4 ms·

> the smell of what the Western nose and palate would consider straight-up rancid butter. We produced very high quality (as determined by the local dairy who p

> the smell of what the Western nose and palate would consider straight-up rancid butter. We produced very high quality (as determined by the local dairy who paid us for it) milk at the farm where I grew up. Yet I remember that whenever we tried to make butter at home it would invariably turn rancid within a very short time. I know there are a few people here with farming background and whatnot, anyone has an idea why that would happen? What did we do wrong?

mannerheim 5y ago
Was it made from unpasteurised milk? Maybe that's the difference.
katbyte 5y ago
Salt. Salt preserves butter and without it will go bad faster then you would expect
JohnWhigham 5y ago
Probably still had a nontrivial amount of water in it. Last time I helped make butter, we repeatedly squeezed it through the cheese cloth to get as much water out as we could.
ksdale 5y ago
I don't know if this is too basic, but we tried to make butter from scratch one time and everything we saw said that if there was even the tiniest bit of liquid left when you're done churning, it would cause the butter to go rancid basically overnight, and sure enough, that's what happened the first time! The next time we made sure there wasn't any liquid left and it lasted much longer. I don't even know what the liquid part is called, but it would get stuck in tiny little air pockets while you were churning and it was very difficult to ensure that it was all gone by the end.
- floren 5y ago
  > I don't even know what the liquid part is called Buttermilk.
- skinkestek 5y ago
  From the ideas so far (thanks everyone!) this sounds most probable since salting and pasteurisation seems like something we either did by default or after the first spoiled batch. Also, even if it is well over half my life so far ago I think I can vividly remember small drops of water in the butter.

mannerheim 5y ago

Was it made from unpasteurised milk? Maybe that's the difference.

katbyte 5y ago

Salt. Salt preserves butter and without it will go bad faster then you would expect

JohnWhigham 5y ago

Probably still had a nontrivial amount of water in it. Last time I helped make butter, we repeatedly squeezed it through the cheese cloth to get as much water out as we could.

ksdale 5y ago

I don't know if this is too basic, but we tried to make butter from scratch one time and everything we saw said that if there was even the tiniest bit of liquid left when you're done churning, it would cause the butter to go rancid basically overnight, and sure enough, that's what happened the first time! The next time we made sure there wasn't any liquid left and it lasted much longer. I don't even know what the liquid part is called, but it would get stuck in tiny little air pockets while you were churning and it was very difficult to ensure that it was all gone by the end.

floren 5y ago
> I don't even know what the liquid part is called Buttermilk.
skinkestek 5y ago
From the ideas so far (thanks everyone!) this sounds most probable since salting and pasteurisation seems like something we either did by default or after the first spoiled batch. Also, even if it is well over half my life so far ago I think I can vividly remember small drops of water in the butter.