Butter

In February I tried to buy unsalted butter for cookies, and when all my local supermarkets were sold out I wasn't surprised: it was just before Valentine's Day, a time when virtually every female in the country was busy making sweet treats for their sweethearts. I was able to make do with regular butter but later I became a bit puzzled. Not only did unsalted butter never return to supermarket shelves, but regular butter soon disappeared as well. I shop at irregular hours so I just assumed that I was unlucky or that butter had recently been featured on a health-related TV show (a sure-fire way to cause a product to sell out nation wide) and would soon reappear.

But it didn't, and only recently did I find out that there is a butter shortage in Japan. It's really hard to believe: we're not at war, the economy hasn't crashed, and dairy cows aren't being wiped out by disease or severe weather. But then again this is Japan, where agricultural management follows a mysterious set of rules created by senile wombats from the 5th dimension. Or at least that's what I suspect. I remember a few years back when massive amounts of produce was destroyed because prices were getting too cheap, only to have shortages and sky-high prices a few months later. Anyone else remember those 800 yen cabbages?

Anyway, last week we finally ran out of butter, and at the supermarket I got an idea. Most other milk products were still widely available, including cream. And I remembered when I was in kindergarten we made butter by pouring cream into glass jars and shaking the hell out of them. I don't remember much from that age, but I do remember that I loved making butter. It was fun and I found the transformation of liquid cream to solid butter just fascinating. I also loved the taste: we ate it on saltine crackers and I thought it was the most delicious thing I'd ever had, and butter on crackers remained a favourite snack throughout my childhood. A few years later I was hooked on the Little House in the Prairie books and again became fascinated by Laura Wilder's description of Ma churning cream into butter, pioneer-style. So butter making is something I've always wanted to try again.

And I finally had a good excuse to do it. So today I made up my mind to buy cream and make butter, and set out to the supermarket. And wouldn't you know it, they were fully stocked with butter, for the first time in months. Not to be deterred, I bought both a stick of butter and a 200 ml carton (the only available size) of heavy cream.

I meant to use a glass jar so I could see what was going on inside, but after testing the cheapo jar I'd bought at the 100 yen shop I realized it wasn't fully leak proof. So I just shook the cream right in its own carton, and less than 45 minutes later I had butter.

It was a very pale colour and rather mild tasting-- apparently the cream can be cultured first to make a fuller flavour, so I might do that next time. Still it was sweet and buttery enough to be totally worth the effort, and was very nice on a toasted English muffin with tomatoes and an egg.

If you'd like to try making butter, the fastest way is with a mixer: Cooking for Engineers has good directions. But if you're like me and are attracted to more low-tech ways of doing things, then this is how to shake cream into butter.

You'll need:

• small carton of heavy cream (the heavier the better, and make sure there are no thickeners or whipping agents added)
• large metal clip
• clean marble or large bead
• salt, optional

Open the carton and pour a few tablespoons out to make some air space. This is a good time to make yourself a nice big cup of coffee, as it will help you use up the poured-off cream and will also give you the energy you'll need for all the shaking. Drop in the marble, close the carton and seal it with the clip.

Start shaking. After 15 minutes or so you won't feel the marble moving around, and you'll know you've reached the whipped cream stage. Go ahead and have a look, and you might as well have a taste too. From this point you will need to shake quite vigorously. It won't feel like much is happening in there, but after several more minutes you'll suddenly feel liquid sloshing around again. That's the buttermilk separating from the butter curds, and you just need to keep shaking for another minute or so until the curds merge together.

It should look like this, with the curds formed into a ball. You now have butter, but there is just a bit more work left. Pour off the buttermilk and reserve for another use. To clean the butter, pour a little cold water into the carton, close and shake for half a minute. Open and drain off the water, repeat twice.

Your butter is now ready. If you want salted butter, add a pinch of salt and give it a few more shakes to mix it. You can keep shaking to get whipped butter, but your arms are probably sore enough so all you have to do now is make yourself some toast, slather it with your freshly made butter, and enjoy.

The butter can be kept in the carton-- just re-seal it with the metal clip and keep it in the fridge. Like store-bought butter, you'll need to use it up quickly if it's unsalted. But if you've just emerged from a butter famine like I have, that shouldn't be a problem.

Comments

[Sona]

Thanks for this tip. I enjoy reading your blog. I almost check everyday!

