Butter tips please

[Lovemythermo]

Hi everyone

Just made my first batch of butter, despite having my TMX for nearly 18 months. It all seemed a bit tricky.
I've read the many hints that have been posted but wanted to clarify a few points.

Can I use plain old 35% fat home brand thickened cream? (Judydawn where do you buy your cream from?)
Maximum of about 600ml right?
The book says to pour 500 gms cold water into the jug and mix on speed 4 I think then strain. You do that at least 2 times?
If you wanted to add garlic and herbs you do that first, put into another bowl to be added to the butter later?

What would we do without this forum? 

[stacelee]

I make a lot of butter....I use pure cream because I work on the theory that between the butter and the buttermilk it is good value.  I would love to find somewhere I can buy bulk pure cream but at the moment I normally buy it from IGA as it is a few cents cheaper than anywhere else.  I bought a couple of butter pats from ebay when I first got Tom which really help with getting the water out of the butter, but my last purchase of a butter mould was my most helpful purchase.  I roughly mould the butter into a rectangular shape, put it into the mould, press it down and hey presto have a block of butter that looks like a bought one.  I wrap mine in parchment paper and pop it into the fridge.  I wasn't able to find a new butter press mould so bought it off of ebay.

[Meagan]

Stacelee were the butter pats expensive? Were they new or old?

[stacelee]

They were old ones...I think they cost me about $12 for the pair....I've never been able to track anywhere down that sells new ones so I'm hoping these will last a very very long time.  They seem to appear pretty regularly on ebay, although the butter press mould doesn't seem to be very common

[debetha]

Hi everyone

Just made my first batch of butter, despite having my TMX for nearly 18 months. It all seemed a bit tricky.
I've read the many hints that have been posted but wanted to clarify a few points.

Can I use plain old 35% fat home brand thickened cream? (Judydawn where do you buy your cream from?)
Maximum of about 600ml right?
The book says to pour 500 gms cold water into the jug and mix on speed 4 I think then strain. You do that at least 2 times?
If you wanted to add garlic and herbs you do that first, put into another bowl to be added to the butter later?

I have only made it a couple of times, newer than u here!
First time I managed to do it was with a mix of double & single cream, second time I was <<trying>> to make whipped cream with the double cream but in less than a minute I had butter!!

The rinsing means it stores longer, I read somewhere at least 3 times, and using really cold water helps solidify the butter

I have only added olive oil to spread, but herbs etc should be added once the butter is made. Not sure I would fancy garlic buttermilk anyway!! So personally I would use a clean bowl for the butter.

Hth

Deb

[quirkycooking]

My suggestion for herb butter is grind up the garlic and herbs first, scrape into a bowl, and rinse the tmx jug. Make the butter (keeping the buttermilk), then add in the herbs & garlic and some salt, and a little olive oil if you like, and mix it up. 

You can use up to 900ml cream at once, and freeze the butter in containers to make it last longer.

It's best to use pure cream, as the others don't always work, and they have additives (yes, even hyrdogen pyroxide to make them whiter!!) 

We live in dairy country and can buy lovely organic, unpasteurised milk and cream, and the jersey cream can be bought by businesses in 2 litre bottles - the owners told me the other day that if enough people want it, they'll start selling the pure jersey cream in bulk in the local shops here - yay!  (IGA and Spar)  so I'm trying to get the word out to get people to ask for it!  There's plenty of us Thermomix addicts up here, so if we all ask, we should be able to get it! 

[cookie1]

In the olden days..........when we used to make our own butter with a butter churn Mum used to wash it until the washing water ran clear. I've often wondered what happened to our butter pats when I make butter, they would be useful.

[judydawn]

Lovemythermie, I buy my cream from Foodland.  Actually made 600mls butter this week when they threw out 2 x 300ml cartons pure cream over it's useby date by 1 day for 50 cents each.  Too good a bargain to let go and I needed 100 gms unsalted butter anyway for the cheesecake I planned to make.  It turned into butter in 1 minute  and I just squeezed the buttermilk away with my hands (can you believe, down the sink - it didn't even occur to me this time to save it) then did 3 rinses with cold water from the fridge.  I once did it with tap water - not the way to go, it must be very cold. This was the first time I have used pure cream, all the others were with thickened cream and they worked although took longer to turn to butter. It is quite a rewarding task really. I only do it because I can not because I need to - I don't have a problem with bought butter.

[Very Happy Jan]

I make butter very regularly. I squeeze out the buttermilk with my hands as I get a better result with hands than I do with the butter pats. I rinse mine 3 times with iced water and squeezed out the excess water after the last rinse. In summer I add Grape seed Oil to make is spreadable straight from the fridge but in winter it lives on the kitchen bench so doesn't need the oil. I never add salt as my family can't tell the difference between salted and unsalted!!

[Meagan]

VHJ where did you get your butter pats from?

[Meagan]

I found this place in the US it is about half way down the page. Does anyone else use pats? What I found interesting is the mention of using them for making gnocchi  I like the sound of that

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fantes.com/images/2166butter.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fantes.com/butter.html&usg=__6d_Rcbrjbfne42fOgfD8tZTbSy0=&h=470&w=444&sz=49&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=k2TcV1BR1bDL0M:&tbnh=129&tbnw=122&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522scotch%2Bhands%2522%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1

[andiesenji]

I use those same butter paddles to work the butter and to make fancy butter balls when I feel like making the effort.
I have a wooden board that is slanted and has a depression for the buttermilk to collect.  I work the butter on the board because I usually prepare a batch that produces about three pounds of butter.   After weighing and molding it, I triple wrap it and freeze it. 

I also have a couple of large (1 pound) butter molds -  they are round so fit my vintage covered butter dishes. 
I also have a set of small individual butter molds but have no idea where they are presently located.  I put them away several years ago, nicely boxed because I planned to send them to my daughter but then she started back to work and didn't have the time to do all the things she had been doing.  I never unpacked them so they are in a box that should be marked but I have so darn many boxes of similar junk that it would take weeks for me to locate them.

A friend sent me a packet of a mesophillic culture made specifically for butter (Probat 222) which is supposed to yield a cultured butter like the French Isigny butter. 
I'm very anxious to try this culture to see if it will yield the same, faintly cheesy, flavor that I absolutely love. 

[achookwoman]

I make 2x600mls. in the TMX and use thickened cream.  I wash it twice and find the best method is to tip the washed mix into a chux lined sieve.   I freeze in plastic containers in freezer.  I freeze the butter milk for the KFC recipe.   I add 100g of rice bran oil at the end to this amount of cream.  I have costed it out and you end up with the butter milk for free.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

That costing is good to know Chookie.  I have always wondered if butter is more expensive to make than buy, but have never worked it out. 

[Very Happy Jan]

VHJ where did you get your butter pats from?

From my MIL !!!!