[fayenz]

I'm disgusted with the price of butter here in NZ so remembered reading that it only takes a bottle of cream, a pinch of salt then shake the hell out of it and bingo you have cream, it worked!  I drained of the watery stuff and had butter. The next thing I want to make is cheese, a really tasty one, any suggestions?   :?:

[muntjac]

you should check out jacks site here ,,
http://schmidling.com/making.htm

[John]

I've just re-organised the allotment food articles on the site - there's a series on making cheese by Katie Thear on there along with our recipe for cottage (curd) cheese

How to make cheese

We just use the electric whisk for butter -

Making Butter

[Dabhand]

Hey... funny you should mention making butter, that's what I have just done     I followed Vals instructions to the letter and it turned out great!!  (thanks Val)

Also, just to make you all jealous, A lovely batch of home made scones has just come out of the oven.  I used my home made butter and the buttermilk as the liquid, I also put a bit of sugar in that has been sat in the pantry with a vanilla pod in...yum...  They are mouth watering....

[Dabhand]

I am so sorry, where are my manners? I forgot to ask if anybody wanted one  :twisted:  :twisted:  :twisted:      

[John]

Yes please

It really is quite easy to make butter and the taste is better than store bought. I don't know why that should be, goodness knows what goes into factory made butter.

I prefer it very slightly salted - there again, I suspect the store bought contains a lot more than we put in. The colour of home made is lighter as well - I wonder if they add colour when they make it?

We don't have access to any special sources of cream but we do keep our eyes open for bargain reductions in the supermarkets.

Just before Christmas, take a look at the sell by dates on cheese and cream. Then you know the best day to go back and clear the shelf. We've loads of Stilton in the fridge which isn't prime for eating as is but works well in cooking.

[Aunt Sally]

I've made butter by Val's method too.  Really yummy  

[Rampant_Weasel]

never realised it was that simple...i shall scour the local shelves for bargains
altho the cheese looks a bit more technical.

[John]

Cottage cheese is dead easy - different to the store bought stuff but very nice all the same.

[fayenz]

Thanks very much everyone, all comments were great! I must have a look at Val's method. I just made another lot of butter, weighed it and it turns out to cost about the same as store bought butter  :evil:

I should have known that if butter goes up so does all other dairy proucts, still, it was fun making and still going to do so  

Cheese is next :!:

[John]

Thanks very much everyone, all comments were great! I must have a look at Val's method. I just made another lot of butter, weighed it and it turns out to cost about the same as store bought butter  :evil:

I should have known that if butter goes up so does all other dairy proucts, still, it was fun making and still going to do so  

Cheese is next :!:

You won't beat the retail price of butter by making it from retail priced cream.  We worked out our last lot from bargain cream cost 30p a packet against £1 in the shops.

[fayenz]

I've never seen cream on special here and you pay more than us for supermarket cream there!

[chrissie B]

milk ,cream and cottage cheese here are expencive and there is never bargin cream , the cheapest butter i have had was from lidl at 1.09cents at first but now its shot up to 1.45 , then couple weeks ago it was on offer for 1.00 so i stocked up , wish i knew some one with a cow , wonder what goat butter would be like  :?: theres plenty of them about.
chrissie b

[muntjac]

milk ,cream and cottage cheese here are expencive and there is never bargin cream , the cheapest butter i have had was from lidl at 1.09cents at first but now its shot up to 1.45 , then couple weeks ago it was on offer for 1.00 so i stocked up , wish i knew some one with a cow , wonder what goat butter would be like  :?: theres plenty of them about.
chrissie b

 goats ,,,, strong but tasty .make the cheese as well  

[John]

Thing about Greece is that you're in a warmer climate - at least until global warming heats up the UK - so it's olive oil more than butter.

Feta is lovely as I'm sure you know if you've a source of sheep milk.