Homemade butter...worth the effort?

We've all tried making the bread, so why not the butter?

Fresh butter enhanced with fine sea salt. Yum!

During the pandemic, the number of people making homemade bread skyrocketed. For some of us, the devotion to sourdough mastery became our raison d’être. For others, just the sight of a simple white loaf emerging from the oven was enough to make them forget curfews and vaccine passports. But when it came to bread’s most common companion, butter, chances are we were all just reaching for the same ol’ one pound blocks at the supermarket.

I heard about people making natas tarts, feta pasta, pretzels, and sourdough starter pancakes, but not a peep about homemade butter. That said, I bet many of you have made butter, but most probably by accident by overwhipping heavy cream. But how many of us make butter from scratch on a regular basis? I’m guessing few.

I do know one devoted butter maker. My friend Peter (hi Peter!) who by day is a newspaper man, but by night likes to fiddle around making foodstuffs ranging from cultured butter to smoked bacon. He recommends making butter, but the bacon… not so much. Peter has given me some good butter pointers but despite my interest I’ve been a bit lazy to get going. Yet homemade butter seems to be having a moment.