After letting the quart jars of milk sit for a few days in the fridge for the cream to separate, I carefully dipped the cream out of a few of them. I put the cream in a separate container and back in the refrigerator to chill. Meanwhile I placed my steel mixing bowl in the freezer to also chill. This is apparently a mistake. According to this website, it strongly recommended that the cream be very cold in order for the process to work. Having always chilled my bowl before making whipped cream topping, I assumed it would also help the process of making butter. It did not.
After several minutes of my mixer going full speed, it stayed in the whipped cream stage. I had nice peaks of whipped cream. It just wouldn't "seize" and become butter. I decided to turn off the mixer and just let it all sit for about 15 minutes before I tried it again. It still stayed whipped cream. At this point I was getting a little frustrated, but I persevered and decided to wait another 15 minutes or so and tried it again. Hurray, I had butter! After squeezing out the buttermilk and washing it a few times in ice water, I added a little kosher salt and kneaded it in. Apparently homemade butter (especially by novice butter makers) does not keep too long, so most of the butter I wrapped up and put in the freezer. I think it tastes pretty good, although that could be just me trying to rationalize the effort.
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