How to make butter in a canning jar

A few of you wanted to know how I made my butter in a canning jar, so I thought I would share the way I make it. Some people allow their cream to warm to 60′ or room temp, but I don’t. I guess if you allow the cream to warm a bit, it causes the butter to be less sweet. Well I don’t know about you, but I love me some butter, so I keep the temperature of my cream cold and straight from the fridge. I’m not exactly sure on the real process of how making butter works, and I’m sure some of my terminology is not correct, but that’s alright with me. Like I said I, don’t know how it works, I just know that it does works and it makes some dang good butter. This is a great activity to do with the kiddo’s. And if you want to really educate them on how to make butter, just do a little investigating first on the real process of how it works. My kiddo’s are too young to care right now. They just love watching the cream turn into butter and taking little tastes along the way.
Here is what you will need to make your own butter and buttermilk in a canning jar:
*1 pint of cold heavy cream
*canning jar with a lid
*lots of energy for shaking

Pour cold heavy cream into canning jar and fill it about 3/4 of the way.

Take one last peek at what the heavy cream looks like. Next time you take a peek it will be whipped cream.

Screw the lid on and start shaking. Shake for about 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes unscrew the lid and take a peek…now you have some whipped cream.

Go ahead and take a nibble, it is scrumptious! Screw the lid back on and shake for another 5 minutes or so. If you unscrew the lid now, you will see this. The miracle of making your own butter is starting to work.

Screw the lid back on and keep shaking for just a few minutes. You will be able to feel and see once the butter is starting to form.

Now unscrew the lid and pour off some of the liquid. Make sure you pour the liquid into a bowl and save it. The liquid is actually buttermilk. Just an added little bonus to making your own butter. You can use it to make some buttermilk pancakes.

Screw the lid back on and shake a few more times to make sure you get all of the buttermilk out. Drain the excess liquid again.

Screw the lid back on. In a few more shakes you will get a smooth ball of butter.

Now place the butter into a bowl.

Run some cold water over the butter while mixing the butter around with a spoon to get the rest of the buttermilk out. Drain the liquid off and repeat til the water is clear when drained off.

Now you have handmade butter made in a canning jar.

Place your butter and buttermilk in some jars and place in the fridge.

Enjoy!
Why not make up a few to share with others, who doesn’t love and deserve a little homemade butter?! These will make a cute little homemade gift paired with your favorite pancake mix or freshly baked bread. Or snip some fresh herbs and mix it in with the butter to use on top of grilled steak.

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Posted by & filed under canning jars, how to make butter in a canning jar, Tutorials. This post has 60 comments.

60 thoughts on “How to make butter in a canning jar”

  2. Laura

    I made this last summer with my daughter and some of her little friends. They loved it and I thought it was pretty darn cool too.

    Thanks for posting, it reminded me to try this again.

    Laura @ Come Together Kids

    Reply

  3. Melissa @ Love Affair With My Brother

    I didn't know making homemade butter would be so simple! I am definitely going to be doing this :)

    Reply

  4. mustangkayla

    How cool! My mom made some honey butter the other day, just by mixing in some honey with softened butter. I bet this homeade butter would be incredible mixed with some honey!

    Reply

  5. Chris

    Love it! I didn't realize it was so incredibly easy. This will be fun to do when the kiddo is older, definitely. :)

    Reply

  6. Rachel

    Wow . . . I didn't know there was such a thing as making your own butter . . . how sad is that?! And sounds like it would be quite an arm workout, too (does that mean you can eat all you want after you burned all those calories making it?). Looks tasty!

    Rachel @ Maybe Matilda

    Reply

  8. Tanya

    My family made this all the time when I was a kid. I like a little salt added to the butter. Perfect on fresh bread! Yum!

    Reply

  10. Michelle

    Great tutorials – and love that it's in a jar! I think this might be a fun rainy day project. My 7 year old recently told me her favorite food was butter. :)

    Reply

  11. heymudda

    Thanks for the recipe. I'm making butter and sweet potato biscuits with my grand daughter this weekend!

    Reply

  12. Zoë

    OK this is weird, because I just read a blog by you in my reader, but when I came to comment it was not here, so I will just comment in this post.

    I am sorry to hear that you have not been well. I know all to well what this is like. I have been fighting an autoimmune for about 1 1/2 years. It is so hard to do with little kids. I am happy to hear that you are finding ways to deal with it and not let it take over your life.

    I wish that I could sit down and have a cup of coffee with you and we could talk about what works for us and what does not, because I am sure that we could help each other.

    Just know that what ever happens you will find a way to live your life the way you want to even if you can not see that now.

    Reply

  13. Heather @ Catfish Kisses

    Ooh cool! I want to make this!!

    New follower from Tater Tots & Jello!

    Blessings,
    Heather

    Reply

  17. Catch A Falling Star

    I have never tried this but, it looks like something fun to do with my kids and maybe for my classroom too!

    Reply

  18. Stephanie Krohn

    Thanks for the recipe. My kids and I finally made the butter this evening. Both my 2 year old and 6 year old loved shaking the jar and watching as it changed from a liquid to a solid. Pretty cool!

