You got me to thinking, Linda. Could I do the whole butter making process in the blender and get the same results as my more tedious method. The one where I made whip cream in the blender, then put the whip cream into the butter churn cranking to make butter.
The results were surprising. Over the course of a week, I did six quarts of cream one at a time in the blender. As before, I had a few batches that went to whip cream and wouldn't process any further until I added some milk. It was definitely easier to make butter in the blender and I began to wonder if I'd wasted my money buying the butter churn. Yet, it seemed like I'd gotten more butter when I put the whip cream into the butter churn.
It turns out I was right. Tonight, I made another batch of butter using my butter churn in the way I'd explained in the butter blog and yesterday I had made a batch in the blender. I compared the two. Two quarts of cream done in the blender made far less butter than one and a third quarts of cream done in the butter churn. Why, I have no idea but yes, the butter churn for me was worth the money.
Getting the most butter from my cream as possible wouldn't be such a big deal if I'd only wanted some butter for bread. But, I was so excited about the results of my butter cookies that I started separating milk every couple days and making butter. I'll admit it. I've become fixated on making goat butter and in the next few days I going to make lemon pound cake with it. I'm sure it will be heavenly.
But for now, I'm going to go put my pajamas on. It has been a long day. We woke up at five o'clock and the thermometer said it was fifty-six degrees Fahrenheit. Far too hot for the cow elk hanging in the garage so Kirk and I started to cut her up as fast as we could go before we had to be at the corrals at seven to do livestock chores and meet a friend. The rest of the elk just had to wait for we needed to follow Tim who was showing us the way to a ranchers place in South Dakota. We both were picking up a load of small round hay bales.
On the way back the heavily loaded trailer picked up a nail in one of the tires. We found it when we stopped to checked the tightness of the straps holding the hay on. The load always moves some and this can loosen the tension on your straps. If you don't make the adjustments your hay may come falling off the trailer as you are going down the interstate at seventy-five miles an hour. Pretty scary for the car following you as a thousand pound hay bale comes flying at them. Not to mention the pain of finding someone with a tractor to put the bales back on. It would make a difficult day a whole lot worse, so we stopped to check the straps several times during our trip. Kirk changed the tire and we went into Sturgis, SD, the place of the famous motorcycle rally. We had the tire fixed, ate lunch, and picked up some livestock feed which is cheaper there than here.
We got home at five and we had left at eight this morning. A long day, especially since the trip home is rough with a heavily loaded trailer that invariably does this jerky movement with the pickup like a boat out on small choppy waves. Kirk's and my backs are not pretty on an MRI and they felt even worse tonight. It isn't fun getting older.
I almost forgot to mention that I made vinegar cheese out of the milk I'd separated. Not sure yet what I'll make with it.
Interesting about the difference in volume.
ReplyDeleteI was once a recipient of a bale of hay falling off a truck! Not one of those big bales, but scary, none-the-less! Did a bit of damage to my van as well as scaring the wits out of me!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting about the butter. Oh and btw, instead of adding milk to the butter in the blender you could have added some cold water instead. I can't help but wonder if you would get they same results continually. I am thinking some how the blender is losing butter in the water, perhaps because the blender warms it up in the process of blending. Using colder water to rinse may help for those who don't have a churn.
ReplyDeleteYour day sounded very full and tiring. I wish we had an elk to cut up! WOW!
I'm sorry I wasn't clear. I was adding milk to the whip cream and had not made it to the butter stage yet. I did drained the liquid away from the butter in the blender version. I chilled it overnight and tried putting it back in the blender and making butter again. It didn't work. I got approximately a third of a cup more butter with the butter churn and I used 3 pints less cream than the blender version.
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting Holly.
ReplyDeleteWhere is my brain? I used three cups less cream in the butter churn versus the blender. Sorry, today had been a whirlwind day. We unloaded hay, hauled another load from S.D. only it was small square bales from Nisland and picked up the Grand kids. Not to mention cut up part of the elk.
ReplyDeleteHey don't feel bad, it happens to all of us at times. I was a bit mystified though! LOL
ReplyDelete