Making Butter & Cheese

So I know this is my first post, and I promise I will come back soon and share more about us and where we are starting from etc.

But I have had a successful morning making butter and even some cheese, so decided to share.

I am lucky enough that mum and dad are dairy farmers and have kindly offered to bring me some milk twice a week. So my first 6 Litres arrived last night. Left overnight in the fridge to settle, I woke this morning to find my 3 bottles had a lovely layer of cream on top. Now getting the cream off was somewhat of a challenge, but my lovely partner decided to squeeze the bottles (ideally you would leave it in a bowl wtc. over night and then could just scoop the cream off the top).

Now I remember making butter once as a child and it involved a jar and a lot of shaking, but thought I would give it a go. And supprisingly it didn't take as long as I remember to make the butter. Although I did have two small helpers.

So basically to make the Butter, put some cream in a jar and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE!!!

Alex having a turn shaking..... well ok posing for the photo :)

Hannah taking a turn.
Keep shaking until the butter forms a ball, and has separated from the buttermilk.
Drain off buttermilk and reserve for baking or making cheese. Then rinse butter well with water. I have now discovered that I didn't quite rinse well enough, but doesn't really affect the end product.

Buttermilk Cheese

So today I also decided to make some cheese using the left over buttermilk. I had approx 500ml that I heated on the stove until almost boiling. I then added 1 TBSP white vinegar and stirred until it curdled. Drain off the whey, and you are left with a cheese that is similar in texture to cottage cheese. I am thinking I will try some at lunchtime with some tomato relish.

Because I am not one to waste I am hoping to find a way to use up the whey I now have. So far ideas are to use it for making bread, or feed it to the cats or dog????