[Helen]

So cool that you did this! I said on my blog that I was going to do it, but I didn't get around to it.

And.... where agricultural management follows a mysterious set of rules created by senile wombats from the 5th dimension.........Great line!!! and so totally true as well. :->

[carlyn]

How clever!!!! and fun, too..

[Charmaine]

That is.... pretty bloody amazing! I imagine you got a good workout from it :P

[Sejal]

yum yum, fresh homemade butter.. as i child, we used to get some of the homemade butter as a special treat before it was all converted into ghee that is used a lot in india..

[Dana Koyama]

Aren't you clever! Terrific idea. I remember my son was asking about making butter when watching a old show, so I suspect a box of cream is in order for our household, too. Glad to have the directions. :-D

[Phil Mitchell]

How is the price of rice in Japan? Here in San Francisco, a 50 lb. sack of Golden Phoenix Jasmine rice went from $26 to $38 in the space of 5 days.

[sherry]

I've done this before when I needed some butter but was too lazy to go to the store and buy it. Luckily I did have some cream on hand. After all was said and done it would have probably taken less energy just to walk to the store. All that shaking is tiring. LOL!

It's fun to do with kids too.

[Tess]

Very clever. I remember shaking a jar of cream to make butter in 3rd grade. The teacher had 5 or 6 jars of cream and we kids took turns shaking them and passing them up and down the rows of our desks. The teacher had music and songs for us to keep us all moving. There were still real cooks in the cafeteria and they made us some fresh bread to eat with our butter. mmmm...

One thing you might watch for if you want to make butter: I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world, but in the U.S. "ultrapasturized" cream is the norm. The plain "pasturized" cream is not common. The "ultra" treatment makes cream last longer sealed in the fridge, and more difficult to turn into butter—it whips easily, but takes a lot of mixing to go to butter.

Oddly enough, the local grocery store I usually shop at has a house-brand of plain pasturized cream. On one of the rare occasions that I made dessert in the last year, I got busy so my husband took over making whipped cream. He added sugar and set to whipping in the Kitchen Aid at a pretty good speed. I forgot to warn him that the cream was not "ultrapasturized." One second it was nice fluffy whipped cream—the next second, it was curds of butter! oops...

[Ushka]

Our supermarket has a sign up saying only 1 block of butter per customer so I have been sending my eldest boy in separately to also buy butter :)
I found lots at Keio department store in Shinjuku though, (650yen for 450grams unsalted) apparently the departos are getting the butter and, if there is any left, it goes on to the smaller supermarkets

[Ms J]

Amy,

Jane here. So that explains things! We ran out of butter a while back (it's a must for my Vegemite toast) and I was wondering why my local supermarket was out of stock! I guess it's been good for my health - I refuse to eat margarine. But D is missing his favourite soy/butter combination on potatoes.

[Fuji Mama]

This shortage has been driving me crazy! Our local markets have signs posted limiting customers to 1 or 2 packages, but no packages to be found. You've got to right about the senile wombats from the 5th dimension.

[Absolutely Tokyo!]

Now I know how to get rid of my "furisode" arms! Shake cream until it turns to butter! Brilliant!!!

[Absolutely Tokyo!]

Now I know the workout to get rid of my "furisode" arms! Shake cream until it turns to butter! Brilliant!!!

[Absolutely Tokyo!]

Oops, I tried to make an edit, but it looks like the first post got published. Sorry about that.

[烏啄啄]

impressive... wif all ur works and ideas... like your blog so much... thx :)

[crella]

Good heavens! I had no idea there was a butter shortage. I buy DH's favorite butter at Sogo, it's made with cultured milk, and so very tasty. We got hooked on hakkou butter on a trip to Sapporo. I buy three at a time (with shopping bonds when I have them, it's pricey) and then we have butter for quite a while as we only use it on toast. We have two in the fridge now,so it's been quite a while since I shopped for butter. Hmmmm...I'm going to take a look today after I go to the gym.

[Amy]

Thank you Sona, I hope it comes in handy some day!

Helen, thanks! It's a bit of work, but sure beats having to use margarine.

Thanks Carlyn!

Charmaine, I thought it would be a great workout, but all I got was a sore wrist the next day...

Sejal, that must have quite a treat! But the real treat to me is the ghee. I make clarified butter occasionally but I have no idea how to make proper ghee, and I've never seen it sold here.

