I’m curious . What I find in my local supermarkets are just meh . I like Pulgra , Kerrigold , etc … So what . I feel that you can make a better butter with some know how and ingredients . Ever try it ? Seems like it would be fun and worth it .
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And was thinking . Have you ever had butter made from sheep milk ? It is being made . Interesting .
Yes, once, just to see if it would work. It did. It was fine. But I definitely find it cheaper and easier to buy butter. Goat butter is my new favorite.
For baking and cooking, I buy regular butter at the market…
For eating, I go with cultured butter from France or obscure East Coast dairies, usually from Surfa’s. I buy a couple different kinds and keep it in the freezer, only thawing what I need for the next couple days.
I make butter during the holidays with any extra heavy cream I have on hand. It isn’t hard to do but I have to agree that it is just as easy to buy good butter. I wouldn’t say that my home made butter is of better quality, though I do like adding extra salt to approximate a beurre sale´ to have with great home made bread.
Sure, just for fun. It’s easy, but won’t save you any money unless you have a cow. Cream is too expensive. I recommend the book “Make The Bread, Buy The Butter” - it tells you what’s worth making from scratch (financially, quality, and effort-wise) and what you’re better off buying.
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I have, accidentally, by overwhipping cream. It tasted fine but as others have reported, not better than what I can buy at the store. Anchor brand, from New Zealand, is one of my favorites and can be bought cheaper than I can make butter at home.
I have and it was not better than the butter I can buy. Butter is only as good as the cream you start with, right? I even tried it with a fresh raw cream from a local farm. It just wasn’t discernibly better. It was more expensive. The only reason I’d do it again is if cultured butter was not available and I had to make it myself. Trader Joe’s now has a cultured butter that I like a lot and is MUCH more affordable than when I tried to make it.
I make butter when we make “aloo parathas”, which are an Indian/Punjabi griddle fried flatbread stuffed with spiced potatoes. Traditionally, you top the piping hot paratha with “makhan” or homemade butter. You can use regular butter from a stick, but the freshly made butter has a different consistency and flavor.
Example (not my picture but that’s how makhan looks when you make it)
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My middle daughter, who is now a great cook, used to love to run the mixer for the whipped cream when she was a kid. Soooo… on one occasion “Dad - something’s wrong with the whipped cream!”. After looking I told her it would be fine on the French toast in the morning but we’d make a new batch for the pumpkin pie. So I’ve made butter but only inadvertently.
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I enjoy all your replies . I know there are the pros and cons . Price vs … But I am still going to make butter . I have some great coastal dairy farms near me . What the heck trial and error . Sheep butter sounds fantastic . I can even see making butter flavored with porcini , or chanterelles , or dill , or … keep posting I enjoy the read . Thanks
Yeah, every kid needs that experience once. I let my little guy have some cream to whip one Thanksgiving, and my sister in law said, “He’s going to end up with butter!” I said, “Yes, that’s why he has a little bowl of cream and a whisk. To have fun and learn.” Duh. 
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I only made by accident myself as well…
you must have access to some great local dairy products, look for butter from local dairies and for cultured butter at the farmers market or wherever you shop that carries local brands.
You might want to use supermarket butter for the compound butters since added flavors could overwhelm the more subdle flavors the butter itself
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I like what you said about compound butters . That’s my challenge is not to overwhelm the simple flavor of the butter . Simply hard .
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Trader Joe’s has a Buffalo Milk butter which is what I use for parathas now.
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I’ve done it before. As others have said it’s kind of expensive to make your own and isn’t really any better that a high quality premium butter. One benefit is all the leftover buttermilk is great for making breads.
Cultured Butter like they make in Europe is delicious.
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This is great . Thanks .
Totally opposite of what OP was asking but the post made me remember this gadget that we had long ago when living on an island. Milk and butter were always available but not heavy cream.
This contraption takes melted butter and milk and sprays it back thru a nozzle to create heavy cream. It sort of worked but we all thought the cream tasted like butter not cream.
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What a cool contraption, I’ve never heard of it. Cool.
