See, I will use the butter on the butter milk biscuits with dinner tonight. Hubby also had butter on his work sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. Usually he gets margarine one day and butter the next, etc..... I try to be on an even keel and not go overboard toooooo much.
Yes Beeker you can add salt to the butter after it is made. When you work the excess buttermilk from the butter add about 3/4 tsp per lb to start and just stir into the butter for a few minutes as you drain excess moisture. Then taste to see if its enough for you. Add more pinch by pinch if needed. Then refrigerate covered.
Beeker, You can add salt to the butter anytime you like as long as it's not so close to the end shaking. I think the only time you can save money is when heavy cream is on sale. I only did this to see exactly how much butter you can get out of a quart. When butter is on sale you can get it here for $2.50 per pound. One quart of cream gets you that plus the buttermilk. I also don't think it last as long as store bought butter even frozen so you can't see buying large amounts of cream to make lots of butter. If cream were cheaper or butter doesn't go on sale often it would be worth it to make your own. It really does taste the same. On another note: I don't feel comfortable leaving it out on the counter very long because of the little bits of buttermilk that MAY be left in it so I have been using it on the firm side. That's not a nice thing to do. Buttermilk will spoil faster than the butter....
So Mart.....What does a butter press do?? I have seen them in antique shops. Now I am wondering if they press out all the leftover buttermilk.
I assume you are talking about butter molds,,the round or square wooden forms with a flat press and a dowel handle ? Years ago people in the country made extra money selling eggs,butter and extra milk. Not all had or could afford to feed cows. The butter molds were to form and measure the butter into 1 lb. rounds or blocks. Some had a design in the press just to make them pretty. I have a few of them. If you will notice some of the older butter dishes are round to accommodate the round molded butter. The press goes in first with the handle sticking through the hole in the top, then fill the mold with your newly churned butter and sit upside down to chill in the fridge preferably overnight, then push the dowel which is sticking out of the top to press the butter block or round out of the mold.
I see, So it's not to squeeze out the unwanted liquids but to make it pretty.....I don't care about pretty unless I am having company, I care about packing it in a container for my use. I wanted to get all the buttermilk out of it to make it last longer.
And to measure the butter into a 1 lb block or round. The excess buttermilk will not affect the butter itself. It will just have little pockets of buttermilk/whey mixed in. If you put it in a bowl and use the back of a large spoon or if you have one a butter paddle (that is the flat paddle like thing you get in the wooden utensil sets) or a wooden spoon, just press the butter and pour off liquid about 3 to 5 minutes. Then put it in a butter tub and refrigerate.
