How to Make Homemade Butter (Step by Step Instructions)
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
This step by step guide will teach you how to make homemade butter without any fancy equipment! Having your own butter made from raw cream or heavy whipping cream will be far superior to store-bought butter!

In our home, we can never have too much butter! Butter is used as our main cooking fat as well as in baked goods. See our favorite DIY dairy products post for using raw milk from our own cow. The butter making process is something that we have on repeat in our home. Thankfully this process only takes about 10 minutes to have a homemade version of delicious and highly nutritious yellow butter! One quart of heavy cream will yield about a pound of butter.

Here at Pleasant Grove Homestead, we have Jersey cows that we use for all of our family’s dairy needs, everything from butter to ice cream! We also supply a raw milk subscription to customers who would like to purchase raw milk from our farm. We are advocates for raw milk and believe that it is full of benefits! It has become a hot topic in recent years, so if you would like to learn more about the pros and cons of raw milk and why we love it, you can check out our post here. If you would like to start purchasing raw milk for your family, you can learn more about our farm store with the link below! We sell everything from raw milk, to pasture-raised chicken and eggs, and produce locally in Iowa!
Equipment needed to make fresh butter
Don’t be fooled into thinking you need a commercial cream separator or mechanical churns– the butter making process can be done with standard kitchen items. You can find all of our recommended kitchen tools right here.
Equipment you actually need to make butter (no butter churn required!):
- Bowl – Any large bowl you have in your kitchen works great. You don’t need anything fancy!
- Wooden spoon (optional) – Using a wooden spoon is optional because you can also just use your hands. But wooden spoons are a staple in our kitchen so we have plenty on hand to use!
- Blender (or hand/stand mixer) – You can use whatever you have in your kitchen and can make it work. No need for equipment that one has one use! You can use a blender, food processor or stand mixer to mix the heavy cream at a high speed.

Ingredients to make homemade butter recipe
Heavy cream skimmed from cow’s milk – Yes, that’s it! See below how you can easily skim off the heavy cream from your raw milk. If you are using store-bought milk, you can simply buy heavy whipping cream from the store.
Stages of making butter
Did you know that whipped cream is the start of making butter? If you’ve ever made homemade whipped cream, you are only a few minutes away from making homemade butter! It truly is that simple. When you mix the heavy cream, it will start off as whipped cream and then the fat will start to separate from the liquid. In the final product, the fat is the butter, and the remaining liquid is called buttermilk. But don’t throw the liquid out! Buttermilk can be used to make all sorts of homemade goodies such as biscuits, pancakes, ranch dressing, and so much more!

Step by step instructions to make butter
Step 1
Skim cream from milk. See the image below for where the cream line is in raw milk. To skim the cream, wait until milk is chilled. The cream will rise to the top of the jar. Skim it off with a ladle into another glass jar. Technically you are left with whole milk after skimming this cream. Most jars of raw milk have a cream line about one or two inches on top of the milk–we happen to have a high cream producing cow.

Step 2
Allow cream to reach room temperature. If the cream is not room temperature, it will take longer for the milk solids to separate from the butterfat. Typically, I set the jar out at breakfast and make butter while cooking lunch. If you leave the cream too long, you’ll just have cultured butter! Cultured butter is a natural souring process from leaving the cream sit out overnight, leaving you will a tangier product. If your cream gets too warm, the butter may to be too soft to squeeze. Just chill it back down again!

Step 3
For the next step, pour cream into blender, bowl for hand mixer or stand mixer. If you use a stand mixer consider covering the mixer with a towel. If you forget to shut off the mixer when the butterfat breaks, it will make a mess. The blender with a tight-fitting lid is really the best option because you can use a low speed, and not make a huge mess if you forget to shut off the blender.

Step 4
Turn the appliance on low. From room temperature, it is about 3 minutes on average before the fat globules separate from the buttermilk. These two images show whipped cream, then running it 1 minute longer until it is butter. If you are needing to run your blender for longer than 4 minutes, check the temperature of your cream.


Step 5
Drain the buttermilk and use your hands or a wooden spoon to squeeze the butter and remove the rest of the buttermilk. Continue to add cold running water to your bowl and squeezing the buttermilk from the butter. The buttermilk will cause the butter to spoil faster so you are aiming to have all the buttermilk removed. Add about 1 tsp of salt (unless you want unsalted butter). Salt helps remove buttermilk.
Step 6
Store butter in a way that you will be likely to use it. We pack ours in 16 oz yogurt containers we’ve reused, but parchment paper allows you to make them more like a traditional stick of butter.
The resulting buttermilk from making the butter can be used to make pancakes, waffles, muffins or to soak chicken.

