Butter?

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Ky hills

Ky hills

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Since we recently got a Jersey milk cow to use as a nurse cow, my wife is wanting to make butter at some point.
I've heard of people talking about getting milk or cow tested, what is that and who does that? Is that advisable?
What are y'all's thoughts on using raw milk to make butter?
I have friends who used to have a dairy and they used fresh milk all the time, never bought any milk until they sold out their cows.
I'm a kind of concerned about because several years ago I got a severe case of food poisoning from unpasteurized apple cider that had been in a refrigerator that had quit working at the orchard. That on top of already having IBS/Colitis about done me in.
 
Ky hills said:
Since we recently got a Jersey milk cow to use as a nurse cow, my wife is wanting to make butter at some point.
I've heard of people talking about getting milk or cow tested, what is that and who does that? Is that advisable?
What are y'all's thoughts on using raw milk to make butter?
I have friends who used to have a dairy and they used fresh milk all the time, never bought any milk until they sold out their cows.
I'm a kind of concerned about because several years ago I got a severe case of food poisoning from unpasteurized apple cider that had been in a refrigerator that had quit working at the orchard. That on top of already having IBS/Colitis about done me in.
Click to expand...
@farmerjan should be able to fill you in.
 
The only reason I've ever wanted to milk a cow was for the novelty as a kid, and later to reduce the size of teats so a calf could suck. So I'm no expert. But if I was going to use a milk cow I'd want to know she was healthy and if there's testing available I'd do it.

Skimming your own cream and adding salt as most butter has, seems like a great way to have quality butter and I'm jealous. But not jealous enough that I'd ever willingly milk a cow... lol
 
I made butter and sold it for years.
We had an electric separator which separated the milk and the cream.
Never, ever did we have a problem with eating raw butter, or raw milk.
In fact, a lady was in the hospital as she had to have a leg removed. She was
on so many anti-biotics that she had constant diarrhea. One of the doctors called
me and wanted to know if I had any RAW buttermilk. I did and he asked me to bring
some to the hospital for this lady. He said it contained the bacteria she needed to
get back in her stomach because the anti-biotics had eliminated all the good bacteria.
I did that for a few weeks and she steadily improved and was dismissed.

You can make butter without a separator, but you have to skim the cream off the top.
You can put the cream in a jar and shake it until it separates. The thinner stuff is raw buttermilk.
Pour that off. Take the cream (which has now set up some) out of the jar and wash it several times in water, try to do that until the water comes 'clean.' That will keep the butter from becoming rancid.
Add salt or not, whatever you prefer. This may have been more information than you wanted, but just in case you didn't know how to make butter, I thought I would add it.
I still have an old hand butter churn that I used for years. It holds a gallon of milk.
I had a wooden bowl and a wooden paddle that I used for making butter. I enjoyed doing it and I enjoyed the raw butter. What the cow is eating will change the color of the butter. Some butter is very pale, some is darker depending on the cow's diet.
Good luck!!

P.S. We never tested the cows for anything. Maybe we were just lucky.
 
faster horses said:
I made butter and sold it for years.
We had an electric separator which separated the milk and the cream.
Never, ever did we have a problem with eating raw butter, or raw milk.
In fact, a lady was in the hospital as she had to have a leg removed. She was
on so many anti-biotics that she had constant diarrhea. One of the doctors called
me and wanted to know if I had any RAW buttermilk. I did and he asked me to bring
some to the hospital for this lady. He said it contained the bacteria she needed to
get back in her stomach because the anti-biotics had eliminated all the good bacteria.
I did that for a few weeks and she steadily improved and was dismissed.

You can make butter without a separator, but you have to skim the cream off the top.
You can put the cream in a jar and shake it until it separates. The thinner stuff is raw buttermilk.
Pour that off. Take the cream (which has now set up some) out of the jar and wash it several times in water, try to do that until the water comes 'clean.' That will keep the butter from becoming rancid.
Add salt or not, whatever you prefer. This may have been more information than you wanted, but just in case you didn't know how to make butter, I thought I would add it.
I still have an old hand butter churn that I used for years. It holds a gallon of milk.
I had a wooden bowl and a wooden paddle that I used for making butter. I enjoyed doing it and I enjoyed the raw butter. What the cow is eating will change the color of the butter. Some butter is very pale, some is darker depending on the cow's diet.
Good luck!!
P.S. We never tested the cows for anything. Maybe we were just lucky.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I appreciate your information, we'll put it to use when we tackle it.
 
