Today is Food Day!

This morning I'm making butter, cheese, and breakfast.  We get raw cows milk almost every Wednesday, so the milk I haven't done anything with yet (shame on me) is going to be turned into butter and cheese so that it doesn't go to waste, but we're ready for fresh milk.

I start with a gallon of whole raw cows milk.  This can also be done with store bought heavy whipping cream.

I then skim the cream into a quart jar and leave it on the counter to bring it to room temperature.  If you skip this step the cream doesn't always turn into butter.

Then I pour the room temperature cream into my Kitchen Aid with the shipping attachment, and turn on setting 4.  I cover the bowl with a towel before turning the setting to 4 to keep the cream from sloshing out.  If I wanted to add salt flavoring to the butter, this is when I would do that.  I prefer to add salt to my cooking to taste rather than to the butter.

Then I leave it whip while I'm busy doing something else.  The cream should whip...

...then solidify...

...then separate.

Yay!  It is now butter!  But we're not finished yet.

Next we have to drain the buttermilk from the butter (to be reserved for pancakes, biscuits, potatoes, or other) into a quart jar...

...until all that's left is the butter.

The butter is then squeezed with clean hands until no buttermilk can be squeezed out.  If buttermilk is left in the butter, the butter sours very quickly.

I then press the butter into my butter container...and viola!  We have butter for our toast this morning!  This particular butter container is filled with cold water, the butter is set upside down into the water, and the water keeps it fresh at room temperature for longer.  Not all of my butter would fit in the room temperature container so I put the rest in a container in the refrigerator.