The difference in summer vs winter butter
Different times of year will yield various butter [image of summer vs winter butter]. The main difference between winter and summer butter is its texture, with winter butter being significantly harder and firmer due to a higher content of saturated fats in the cow’s milk during colder months, while summer butter is softer because of a higher proportion of unsaturated fats from the cows’ grass-based diet in warmer seasons. Winter butter is hard and firm, summer butter is easier to spread. During the summer our cows get a high diet of fresh green grass, where the winter the grass doesn’t grow as well so our cows get a supplemental diet of a high protein feed from our local feed mill and local hay.

Our favorite ways to use butter
We use butter as one of our main cooking oils along with lard or tallow because they are easy to make at home and are not processed like many commercial oils you find at the store. One of our favorite ways to use butter is on homemade sourdough toast or other breads. We usually add salt in the butter making process, and sometimes we like to make a compound butter with home-grown herbs to use for steaks or with simple roasted vegetables. Below are some of our favorite recipes that use butter for a delicious homemade meal!
Sautéed Carrots with Honey Butter Glaze – The butter mixed with honey creates a delicious glaze that pairs perfectly with the sweetness of carrots! This recipe is simple enough to make for a weeknight meal, but packed with flavor that will impress for a holiday meal.
Honey Butter Chicken Wings– This is one of our favorite recipes we make on repeat! The wings are baked in the oven and then are coasted sweet, sticky sauce made with honey and butter. They are easy to make for dinner or as an appetizer that the whole family will love.
Apple Glazed Pork Chops– A sweet glaze made from honey and butter is mixed with apples that pairs perfectly with the flavor of the pork chops. It is really easy to make but full of flavor.
Oven baked cabbage– This is super simple recipe and is a great way to use up a big head of cabbage! We roast slices of cabbage with butter or lard for an easy and nutritious side dish.
Strawberry shortcake – We love to use homemade butter in this recipe to make super soft and flakey biscuits to use as the base of the strawberry shortcake.


Homemade Butter
Equipment
- Blender or Stand Mixer
Ingredients
- Heavy cream skimmed from cow's milk One quart of heavy cream will yield about a pound of butter.
Instructions
- Skim cream from milk. To skim the cream, wait until milk is chilled. The cream will rise to the top of the jar. Skim it off with a ladle into another glass jar. Technically you are left with whole milk after skimming this cream. Most jars of raw milk have a cream line about one or two inches on top of the milk–we happen to have a high cream producing cow.
- Allow cream to reach room temperature. If the cream is not room temperature, it will take longer for the milk solids to separate from the butterfat. Typically, I set the jar out at breakfast and make butter while cooking lunch. If you leave the cream too long, you’ll just have cultured butter! Cultured butter is a natural souring process from leaving the cream sit out overnight, leaving you will a tangier product. If your cream gets too warm, the butter may to be too soft to squeeze. Just chill it back down again!
- For the next step, pour cream into blender, bowl for hand mixer or stand mixer. If you use a stand mixer consider covering the mixer with a towel. If you forget to shut off the mixer when the butterfat breaks, it will make a mess. The blender with a tight-fitting lid is really the best option because you can use a low speed, and not make a huge mess if you forget to shut off the blender.
- Turn the appliance on low. From room temperature, it is about 3 minutes on average before the fat globules separate from the buttermilk. The two images (in blog post) show whipped cream, then running it 1 minute longer until it is butter. If you are needing to run your blender for longer than 4 minutes, check the temperature of your cream.
- Drain the buttermilk and use your hands or a wooden spoon to squeeze the butter and remove the rest of the buttermilk. Continue to add cold running water to your bowl and squeezing the buttermilk from the butter. The buttermilk will cause the butter to spoil faster so you are aiming to have all the buttermilk removed. Add about 1 tsp of salt (unless you want unsalted butter). Salt helps remove buttermilk.
- Store butter in a way that you will be likely to use it. We pack ours in 16 oz yogurt containers we’ve reused, but parchment paper allows you to make them more like a traditional stick of butter. The resulting buttermilk from making the butter can be used to make pancakes, waffles, muffins or to soak chicken.