ecoLIVING London

Butter is expensive, especially the sticks. What I normally do (instead of buying the sticks) is buy a pound and then cut it into quarters. Then I wrap the quarters and put them into the freezer. There you go, inexpensive sticks of butter. You know what's even more inexpensive? Making your own. I made some on the weekend.

I had some whipping cream leftover in the fridge so it was the perfect time to give it a shot. All you need is cream (30% or more), a jar with a tight-fitting lid, a piece of cheesecloth and some salt.

Pour the cream into a jar with enough headspace to allow the cream/butter to move around (a little less than half way up).

Then you shake the jar (a lot). At first you'll hear the liquid sloshing around, then it'll sound like there are chunks, and then nothing. Don't worry, it means that you've made whipped cream. Just keep shaking...and shaking...and shaking. Have you ever seen the infomercial for the shake weight stick thing? They exercise while shaking this stick? Well, whoever invented that must have made homemade butter. It's a great arm workout!

Just when you're starting to wonder if you'll be a failure at making butter you suddenly hear something in the jar. Could it be? Did it work? Yup, there's something rolling around in there now and it's making a clunking sound.

At this point, cover the jar with a cheesecloth and drain out the buttermilk (use the buttermilk for pancakes!). That's not it though, the butter needs to be 'cleaned'. Run some cold water into the jar and strain out a number of times until the liquid being drained out becomes clear. It's important to remove all of the buttermilk from the butter to prevent spoilage.

To be extra sure that there isn't any buttermilk left spread the butter onto a cutting board and absorb any remaining liquid with a paper towel. Keep moving the butter around and blotting it until it seems to be pretty dry (only takes a couple of minutes).

And there you have it - fresh, homemade butter!

Who knew that butter would be so easy to make? No hours of 'churning' required? Next time you need butter and it isn't on sale, check and see if the cream is on sale instead. Chances are, the cream will be cheaper so why not just make your own?

Dallas Rocheleau lives in London, Ontario and has been blogging about local eating since 2009. She sources out local foods from the Southwestern Ontario region and loves to spend time in the kitchen making seasonal recipes. She also avoids buying processed foods and tries to replicate common grocery store foods at home from scratch. Her blog can be found here.