Oh Dana, this would be such a great project for kids!

Phil, that's crazy! But I'm afraid I haven't been paying attention to rice prices, I've using up a giant bag for months.

Sherry, that's so cool! All that work just to avoid going to the store sounds just like something I'd do.

Tess, you had real cooks in your school cafeteria? Who cooked fresh bread to go with your butter? That is amazing. Way better than crackers from a box!
Thanks for the cream tips. Cream is completely different here and usually comes in just three types: real cream in 35% and 47%, and a cheap "whipping cream" that I imagine is full of thickeners and such. No idea how they corresponds to the "heavy cream", "light cream" we have in N. America, which can be a problem for cooking, but I'm pretty sure that the two varieties of real cream are not ultra-pasteurized, because they have a very short shelf life.

Ushka, thanks for the tip! It seems that after the department stores get it the major supermarket chains are next in line. There doesn't seem to be much leftover for the smaller chains or independent markets. In my area the Life and Seiyu/Livin stores sometimes have it, but Inageya, Summit, Maruetsu and other chain stores never do.

Hi Jane! We're a margarine-free household as well. It probably would be best to just learn to live without butter, but there are just so many dishes where a tiny pat goes a long way. So get yourself to a big department store, or get shaking!

Fuji Mama, now that I think about it, senile wombats would be an improvement over the people currently in charge...

Absolutely Tokyo, furisode arms! I've never heard that expression before but it's great. I've got those too, but I have a feeling that more butter is NOT the answer!

Thank you 烏啄啄!

Crella, I've always wondered about fancy expensive butter. It's so expensive that I've never bought it, but my husband raves about the stuff he tried when he lived Sapporo as a child (made by nuns apparently). I'll have to finally buy some when my current batch runs out.

[crella]

Now, I didn't like the Trappist butter, which is the one your husband must be talking about. That IS expensive, about 1,000 yen per tin if I remember correctly. It didn't taste all that different as compared to regular butter, to me at least. We got hooked on Snow's hakkou butter in Hokkaido and at that time(about 3 years ago), Daiei and other places in Kobe carried it, it was about 450 yen per pack, reasonable. Snow is now defunct of course, it's Meg Milk now, and they stopped making the butter made with fermented milk last spring, it disappeared from store shelves last March I think.

What I get now is ﾎｳﾗｲの発酵バター. It just went up to 658 per pack eeeeek! That's about 150 yen more than it used to be.It is so good though....we shave it thin right out of the fridge and put it on hot toast, it's heavenly, so good we haven't eaten jam at all for over a year, the butter is so good.

[crella]

Well I went to Sogo today and there was almost no butter, and none of the kind I usually buy. I wonder how long this will last?

[Amy]

OK, I'm going to keep my eyes open for hakkou butter the next time I'm at a big department store. Sounds delicious.

The butter situation now is ridiculous and I doubt it will get better anytime soon. There really doesn't seem to be much public outcry-- are people satisfied to just switch to margarine?

[zee]

Looks soooo yummy! Thank you for this treat, even if it is virtual. I saw upthread that you are interested in making ghee...here is a link where there is a lot of discussion about it (but no exact method):
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/131/Clarified-Butter

[Ms J]

Hi again Amy,

Both my local supermarkets have stocked butter over the last week (in fact, I think the Co-Op never ran out, though there are signs limiting 1 x packet per customer). I've been naughty and bought one from each...So am back to eating Vegemite toast for breakfast!

As for public outcry, alas, there doesn't seem to be much of it here. Unless it involves China and potential contamination of foodstuffs of course!

[crella]

Part of what I wrote above was inaccurate, I realized later. Snow still makes butter under the Snow name(but not hakkou butter evidently), but not any other milk products.Everything but the butter is now MegMilk.

[Martin F]

Learning (or remembering, depending on your age and/or point of reference) how to make basic foods like butter is essential.

Thanks for teaching us how to make butter. I love ghee, it just takes a long time to make. Hoping you will give it a try.

[domesticshorthair]

I've read of that butter shortage in Japan on someone else's blog. Strange! But what a fun experiment it turned out to be for you!

[crella]

I made butter today, and it turned out great! I already had some on boiled potatoes for lunch. I put two marbles in, and it was pretty quick.

Thanks!

[justfoodnow]

Pure Genius!!!!!!

What a pleasure - to the kitchen I go!