I'm not much on milking, like others have said I've mainly just done it to get the teats down to where a calf can get a hold , or to keep an udder from ruining till I get another calf on etc. Generally those cows were not the nicest to milk, disposition or teat and udder quality wise.
I probably milked a goat more than anything. Had a Saanan dairy goat that poured the milk and always only had one baby. She stood good and still, but small teats would tire my hands out quick, then there was her baby that liked to sun and springboard off of my back while milking. Them goat yogi people would have got a real workout with that little fat feller a bouncin around.
This Jersey cow we got now, is one of the best cows I've ever dealt with to milk,
Her teats are about as perfect for milking.
 
Generally people can use a California Mastits test. Its a plastic paddle with four depressions. You first squirt a few squirt from each quarter on the ground, which you should do anyway before milking. Then a squirt onto the paddle. Then you put some drops of the blue test solution in each one and gently swirl it around. If it thinckens that quarter has mastitis.

Also, if you are concerned you could pasteurize the milk using a kitchen thermometer. While stiiring,raise the temperature of the milk to 166F for a few seconds. Then put the pot in a sink of cold water to cool off, bottle and refridgerate.
 
Silver said:
I hope to never ever drink raw milk again. However, I sure do miss the cream and butter.
Click to expand...
I never liked raw milk that much, but I was 10 or 12 before I tried it, and had drank Sealtest milk my whole life til then. Might be different if raw milk was all I had ever had. But, after I was grown, our church would have home-made ice cream socials on Sunday nights after service in the summer. A man that owned the last dairy in our county would bring about 5 gallons of fresh raw milk for people to use, and it made GREAT tasting ice cream!
 
We will purchase a couple gallons of raw milk from our dairy neighbors. Make cheese and butter out of it.

Butter is pretty easy. Put the heavy cream into a leak proof dish. Shake the crap out of it. It'll turn to a whipped cream consistency, keep shaking. after a few more minutes it'll turn into butter. drain off liquid and rinse with cold water. Shake some more, drain liquid and rinse. Store in fridge.

Gets us some good butter and cheese without having to do all of the milking.
 
Warren Allison said:
I never liked raw milk that much, but I was 10 or 12 before I tried it, and had drank Sealtest milk my whole life til then. Might be different if raw milk was all I had ever had. But, after I was grown, our church would have home-made ice cream socials on Sunday nights after service in the summer. A man that owned the last dairy in our county would bring about 5 gallons of fresh raw milk for people to use, and it made GREAT tasting ice cream!
Click to expand...
Raw milk was all I ever had for a long time. And I liked it just fine. Then I got old enough that milking chores fell to me. I didn't mind milking. What bothered me was the smell of warm milk combined with the smell of fresh warm cow shyte. And maybe the brown flecks of fresh cow shyte splatters on the foam in the milk bucket. Anyway, to this day if I smell raw milk those smells come right back to me.
 
Another thing- mastitis is bad, some kinds are incurable. Staph aureous comes from people's hands. Mastitis has to be prevented as much as possible. Do not wash the cow's udder with water. The dirt water runs down on their teat ends and there you go, First squirt out some squirts, then clean the teats with store bought sanitizing wipes made with iodine, a freash one for each teat. Then use a teat dip solution, let it sit for 30 seconds then wipe it off. , Then put on a new pair of nitrile gloves and milk her out . Then do a post milking teat dip. Take her hay so she doen't like down before her teat ends close. If you share milk with the calf do not expect much cream because they can turn it off like a faucet, saving it for the calf.
 
Silver said:
Raw milk was all I ever had for a long time. And I liked it just fine. Then I got old enough that milking chores fell to me. I didn't mind milking. What bothered me was the smell of warm milk combined with the smell of fresh warm cow shyte. And maybe the brown flecks of fresh cow shyte splatters on the foam in the milk bucket. Anyway, to this day if I smell raw milk those smells come right back to me.
Click to expand...
Yep.. I can see how that would be a turn off. That raw milk the dude brought for ice cream, was milk from his dairy, milked with the milking machines, so hopefully no cow poop in it. If I had seen any, I bet I would have the same aversion you have now!.
 

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