Today, I decided to try my hand at something new and exciting. Today, I made homemade butter for the very first time! I have to say, it was really easy, and kind of fun. I have become quite fond of doing things more "old-school" such as mending our own clothes, making my own cleaning supplies, canning our own food, etc. I find it it is usually very fun (and rewarding) to do, gives you a great sense of pride in your work, and has the wonderful benefit of saving money. Now, I have to say that my stock of butter is rivaled by very few. It would make Paula Dean would be proud. At this moment, I have a little over 10 pounds (yes, pounds!) in my refrigerator. I think it tastes wonderful, adds body and depth to foods, and when used in moderation, has an arguably similar nutritional value to olive oil. Unfortunately, the price not as savory. At our local big-box stores (Walmart, Harps, Marvin's IGA) the price for a generic brand pound of quartered, salted butter is approximately $4.00. At Sam's Club, a four-pack of the same costs $9.98, or roughly $2.50 per pound. Unfortunately, they don't sell unsalted butter, which is what I prefer to use. Anyway, I wanted to see, first, if I could even make butter. I've heard it is very easy, but having never tried it, I wanted to see for myself. Second, I wanted to find out how much butter and buttermilk resulted from my efforts and what the equivalent price would be. A quart of heavy whipping cream at Walmart (Great Value brand) is $3.78. At Sam's Club, a quart of the Land O' Lakes brand whipping cream is $3.86. But, as fun (I use this term VERY loosely)as math is, we'll deal with it a little bit later. After scouring the internet for how-to's on butter making, I found that all you need is heavy cream. Fortunately, I had about a half-quart of heavy cream in my fridge that was close to its expiration date. I saw many suggestions on how to properly gyrate cream into butter, from shaking it in a chilled mason jar to using a blender, to using a food processor. I opted to use my stand mixer. I poured the cream into my stainless steal mixing bowl, attached to wisk attachment, and set it on medium speed. After about 6 - 7 minutes, the cream was like a fluffy white cloud. I placed the splash screen over the bowl and turned the mixer up to a medium/high speed. Another five minutes went by and the cream began to deflate and take on a slightly grainy texture. I stopped the mixer and scraped down the sides. As I lifted the wisk, I noticed that there was already some liquid settling in the bottom of the bowl. I turned the mixer back on, this time on the highest speed. **Please note that at this point, the splash guard does help SOME, but by no means does it prevent all splashes from painting you, your cabinets, and anything else in a 2-foot radius.** Luckily, it only took a couple of minutes at that speed before I had hard butter pieces sitting in a pool of creamy white buttermilk. I turned the mixer off, wiped the butter off my face, and removed the attachment. I was beaming like a proud parent at my little bundle of butter! I then set up a small strainer over a bowl poured the buttery, milky goodness into it. The butter stayed in the strainer, while the buttermilk flowed into the bowl. I put the buttermilk into a clear lidded jar and sat it in my refrigerator to use later in baking some bread. **One key point I have left out is that over the strainer, I placed cheesecloth. From what I have read, most people say you need to rinse the butter until the water runs clear. Otherwise, any remaining buttermilk left in the butter particles will cause it to spoil quickly. However, I simply squeezed the butter very firmly into the cheesecloth and "wrung out" all the milk. I don't think I will repeat this method in the future though, as the cloth leaves behind tiny little fibers all over the outside of the butter. Below are a couple pictures, but I recommend omitting the cheesecloth and simply rinsing the butter thoroughly.** After all the milk was removed from the butter, I packed it into a little butter jar. Using a knife, I pressed the last few drops of milk from the butter, smoothed the top, and in the fridge it went. All in all, one quart of heavy cream will yield approximately one pound of unsalted butter and approximately 24 ounces of buttermilk. Monetarily, it would cost me around $4.00 to buy a pound of unsalted butter and $1.09 per quart of buttermilk. That's a savings of $1.23 per pound of butter. Not an extraordinary amount, but well worth it if you like connecting with what you consume, and having a little fun along the way!