by Angel King

Guest Contributor

One of my all-time favorite memories was going to Young’s Dairy in Yellow Springs when I was a child. Back then, they sold whole milk in beautiful glass bottles. We would purchase four gallons of the milk with the red cap. Their cream line was local milk at its best.

I didn’t know it then, but a jug of milk from Young’s Dairy was the start of everything I do now.

Recently I started teaching butter-making classes at our creamery, Blue Jacket Dairy. I love introducing adventurous people to new things they can make in their kitchen. We start with the experience of making whipped cream, then take it further into fresh butter.

Before we make butter, we go back to the first step: skimming cream off the top of whole milk. This is unhomogenized milk, which means when it sits undisturbed in the refrigerator for 24 hours, the thick cream rises to the top. A shallow ladle gives the control needed to gently lift the cream without disturbing the milk. Once the milk looks like an oil slick, stop ladling so the least milk possible ends up mixed in with the cream.

I don’t shake a jar of cream by hand like I did in grade school. A mixer or food processor whips the cream with air, no elbow grease required. It gets fluffy and becomes whipped cream. Grab a quick taste, then continue to butter. We know we’ve arrived when the butter binds together and there is buttermilk in the bowl.

If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to try fresh buttermilk. This tasty treat is sweet and nothing like the commercial buttermilk you find in the store. It’s rather tasty with biscuits or pancakes!

Before adding salt, wash the butter in running water until it runs clear. Then it can be mixed with a spoon or, better yet, a pair of wooden butter paddles, pressing it into a nice log. Butter and salt go hand in hand, and I like to use pink Himalayan salt with my butter.

Flavored butter can be made by adding a combination of ingredients. The most popular is honey cinnamon butter. Fresh herbs from the garden can be chopped and added along with a touch of lemon juice. Both add some wow to a meal.

I can’t go to Young’s Dairy to get the glass gallon jugs of whole milk since they no longer sell it, but non-homogenized whole milk is still out there even if you don’t have your own cow. Look for the cream line on top. That’s the sign you’re holding real milk. And if skimming cream is not your thing, start with a bottle of whipping cream. ■