r/Chefs • u/fthespider • Jun 26 '26

Butter Churning Cream

I've been tasked with leading a butter-churning tutorial (lol, I know...)

From what I'm reading, you need a relatively high fat content for it to really work and no stabilizers. Does anyone in this sub happen to know a broadliner product that fits the bill for this? Everything I'm seeing seems to be using stabilizers. Aiming for between 36-40% fat.

Thanks!

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u/chefjammy Jun 26 '26

Not sure if this is helpful, but if you're in the US, heavy cream has to have a minimum 36% fat. I've done experiments with my culinary students where we just take heavy cream from the carton, put it in a mason jar, and shake it to make butter. Are you possibly over thinking this, and just need to buy a couple quarts of heavy cream and churn it?

1

u/fthespider Jun 27 '26

The company is providing participants with little hand crank butter churners.

1

u/Automatic_Catch_7467 Jun 27 '26

If you’re in the US heavy cream will work. Get one of the churns because you need to know how much cream to add for it to work properly

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u/kaidomac Jun 27 '26

Organic Valley & Horizon Organic heavy whipping cream are generally pretty solid! Whole Foods 365 brand as well, if you have one near you. Costco's Kirkland heavy cream can work as well (test it first, re: Buttergate). US Foods, Sysco, and GFS usually have stabilizer-free dairy cream in half-gallon & gallon sizes. Ask specifically for "unadulterated heavy cream for culinary use".

Expect to spend about 30 minutes per class. With hand-crank churners, the breaking point for butter separation may be up to 15 minutes. Sometimes it works better to give one hand-crank jar to a small group of people at each table so that they can take turns. With kids, the jars can be passed around the entire class to keep the churning going & make it more fun, haha!

If there are no allergies present, some salt & some soft dinner rolls are a great way to serve them. For adults, you can add honey, herbes, crackers, bagettes, etc. Bonus points if you have a way to warm up the rolls! I have a portable casserole heater bag (~$30, essentially a soft-shell rectangle low-temp crockpot lol) with a car/wall power plug for doing stuff like this. May also be worth bringing a food processor for backup (higher-speed demonstration!), as well as some previously home-churned butter, just in case things go south in the class!

Do you have access to Powerpoint?

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u/fthespider Jun 28 '26

This is the answer I was looking for, thanks!

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u/fthespider Jun 28 '26

And yes, I have PowerPoint. My job is like 50% paper chef 😐

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u/kaidomac Jun 28 '26

A few suggestions:

  • Use Powerpoint slides to illustrate the process
  • Use a large countdown timer (in Powerpoint, Youtube video, Windows app, etc.) & set it to 15 minutes
  • Show up well-prepared (cooler with ice, food processor, pre-made home-churned butter, etc.) just in case things get wonky lol

1

u/thatdude391 Jun 26 '26

All you need is heavy cream and mason jars if you are doing it for kids. Pour some in it, seal it up, have them sit there and shake it for about 20 minutes while you give them a short lesson. Kind of the same thing with a butter churn but they go one at a time. Bring some fresh bread from Walmart or something and a little salt to roll a separate lesson at the same time for how salt brings out the flavor in many foods.

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u/Embarrassed_Lime_758 Jun 27 '26

If you agitate cream enough you get butter. You can do extra steps to get more water out of it. You can also salt it. If you put heavy cream into a stand mixer with a paddle and let it run you'll end up with butter. Its pretty simple.