Goat's Milk Butter

I have been curious about making butter with goat's milk. I've heard it isn't as fast as making butter from cow milk, but I wanted to give it a try.

It was much easier than I thought it would be! Here are photos from my second batch. One of these days I'll get good at taking photos one handed, for now there are still a few fuzzy ones.

It takes a few days for the cream to separate from goat's milk. This milk is about 4 days old. It's hard to see in the photo where the cream is, that's why my finger is there.

At first I tried scooping the cream off the top with a spoon. That didn't work for me. So I tried using a turkey baster! That worked really well. If you use a turkey baster make sure the tip of the baster is right at the top of the cream and don't suck up the cream fast or you will get lots of milk, too.

I put the cream from the top of the milk into a regular quart canning jar and screwed the lid on tight. I shook the jar back and forth--but I didn't shake it hard and fast, I rocked it back and forth gently, but hard enough to get the milk to hit each end.

Make sure that your cream is a little cooler than room temperature before you start shaking it. It turns into butter much more quickly that way. My milk was about 60 F when I started. The temperatures I've read are between 55 F and 66 F.

The first time I tried the butter I gave up after about 20 minutes of shaking. I went out and milked and did some other chores and left the jar on the counter. When I remembered the project sitting on the counter, I checked inside. I was so surprised to see a ball of butter! This time it didn't take nearly as long and I think I'm getting the feel for the change in sound and feel when the cream turns into butter.

I let the butter sit in the buttermilk over night. I didn't have time to wash it and I thought it would be fine to leave it. It was! The next morning I took the butter out of the jar and rinsed it in cold water in the sink. I mushed the butter a little in the water so the milk would separate out of the pockets in the butter.

I rinsed until the water ran clear. It took about 4 times. I learned that I have to be a little gentle with the mushing part, or I end up with more butter on the sides of the measuring cup than I do in a ball.

Final product! Yay! 

I was so surprised! I was really amazed! This tasted like sweet, creamy unsalted butter! It didn't taste goaty flavored, either! It tasted different from the butter we buy at the store, but I think that's because it was so fresh.

The butter is very white. I read that is because goats are more efficient with their use of food and all the carotene has been converted into Vitamin A. A cow isn't as efficient so some of the carotene finds it's way into the cream which is why cow milk is yellow.

I used the milk that I had skimmed the cream from to make some mozzarella. It worked just fine and it doesn't seem any drier than the full fat mozzarella! I'll use the milk leftover from making the butter in bread, just to see how it turns out. I might try to turn the leftover milk from the butter making into buttermilk by adding some cultured buttermilk to it. I wonder if someone let the leftover milk sit out and 'ripen' like making clabbered milk? Hmmm..... more experiments to try!

I probably won't make alot of butter this way. But I probably will make butter this way for special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas and parties without little kids.