My youngest brother operates an organic dairy farm on the land where we grew up. Located along the Shenandoah River next to the Blue Ridge Mountains, it is one of the prettiest locations in the world, in my opinion. Of course, I think that a part of it has to do with the connection that I feel to that place. In my book club that met virtually this month, we discussed Hannah Coulter, a novel written by Wendell Berry. In his beautiful novel written in modern times, the author discusses the connection of people and land. I think that there is something about growing up on a farm that makes one feel so deeply connected to the land. When I am there, those mountains still, after over 40 years of seeing them, take my breath away. My soul feels a sense of peace when I am there that it feels no where else. Even though Ryan and I lived in a home that had a view toward the same range of mountains for the first seven years of our marriage, I did not have that same feeling of connection as I do to the farmland and mountains where I spent my formative years.

Photo credits of the cow/farm: Evan Showalter

My sister-in-law reached out to me last week to ask whether I could use any organic cream to make butter. I said, “Yes!” If you have ever tasted the butter made with cream from organic grass-fed cows, you will understand my enthusiasm!

Although we have an antique butter churn, I don’t know whether it’s okay to use. I have no idea what the history of it is—my husband had it when we got married.

And so I decided to make the butter in our Vitamix. I am going to quickly go down another rabbit trail here and tell you how thankful I am to have a Vitamix—I first heard of them in my early 20s—but then I went to college and then I had student loans to pay off…and I never made a place in my budget for a Vitamix. I finally bought one over 15 years later—thanks to the generosity of my husband who gave me a gift card that he had won as an award at work and told me to use it to purchase a Vitamix. Now, trust me, he has benefited greatly from it use—I have concocted some delicious smoothies, sauces, soups, and more in that machine! And I regret waiting 15 years to make the purchase!

My sister-in-law had made butter in her Vitamix and gave me some pointers to follow, and I will share those with you as well.

Only fill the container partially full (4-6 cups).
Do NOT run it on high speed!!! This is very important as it will cook the cream before it separates. Use speed 5-6 and blend only until it starts to separate.
When the cream starts to thicken, scrape down the sides with the tamper.

And so, with this knowledge, I started.

It took nearly 13 minutes for the first batch to separate and start making grains of butter. I wasn’t expecting it to take so long because a friend had told me that she made a batch of butter in about 15 minutes from pouring the cream into the blender to finished butter being put into the freezer. But, she was using a Ninja blender, not a Vitamix, so she ran it on high for 5-8 minutes. It took me nearly 15 minutes just to get the cream to separate and form butter and buttermilk for my first batch! And then I had to do that several more times because I was working with a gallon jar of cream. And then I had to wash and salt it and measure it—so it was a time-consuming process! But it was worth it…I also made homemade gluten free bread, and the combination was so good!

You can make butter in your own kitchen, using a blender or even a mixer—or even by shaking it in a Mason jar (putting a clean marble in helps it go faster, I have heard). Ellie wanted to make butter in a jar all by herself so I put about 1/2 cup cream into a pint jar for her to shake. But, unfortunately, the jar broke and the cream spilled, and she was sad.

So, to save time and a broken jar, here is how to make butter in the Vitamix, using this step-by-step method (you can adapt the steps for any blender—just blend it at a higher speed for a shorter time!) NOTE: All times below are based on starting with cold cream. If you let it come to room temperature before starting, the times will be decreased.

1) Put the cream into the blender (you can use heavy whipping cream from the grocery store).

2) If using a Vitamix, turn it to speed 5-6 and blend for about 8-9 minutes. Once the cream has started to thicken, scrape down the sides with the tamper, and keep scraping as needed. Continue blending.

3) About 11 to 12 minutes in, the butterfat will start to become grainy and the buttermilk will separate and become liquid. Stop blending as soon as it reaches this point.

4) Strain the butter. If you want to save the buttermilk for other recipes, make sure to use a bowl to catch the buttermilk instead of letting it go down the drain!

5) Wash the butter in cold water. I used ice water in a bowl, changing the water as necessary until it remained clear. (Once I had gathered all of these loose pieces into a ball, I kneaded it like bread dough until the water was clear). If you can’t get the water cold enough from the faucet, add a few cubes of ice to the water.

6) Salt the butter as desired. I saw a recipe that used a ratio of 1/4 tsp salt for 2 cups of cream. I used that ratio, and the butter was plenty salty. Once I added the salt, I kneaded and stirred it until it was completely mixed.

7) Shape or mold butter as desired and refrigerate or freeze. In stories I have read about women making butter in the past, they took great care to mold their butter beautifully so that it would look pretty on the table, but I don’t have any butter molds and so I made poorly shaped butter balls because it was getting late in the day and I needed to get the job finished quickly. Sometime in the future, I would like to take time to press the butter into pretty molds or sculpt it into pretty designs.

In case you are curious, a gallon jar of cream yields approximately 4 cups of butter and approximately 10 cups of buttermilk. I didn’t weigh my butter to get an exact measurement, but I scooped it with my 1/2 cup measuring cup and formed it into balls. I immediately used one to make a batch of cookies, put one in the refrigerator to enjoy on waffles…and bread…and put the rest into the freezer.

Also, the buttermilk that remains is great to use in other recipes. I made waffles with some buttermilk on Sunday morning, and they were delicious! I also soaked chicken in some buttermilk as a marinade—supposedly it makes chicken more tender and moist. Because I couldn’t use all the buttermilk that I made, I froze some of the it for future use.

If you give butter-making a try, let me know! I would love to hear how it turns out!

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How to Make Butter using a Vitamix or other Blender