Make butter from expiring cream.

[Alternatepriorities]

I'm certainly reinventing a tool here that my ancestors long knew but I had needed in my cushy modern life.

I buy cream at Costco. It only comes in half gallon containers, but it's so much cheaper than at other stores here that half the container could go bad and I'd still come out ahead... Most of the time we use it before any of it sours but occasionally we don't finish in time. Especially if we go anywhere for a couple days.

A few months ago I decided to make butter from the remaining cream the first day it had a little sour smell. I figured since butter is more shelf stable it might extend the life of the remaining cream. It worked! I get at least an extra week out of the butter than I would have if I'd left it as cream. It seems the part of the cream that spoils first is in the butter milk which I just pour off.

[Morning Glory]

Intriguing!! How much butter do you get per quart of cream, and what tools do you use?

[Extramedium]

Love this.

We’ve made it with both a butter churn from a garage sale, and in a blender.

[eyesonthehorizon]

Why not use the buttermilk - bread, biscuits, even smoothies. I wish my Costco had the half-gallon, the only size it has is a quart. I use a ton of cream & would gladly make butter if the price was right.

[Catbert]

If you add a bit of salt to the butter it might extend shelf life a bit.

[Dicey]

Butter also freezes well.

[markbike528CBX]

Freeze, or refrigerate it then cold smoke it.     

Keys: use a smoking tube, --- or if you already have a smoker, use that.
DON't have the gas or other heat source on,
do it during the winter, when the butter won't melt.

[lhamo]

I had a similar issue with half and half a few weeks ago (my container size got upsized to a half gallon in a pickup order because they didn't have any quart size containers) and ended up making this recipe to use it up:

https://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/stretchy-mac-and-cheese.html

Later discovered that it is really good with gruyere cheese as well, and still very good if you only use about 1/2 the amount of cheese in the original recipe. 

[Alternatepriorities]

Intriguing!! How much butter do you get per quart of cream, and what tools do you use?

I'd estimate a pint of cream produce a little more than a cup of butter yesterday. I normally just use the hand mixer and some salt. For very large batch a stand mixer would be better, but mine is actually slower than the hand mixer on small batches. I like to mix whipped cream in a measuring cup as I find the deep narrow container whips faster and I use the same for butter.

[Alternatepriorities]

Why not use the buttermilk - bread, biscuits, even smoothies. I wish my Costco had the half-gallon, the only size it has is a quart. I use a ton of cream & would gladly make butter if the price was right.

It seems the part of the cream that is going sour is mostly in the butter milk so once they are separate cream that was "on the edge" produces butter milk that is a little ripe. It would probably be okay to cook with if it were the same day. At current prices I can buy butter at costco cheaper than I can make it. I've given some thought to just making my own... but homemade butter is even tastier and I already eat too much butter :)

[Alternatepriorities]

Freeze, or refrigerate it then cold smoke it.     

Keys: use a smoking tube, --- or if you already have a smoker, use that.
DON't have the gas or other heat source on,
do it during the winter, when the butter won't melt.

This is a seriously tempting idea... See above about I already eat too much better... I do have a smoker with a cold smoke option and it is well below freezing outside today.