Making Butter and Yogurt

On sundays I normally make about a pound of butter and a quart of yogurt for the week. I start by skimming the cream off the milk. I use non-homogenized milk, where the cream sits on top. I use a spigot jar, you can find this jars anywhere, or something with a large top opening. Pour your non-homogenized milk into the jar and let it settle. You will start to see a line in the jar where the cream starts to settle. Take a ladle and gently “skim” the cream off the milk and put in a separate container. The milk that will be left is skim milk, which you can drink, or I will make show you how to make some yogurt.

For the butter, I normally get a little cream and set aside in a small container for my coffee in the morning, i normally get about a quart of cream per 1 gallon of milk. My kids love to make butter, because it is so simple and the only equipment needed is a quart jar and two hands.

The ingredients you will need to make the butter:
1 quart cream
salt to taste
I have found that if you leave the cream out at room temp them butter starts to separate from the butter milk faster and with less effort.

Pour the cream into two separate quart jars. You only fill them half way to give enough headspace for the cream to expand. Screw the lid on tightly.
Shake or “churn” the cream for about 6-8 minutes. When the butter starts to form, you will hear and start to fill the sloshing and the butter will then start to make a “thud” sound.
The next step is draining the buttermilk off and washing the butter. Simply open the lid and with your finger hold the butter in the jar and pour off the buttermilk. Save the butter milk for many other applications in baking or dressings (we like to make ranch dressing with ours). Once all the buttermilk is drained, you will need to wash the butter. I put about a 1/2 cup of cold water back into the jar with the butter and shake the butter/water around for about 30 seconds, then drain the water from the butter, and repeat this process again until you get clear water.
Dump your butter into a bowl and add salt to taste.

The butter will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator, it freezes as well.

Since that was so very hard and sooo time consuming, all of ten minutes? Lets make some yogurt which is just as easy.

For the yogurt you will need a starter culture. If this is your first time making yogurt you can us a store-bough yogurt that is labeled “containing active cultures.” I have found that starting with a thinner brand of yogurt aren’t as successful in making yogurt.

The ingredients need to make yogurt:
1 quart of whole or skim milk
1/8 cup of starter yogurt
If using raw milk, unpasteurized milk, you will need to pasteurize it, simply heat the milk on medium heat to 180.
Remove the milk from heat and let cool to 115-120 degrees. If using pasteurized milk, simply heat the milk up to 115-120 degrees.
After the milk is at 115-120, pour into a quart jar with the 1/8 cup of starter yogurt. Stir with a whisk until the yogurt is mixed into the milk.
Place the lid on the jar and wrap in a bath towel (that helps keep the mixture maintain a warm environment). Set the jar in a warm spot, I put it on top of a hot water heater, fro 4-6 hours. Do not disturb the jar during the incubation period. when the yogurt has thickened up, unwrap the jar and let cool in refrigerator.

The yogurt will keep up to about 2 weeks in the refrigerator. If you like thicker yogurt, you can add a teaspoon of milk powder to the milk when heating it. We eat yogurt with some granola and fruit for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.

We also did some pickling and canning today but I'll save that for another post.