The Fresh Loaf

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butter question

Nim's picture
Nim

butter question

I make my own butter from the cream of the raw milk i get from a farm. I have noticed that though the butter is yummy, there is a faint bitterness in taste and smell. I got advice from my mom (who makes her own butter back in India) and she suggested that perhaps I am not cleaning the freshly churned butter enough; well, I tried that in very cold water over and over, but the odor is still there.I thought this forum is likely to have somebody who can advice on what the causes maybe and what I can do to rectify that?

Btw, I boil the milk, refrigerate it and skim the cream every morning. I buy one gallon of milk per week and at the end of two weeks I usually have enough cream to churn equivalent to1 1/2-2 sticks of butter.

I know this is not exactly related to bread baking, but bread and butter?...hope Floyd will excuse me for going off topic.

Thanks.

KenK's picture
KenK

What the cows eat affects the taste of the butter.  How long have you been using milk from this farm and have you noticed any changes in the taste with the seasons?

Nim's picture
Nim

About 4 months now. It is an organic farm and the cows are grass fed (with some grains in winter according to the owners).

Yerffej's picture
Yerffej

I have experienced the exact same thing and found it to be related to the time of year and the cow's diet.  Winter seems to be the worst for this problem.

I am wondering why you "boil" the milk and suspect that this too may be a factor.

Jeff

Nim's picture
Nim

Maybe it will get better after winter...will cross my fingers.

Why I boil the milk? Maybe because that is how we do it back in India, I have understood that people who buy raw milk here don't necessarily boil it, I think that is fine too. In India we buy the milk from the milkman who milks his/her cow and delivers it everyday. The climate is hot and they don't have fancy storage facilities, so unless you boil it and refrigerate it, it will spoil in a few hours. So, I guess it is out of habit, a kind of home pastuerisation if you will!

Yerffej's picture
Yerffej

With regard to pasteurization,  milk is heated to about 160 °F for 15 seconds to pasteurize it.  If you are actually boiling the milk you are going 50+ degrees beyond that point and curdling the milk which would most definitely have an adverse effect on the flavor.

Jeff

Nim's picture
Nim

I will try the next batch without the boil and see what happens...

However, the milk definitely DOES NOT curdle, because when it does you would make fresh paneer or cheese; it can no longer be used as milk. Heating or boiling also allows the cream to float up and stay as a thick layer, so it is easy to skim it off too.

Having said that, the nature of milk will probably differ based on diet but also on weather and topography. My knowledge about cows and their various habits is severely limited.

Thanks for the input and, I will post the updates after my next batch.

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Hi Nim,

As others have noted, changes in the cows' diet can certainly influence the flavor (and the color!) of the milk and cream.  This is usually most noticeable when the cows are able to graze on fresh grass in springtime, after a winter diet of grains, hay and silage.  The milk and cream will have a much stronger flavor and be more yellow in color.

Haven't heard of boiling milk, but if it's working for you, fine.

I think I might agree with your mother.  Since your cream collects over a 2-week period, it may be drifting in the direction of sour, rather than sweet, cream by the time you churn your butter.  That isn't bad, but it does change the flavor.  And it will definitely lend a bitter taste to the butter if all of the buttermilk isn't washed out of the butter.  It's a fairly laborious process, I know, and it's easy to think that one is all done even though there are still traces of the buttermilk in the butter.  I don't know if you are salting your butter, but that also helps draw the moisture out of the butter during the washing process, which leads to better-tasting butter.

It's nice to hear of someone taking the time to make their own butter.  That's one of my favorite memories from childhood; homemade butter on homemade bread.  

Paul

Nim's picture
Nim

Thanks, Paul. Yes, I think you have a point about the transition of the sweet cream to sour. Well, I will keep trying and I know there will be an ah ha! sometime.

 

 

Nim's picture
Nim

Hi Paul and others: An Update

I did do a few different things and may finally have resolved my butter problem!

I thought Paul's observation about the cream turing sour was very possible, so instead of refrigerating the cream, I froze it, just adding the new cream every other day.  I also froze the butter that I did not need in the next few days to later melt into ghee (or clarified butter). My latest butter is without any bitter taste or smell! Yippee!

I bought a marble butterkeeper for a stick of butter that I generously salt and keep on the counter to spread on my bread. I also decided to use fresh cream or sweet cream on day 1 for the bread butter. It was yummy.

Again, as Paul mentioned, I cleaned and cleaned the butter, let it sit in a container with ice cold water for a couple of hours and then cleaned again. Finally I let it hang in a cheesecloth overnight on my kitchen sink tap so by morning all moisture was gone.

Or maybe the weather just got warmer and the cows are now eating grass! Whatever!

Nim