The joy of making butter comes not from the end result, but from the joy of making butter.
Up until last week, when I stumbled upon this blog written by a homeschooling family, I had no idea how easy it was to make butter. A butter churn, I thought, was something enchanted and not easily replicable in a non-farming residence. It turns out I was wrong.
After doing some more research and reading up on butter making at The Wednesday Chef and Instructables, I gathered my heavy whipping cream and empty glass jar and begun the arduous task of violent shaking -- shaking for about twenty-minutes.
The process is amazing. You first get whipped cream (I actually whipped it first with a tiny mixer), then a sort of curdled cream and then it gets quite solid and impossible to shake. Finally, when you think you're already done and can't shake anymore, the contents become liquid again! Actually, that's the buttermilk. Floating within that liquid is your butter. After straining your butter and removing all liquid, you're done.
For more writing on homemade butter, check out this New York Times article from last July. Or read up on more butter stuff (Better Butter, Elements: Compound Butter on the fabulous Ruhlman.com).
