Author Topic: Butter Making - Different Cultures  (Read 4382 times)

Jessica_H

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Butter Making - Different Cultures
« on: March 13, 2011, 04:40:24 PM »
I'm making cultured butter...so I was about to add my FD to my cream and I realized I didn't have any!  The chevre culture is SUPER close to the FD culture except that it has an addition of vegetable rennet.  Does anyone know if the rennet will ruin the butter?

I also have a basic mesophillic 101 culture I could use instead.
« Last Edit: March 14, 2011, 05:14:31 PM by Jessica_H »

Jessica_H

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Re: Butter Making - Different Cultures
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2011, 05:14:22 PM »
Well it worked  ;D

Most "cultured" butter says to culture with some sort of Mesophillic culture for 12 hours at around 90 degrees.  At just under 9 hours this cream was fairly set.  I stirred it and at 10 hours it looked a lot like curds and whey so I decided to make butter then.

I did some experimenting this weekend with making butter.  I think I actually like the sweet cream butter better.  But others have mentioned that they think cultured butter yields more butter.  I also experimented with temperature.

My results using my kitchen-aid with the whisk attachment:
  • 1 quart uncultured butter at 55 degrees : mixed at speed of 7 : at 1 hour and 15 min it still hadn't fully broke but I gave up and pulled it and got a grainy butter : yield 2oz
  • 1 quart uncultured butter at 60 degrees : mixed at speed of 8 : at 1 hour and 10 min it was perfect : yield 3oz
  • 1 quart uncultured butter at 65 degrees : mixed at speed of 8 : at 1 hour it was perfect : yield 3oz
  • 1 quart cultured butter at 90 degrees : mixed at speed of 8 : at 10 min it was perfect : yield 2oz
  • 1.5 quarts cultured butter at 90 degrees : mixed at speed of 8 : at 10 min it was perfect : yield 2.5oz
  • 1.5 quarts cultured butter at 90 degrees : mixed at speed of 8 : at 10 min it was perfect : yield 2.5oz

So I definitely got a better yield from the uncultured butter though it means running the kitchen-aid forever :)

I actually found my Floria Danica culture so I might do one more experiment with that culture and maybe I'll chill it a little.  I'm not sure if a higher temp will lower my yield or not?

PS...this thread could be moved to "butter" soonish as it's no longer a "problem"  8)

MrsKK

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Re: Butter Making - Different Cultures
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2011, 12:34:52 AM »
I just use cultured buttermilk from the grocery store to culture my cream and I really like it.  The flavor is not too different from sweet cream butter, just slightly more complex.  I get a much higher yield, too, probably about a half pound more per gallon of cream.  I add a cup of buttermilk to a gallon of cream and allow it to culture on top of my refrigerator (the house is only about 60 degrees Fahrenheit right now) for about 24 hours.

I never had much luck with my Kitchenaid, so I went to using my food processor and the cream breaks in about 2-3 minutes.

Jessica_H

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Re: Butter Making - Different Cultures
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2011, 03:35:28 PM »
Thanks MrsKK!

I might have to try that.

I had been leaning towards doing only sweet-cream butter.  However, I just made "moist buttermilk cheese" and it's AMAZING!!!!  You use the cultured buttermilk from making butter, add a smidge of rennet, and drain overnight.  I added cracked pepper and a little salt and it's so very good!  So now I'm thinking I'm back to making cultured butter so I can use the buttermilk for soft cheese!

Jessica

Jessica_H

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Re: Butter Making - Different Cultures
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2011, 04:33:30 PM »
Quote
I get a much higher yield, too, probably about a half pound more per gallon of cream

MrsKK - How much butter do you normally get per gallon?

For my experiment this weekend I did 2 gallons of butter and got a total of 1 pound of butter.  So that would be half a pound per gallon...  So do you normally get a pound of butter per gallon?

Thanks!

MrsKK

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Re: Butter Making - Different Cultures
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2011, 12:09:48 AM »
With sweet cream I get about 2 - 2 1/2 lbs of butter per gallon of cream, but with culturing it goes to 2 1/2 to 3 lbs of butter.

I'm sorry, but I don't know your details.  Do you have cow(s) or where are you getting the cream?  I have found that I need to refrigerate my milk for at least 24 hours before skimming the cream off or I end up getting a lot of milk in with the cream, which really reduces the amount of butter, too.

Also, what does the butter look like when you quit running the mixer?  It should be forming clumps.  If it is just grains of butter, you are losing a lot of cream yet when you strain it out.