous butter today and have since whipped about half of it with honey, which tastes amazing—especially when the butter is lightly salted. Here it is all made (I was a fancy-pants and gave it an extra whipping after washing it which is why it looks nice and fluffy) along with the buttermilk which I saved.
I went with the food processor method. I wanted to be all prairie-cool and do the mason jar thing, but was impatient and to be honest, wanted to try it first fast-style, just to see what it was all about and know when it was really done, etc. before I set the kids to shaking a jar—which I fully intend to do. For the cream, I used Strauss, one 16 oz jar, and left it on the counter to warm for about 2 hours before I started. It must have made a huge difference, because instead of 15-20 minutes, this butter was made in about 2 minutes, seriously. I am really glad I went with this method, because the kitchen-aid thing seems a bit messy, and this wasn't at all.
Here it is after washing. Okay, seriously yummy.
I need to research more about the buttermilk left over. Is this buttermilk, like the kind you buy? I am curious, because I have made my own buttermilk by adding buttermilk to scalded milk and letting it sit, but I have only done this using purchased cultured buttermilk, which I am assuming is different than what I have here left over from the butter making process. Clearly, I need a dairy making book or need to befriend a cow owner.
And the husband got the wrong size of weck jars, but they will be exchanged, and the butter willl be housed in the smaller size soon, don't you worry.