Butter! Ooo-la-la!

I’m an olive oil kind of gal…  I don’t use butter too often except for baking, and even then I often use olive oil (see Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cookies in this blog from January, 2012).  Even when I’m in a restaurant I usually ask for oil for the bread.  But sometimes, in a good restaurant, when the butter isn’t pre-wrapped, I’ll try the butter.  Oo-la-la, butter's good!

I took a really great cheese making class with Chef Katie Rosenhouse at Sur La Table in Hell’s Kitchen, and we not only made mozzarella, ricotta and mascarpone, we also made butter.  I knew that making butter was super easy, because when I was a kid the owner of the farm where we kept our horses would give us gallon jars of fresh milk from the cows he raised.  And true to the adage the cream really did always rise to the top.  Mom would pour the cream into her mixer and make whipped cream and butter.  But I was a little kid, the farm is now a housing development, and we don’t get too much access to cows on the Island of Manhattan, so mom's butter making left with the last cow on Bowne Road in Wayside, NJ. 

Making butter is fast, easy and fabulous!  Wow!  I have to talk myself into not making it all the time or next year’s cholesterol test results won’t be anything like the results I had a month or so ago! But sometimes it’s a scrumptious treat . 

If you have kids, making butter is a great project.  It takes more time (about 15-30 minutes), but it's worth it.  My sister Carol is a teacher and her preschoolers love making butter even though their arms get tired.  Next time it rains and your kids are stuck inside, get some super clean jars, some heavy cream and start shaking!

Go to Recipe