By Kristian, Contributing Writer

Butter. Everyone uses it. People cook with it, bake with it, sauté with it. A typical meal at our house uses butter in some way.

Do you know how it’s made? Have you ever made it yourself? It really is very simple. If you are trying to incorporate real foods into your family’s diet, you need to know about butter.

How to Make Butter

First of all, you need good cream. I use an organic cream from the whole foods market, and I usually buy 4 pints of cream for 6 sticks of butter.

If you have a kitchen aid mixer, it is perfect for making butter. I use the whisk attachment to start with. Pour your cream in and let it go.

As it whips, you will notice the cream turning thicker. This is what you want to see.

Eventually you will get whipped cream consistency and I usually add a little salt into mine at this point. Let it keep going until the buttermilk begins to separate from the butter.

At this point, I switch from the whisk attachment to the neater attachment. This will take it from whipped butter to actual butter. Continue mixing slowly and stop to pour off any buttermilk you get into a container to save for later. (I wil discuss what to do with that in a bit). Once you get it to start sticking to the attachment, pour off the buttermilk and turn off the mixer. I then take mine and squeeze it to make sure to get as much of the buttermilk as possible. When done with this part, I take it and separate it into bars as close as possible to regular sticks you buy at the store.

At the end of this long process, you will end up butter. Yay!
I take mine and put it in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Now, what to do with the buttermilk you saved?

I take a little bit of plain Greek yogurt and whisk into the buttermilk to make it creamy and more of the consistency of milk. You can use this in pancakes, biscuits, breads, etc.

Enjoy! If you want more recipes and information about being a real foodie, check out my blog at kristianfrye.blogspot.com