Making winter butter yellow and spreadable

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

Face it, winter butter is hard and almost white. This week, I adapted something that I read in Laura Ingall Wilder's "Little House in the Big Woods." In the winter, Ma Ingalls would grate a carrot and cook it in some milk, strain the milk, and add it to the cream before churning.

I put a carrot into the blender with half a cup of cream, and blended till very fine. I warmed it till the cream turned a bright orange from the extracted beta carotene. Then I filtered it, and added it to the cold cream, which raised the temp enough to make it easier to churn.

The butter turned out beautifully yellow! But it was still too hard. So I washed it out in lukewarm water instead of cold, and warmed the washing water for the last rinse, until it made the butter very soft, so I could whisk it. Then after getting all the water out, I salted it and added 1/3 cup of oil, and whisked it in. That butter looks and spreads as nicely as if the cow were on young pasture, instead of on hay.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), December 24, 2001

Answers

I have made carrot juice and added it to my cheese it comes out kind of pinkish orange.

I will try cooking it in milk next. Thanks!

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), December 24, 2001.


I have a Jersey cow, and feed her pumpkin as part of her winter ration. The butter is always yellow, sometimes glaringly so. I've never had a problem with it turning hard, not sure what that could be from.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), December 25, 2001.

Our butter does get lighter then when our Jersey is on pasture, but never white. I also do not have a problem with hard butter!! But milk does change over the lactation period. We also give kelp for the mineral content plus her normal grain at milking time. Do you make butter from real fresh cream or let it ripen abit?

-- Suzanne (weir@frontiernet.net), December 26, 2001.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