I think the obesity epidemic is more from a sedentary lifestyle (office jobs, video games, etc) than anything else.

Our farmer and rancher forbears ate way more fat and grease than anyone would think of eating today...but they worked it all off too!

Well that and Americans thinking they have to eat 2000 calories in one sitting.... but any food can do that, not just junk....

don't know if this link will work, but found this article interesting ..
http://www.magicvalley.com/business/article_423ce6b0-d4ac-5120-80da-b49fab27c9b1.html

I've made butter in my food processor and it was a blast It is kind of like a science project I drained the buttermilk off using a strainer, and then mixed in ice water and used cheese cloth , but frankly wasn't really thrilled about the mess it made. So then I put the butter in a wide mouth jar, added ice water, and shook and shook, drained the water off and continued until the water ran clear. I added a little salt and it was wonderful

Never thought about using the buttermilk though Boy my poundcakes are going to love the new style buttermilk...lol

Loved the videos ya'll posted links to

I dunno, for the amount of butter we go through...wouldn't it just be easier to buy it? Time is money...and if it takes me awhile to make the butter...that's the same as saving that time and buying it, right?

Sounds good though...taste wise.

When dairy farmers cut the size of their herds (as a great many are doing just now) the price of butter and milk go up.

Making your own butter sounds great but so far this week we have gone thru over 60 lbs of butter. not sure if I could keep up with our demand.

After seeing how much butter has gone up at Sam's, I went to Aldi's and I get my butter there now for $1.49 !!! I get my eggs for .49 cents and sour cream for less than a dollar. With the prices I charge for my cakes, I can't afford name brand.. plus it drives me crazy to pay that much!! They look at me like I am crazy when I check out and have 10 boxes of butter!! They have a good price of powdered sugar but I don't really like it... need to sift it for sure.

I often go to Aldi's for my butter and eggs, but the prices aren't always consistent. Though I can usually get a dozen large eggs for around $0.89 and a pound of butter somewhere around $2.59.

Well, if there really is a conspiracy of the US Government concerning butter, they must have called the German Government as well and asked them to participate )

Last year I paid 0.69 for 250 grams of butter - a year later I am set back 1.05 . Milk has gone up as well but not that dramatically. Eggs have stayed the same. Go figure. And butter has not been for sale anywhere for months - I have been paying close attention Also, it costs exactly the same at all the supermarkets.

Time is certainly money, but I probably only put a couple of minutes of my time into it, it's kind of a set it and forget thing. I was actually make modeling chocolate at the same I was making butter. I only did it in the 5qt KA, but if I decide to take up butter making I'll be putting it into the 20qt floor mixer. I'm not set on it, but if butter keeps going and heavy cream keeps staying, you never know

Wow--I din watch all the extra videos but I read all the posts--for one thing--Ali, do you get one cup of butter for $1.79 or one pound--probably if I watched the videos I'd find out but I'm so tired from reading about all the extra work to save the pennies I gotta go rest now.

But seriously one more thing to think about and process and store and clean up after phfft.

I mean like you said, surely cream will start to go up too huh.

I got half a pound of butter for half a quart of cream, so for $.90 a cup. I didn't do the whole quart because I was using the rest of the cream for ganache. But the quarts are $1.79 each, so multiplying it up, each $1.79 Quart of cream will yield 1 pound (2 cups) of butter and 2 cups of buttermilk. I do use buttermilk in a few recipes and in waffles and pancakes, so I can make use of it and then save a little bit of money in that dept as well. Of course if butter stays at $2.50 a pound, I'll probably not ever spend the time (unless I have leftover cream from ganache...).

I just had a thought. Can't you just see yourself at 3 am running out of icing and then, oh no, out of butter too, but spy a carton of cream in the frige... Can't you just envision some blearly eyed caker trying to make freakin' butter in a mason jar in the middle of the night??? Note the eyes bobbling up & down, side to side, in & out.

Times like these I'm once again grateful to manage a bookstore for a living.

My slow dial-up prevents me from watching the videos, but when I had my cows I used to make butter regularly. It was a simple matter to fill my blender to about 2" from the top with cream. (Although Aligomatt obtained butter straight from the refrigerator, you'll get a better yield from the cream if it is just slightly below room temp, or around 68 degrees.) After about 8-10 minutes on the lowest speed, the tempo and pitch change and you end up with a "butterburg" bobbing around in a sea of watery buttermilk.
Since it is rather soft at this stage, put the blender full into the fridge to harden up for few minutes. Then a quick pour through a sieve to trap all the errant particles and into a bowl of cold water to cover. Stir and press until it coalesces into one mass.
At this point, use a rubber scraper and knead and press under the cold water, changing it frequently until the water runs clear. The more buttermilk you extract, the better the keeping qualities are. Now you can choose to either leave it unsalted, or if desired, knead in about 1 tsp. salt per pound. If it is too salty for your taste, you can wash and re-salt again.
Yields: 1 pound butter per 1 qt. of cream.

Although it sounds like a lengthy process, it really goes quickly after you've done it a couple of times. I just miss having access to the fresh milk and all the lovely cheeses and other dairy products I used to make.
I buy my butter at Aldi now (grumbling at the price), and freeze large quantities of it.

I am not sure if anyone posted this yet, but hold on a bit an the prices will drop for the holiday cooking/baking season. I LOAD up on butter when it drops into the dollar range for a pound. It will...just like eggs around Easter time...so buy sparingly now and load up and freeze when the price drops again!

This morning in NC near Charlotte - 3.88 at WalMart

where i come from 1lb unsalted butter is about $22 thats $8.24 US making my own butter in 9 min would could save me 7 bucks! that my friends is worth my time

I was at Aldi's today: $2.49/lb.
It's gone up over 50 cents in the last month or two.

If you make your own butter and you plan on using it right away, say in a cookie recipe, is it necessary to rinse it many times with ice water or can you just drain off the buttermilk and use it?

Thanks for this post. I think Im going to give this a try

I'm glad it wasn't my imagination that prices were bouncing around all summer. Is there a shortage of cows all of the sudden or someting? I can still usually get it for just under $3/lb at bjs but it was up to almost $4 over the summer.

Tell me about it...I went to costco and bought the 4 pound block for a little over $10 and thought wow!!!

I didnt know I could freeze butter

Is there a proper way to freeze it and when I want to defrost it do I place it in the fridge or leave it on the counter??

I don't do anything special when I freeze it. I throw it in in the box and either take out the entire box or a few sticks and put them on the counter or fridge to defrost. Butter probably freezes and defrosts better than anything else besides water. No crystals, no bad flavors.

Thin4life, I think if you will look up a few posts, I might have answered your question. However, if you are going to use it immediately, I shouldn't imagine you will need to rinse it as completely. I have never really encountered this particular question. At least working it under water to collect the mass should provide some sort of washing. It is kinda hard to use without that procedure as so much of it appears as little floating "rice grains" when first churned.
I hope this helps you.