There is of course more than a hint of smugness implied by dropping the line “I make my own butter” into conversation. But I just can’t help it and am delighting in reactions.
To be honest it’s actually very easy to make and in the time it takes to nip down to the shop for a pound you can whip up a bit of your own. All you do is pour cream into bowl. Whip and then keep on whipping past the point you would normally go to for dessert. Just keep going and eventually the butter milk and butter will split into liquid and solid. Pour out buttermilk and keep for baking with.
The butter will then need to be washed. To do this you will need ice cold water. Throw a few cubes of ice into a jug of tap water. Then work the water through the butter, use a spatula for this and not your hands as they will bring the temperature up. You will need to do this several times until the water comes clean.
Keep your eyes peeled in flea markets etc for those lovely old butter paddles because they make beautiful work of bringing the butter together into a loaf.
Add salt if you like salted butter and I have added wild marjoram for extra flavour.
A half litre of cream yields about a half pound of butter.
Go on join me in smugness.