    Reply

  21. Jen

    I made this today, and was fascinated to the core! I decided to use my homemade butter to make homemade beer bread. TY for sharing!

    Reply

  22. Jen

    I forgot to say…I also used the buttermilk to make a lime curd. I had to use some cream that was on the verge of going bad, and this was perfect!!

    Reply

  24. Anonymous

    I make homemade butter by first making the milk/cream into yogurt, then whipping it into butter. But, you way is okay, still using a mixer or blender would get you there a whole easier and quicker.

    Reply

  25. VintageTwilight

    I just found your blog and am loving it! We do this at home too! I put a marble in the jar to speed things up! Thanks for the bloggy awesomeness! I'm adding you to my reader!

    Reply

  26. rollinger

    I learned how to make butter by accident. I want some whipped cream for my cake…and the cream won't work and it was hot outside an suddenly i got butter.
    Is it possible to salten the butter before shaking?

    Reply

  28. Rachel

    I just made this a moment ago…it really didn't take 20 minutes either…I was so excited. As a baker and chef, it feels so good to say you know where your ingredients came from and how they were made!

    Reply

  29. Abby

    I tried to make this the other day, and we filled the jar 3/4 full with cream and shook it for at least an hour. It never turned into butter. However, I was determined, so I bought more cream, filled a jar only 1/2 full this time, and shook it for less than 20 minutes, and voila! So maybe just don't fill it 3/4 of the way up.

    Reply

  32. Anonymous

    Will try this with my grandchildren! When my children were little I'd buy raw milk from an FFA student, skim off the heavy cream and make butter in a blender. Easy and good but not as much fun for the kids! :)

    Reply

  34. Nicole

    This may be a stupid question…but does this just taste like butter, or is it ACTUALLY butter? I bake cupcakes, so I'm wondering if I could actually use this in place of store-bought butter in recipes?

    Reply

  35. Anonymous

    Nicole, its actually butter. This is how basic butter is made. I like to use a cheese clothe to squeeze out the excess buttermilk as a final step.

    Reply

  36. Anonymous

    Putting a clean marble in the jar while you shake it helps to speed up the process! (I put a little salt in mine too but that's personal preference.) Other wise a great homemade butter recipe.

    Reply

  38. 2littlehooligans

    im guessing it will only last a few weeks as well. but i think i have stored some for up to a month and it was still fine:)

    Reply

  40. merica

    Just beat the cream with an electric mixer and you get the same result. Maybe not as educational for the kids but good for bigger batches. Respect for executing such a powerful arm workout though ;)

    Reply

    1. Anne @ Have a Cookie!

      My sisters and I made butter by accident many times with an electric mixer back in the 60′s. At Christmas my mother would ask one of us to whip the cream for whatever dessert she had made. I can tell you butter was made several times over the years!

      Reply

  41. Michelle

    We just made two batches of this one regular by your directions and one we added sugar the buttermilk tastes like whole milk in the batch with sugar and the butter has just a touch of sweetness to it the whole thing worked great we had a blast doing it thanks for the wonderful post

    Reply

  43. Anonymous

    sounds like way to much work to make something you can get at the grocery store. seriously who wants to shake something for over a half hour just to get a little bit of butter.

    Reply

  44. Kristen

    where do you find the canning jars with plastic lids?? That is so fun! I have looked and can't seem to find them. Thanks!

    Reply

  45. 2littlehooligans

    kristen, i buy my lids at walmart with the regular canning supplies. sometimes during canning season they will have them in most grocery stores.

    Reply

  48. Tonia

    My 3 yo and I did this today after stumbling across a link via pinterest. She giggled and squeaked though the entire process with joy. I enjoyed teaching this to her.

    I'll admit though, after so much shaking to make a few tablespoons of butter, I ended up putting some of the cream in my mini food processor to whip up enough to fill my butter dish.

    Reply

  49. Geri Johnson

    I remember doing this many many many years ago in grade school. The teacher read us a story while we passed the jar around the room to take turns shaking it. Then we enjoyed our butter spread on saltine crackers. I will have to do this with my 3 year old grandson next week – he would get a kick out of it! :)

    Reply

  51. Bonnie

    I use an electric mixer to make my butter. I was making some one day and my grandson asked what I was doing. When I told him, he said " BUTTER?! You can make ANYTHING!." It is soooo good!

    Reply

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  55. Kiy

    Thank you so much for posting this. I found the link on Pinterest, and finally got around to doing it today with our little gal. We had such fun! She loved it, and can’t wait to eat it on some (homemade) pumpkin bread. Next project, your ice cream!

    Reply

  56. Bobbi

    I grew up on a dairy and occasionally my dad would let the milk/cream separate in the milk tank and when the cream had risen to the top, he would get about a half gallon of it to make butter with. If you frequent antique shops you can still find butter churns with paddles. I can remember turning the handle to make butter many times. What we didn’t need, we would give to family and friends. At the time I didn’t appreciated it, but I do now that we no longer have a dairy in the family and I have to buy it!

    Reply

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