What to do with leftover cream after churning butter?

What to do with leftover cream after churning butter? - From above of plates with remains of various dishes left after festive dinner on table with cutlery and flowers

I used a manual butter churn for the first time and made delicious butter. Yay! And it left behind something that resembles milk... It's lighter than the heavy cream that was churned into butter. It had warmed a bit during the churning process so I stuck it in the fridge. Can I use this for anything? Is it basically milk?



Best Answer

Technically, this is "buttermilk" - the milk left over from churning butter.

Of course, this is sweet buttermilk, so it won't really work for most recipes calling for buttermilk (they assume the cultured version, which is acidic, and has that purpose in recipes).

For sweet buttermilk, you can just drink it. You can use it in cooking, much like milk - perhaps closer to skimmed milk, since much of the fat (butter) has been removed. You could maybe make cheese with it, if you want, though it will be a lower fat cheese.

You can take your chances making cultured buttermilk the old fashioned way (leave it until it's "soured"), if you don't mind the risk. You can culture your own buttermilk - I've had success taking regular store bought buttermilk, and adding a glug of that to milk to culture it (or pouring milk into the freshly emptied bottle and letting it sit), or else you can find the actual culture used (look for places with cheesemaking cultures as a starting point and refine your search from there). The last may only be worthwhile if you're planning to make buttermilk regularly, otherwise it's a lot of effort for a one-time product.




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Quick Answer about "What to do with leftover cream after churning butter?"

Buttermilk Shake One of the easiest ways to use up leftover buttermilk is to blend it into a shake. You don't have to like the taste of buttermilk straight out of the carton to enjoy this thick, creamy (but still low fat) treat. Like yogurt in a smoothie, buttermilk takes on a background role.

What can I do with leftover cream from butter?

You can use it in cooking, much like milk - perhaps closer to skimmed milk, since much of the fat (butter) has been removed. You could maybe make cheese with it, if you want, though it will be a lower fat cheese.

What do you do with cultured buttermilk after making butter?

Queso Fresco is about the easiest cheese you can make.
  • Bring the buttermilk up to 185 degrees while occasionally stirring.
  • Remove from heat and stir in about 1/3 cup of fresh lime juice.
  • Allow the curds to form for 5-20 minutes. ...
  • Pour the whole thing through a strainer lined with cheesecloth.


  • What do you get when you churn cream?

    Churning physically agitates the cream until it ruptures the fragile membranes surrounding the milk fat. Once broken, the fat droplets can join with each other and form clumps of fat, or butter grains.

    When making butter from cream What two products did you end up with?

    Homemade butter is easy to make. It is one of the few culinary processes that starts with one ingredient (cream) and ends with two (butter & buttermilk). Churning time is dependent on the starting temperature of the cream and the speed of churning.



    Delicious homemade Butter and Buttermilk | Butter from leftover Cream




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