Recipe: Butter

Yep... butter. We mostly cook with oil, but sometimes you just gotta have butter, and there's nothing like really fresh butter. It's incredibly easy to make.

For best results, I recommend using low-heat pasteurized, non-homogenized cream, if you can get it in your area. The flavor is excellent.

Butter (makes about 1 cup)

Ingredients

• 1/2 quart cream
• Salt, to taste

Let cream warm to about 60 degrees. Pour into a mixer or food processor. (If using a mixer, I start with the whisk attachment and once the cream has whipped, I switch to the paddle).

Mix or process, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of the bowl. After about 12-15 minutes, cream will grow yellowish and then separate (fairly quickly) into large clumps of butter and thin buttermilk. Watch for this so you don't end up splashing your whole kitchen with buttermilk.

Pour buttermilk off into a storage container to drink or use for baking. It's not cultured, so it won't be that thick, lumpy stuff you get at the store, but it definitely has a bit of sourness to it. Some people really like to drink it--Mr. Scrimp thinks it's disgusting.

Rinse butter in cold water until it's chilled and buttermilk is washed away. Turn onto a cutting board or countertop and knead/squeeze it to remove as much buttermilk and water as possible. Knead in salt, if desired. Pack into a glass container and store, covered, in the fridge.