Homemade Butter

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream (at a temperature between 60 and 68°F)
• A pinch of salt (optional)
• Finely diced herbs (also optional)

Instructions

1. 1
   Place cream in the clean, cool bowl of your stand mixer, assuming you have one. Mix on medium speed.
2. 2
   Basically, you begin by making whipped cream. Once the cream has reached stiff-peak stage, slow the mixing down a little. The cream will now start to clump in the bowl.
3. 3
   What you have in the bowl will quickly turn from creamy white to, not surprisingly given the subject matter of this post, buttery yellow.
4. 4
   After a short while, the buttermilk will begin to separate from the butter solids.
5. 5
   Pour off the buttermilk. You may save it as the appropriate beverage for a late night, heart-to-heart conversation about women with your teen-aged son around your antique farm house table, cook with it, or throw it away. The choice is yours.
6. 6
   At this point, it’s a good idea to rinse the remaining buttermilk from the solid bits, since the buttermilk will cause your butter to turn rancid much sooner than one would like. Pour cold water over the butter, then squeeze and knead. Repeat until water runs clear.