I don’t care if you’re not a chef or a foodie or even moderately handy around the kitchen, you are going to thank me later for this. You have got to try making your own butter at least once: no, it doesn’t save money, but it tastes so much better than anything you can buy in the store. It’s extraordinarily simple, cheap (you need heavy

whipping cream, that’s all that’s absolutely necessary), you can do all sorts of different flavors (I’ve got some awesome recipes for you: garlic butter, cultured butter, pesto Parmesan butter, honey butter, Italian butter, and Mediterranean butter).

First, I’m going to show you how to make plain old butter with a short video, as well as cultured butter which has a lovely yogurt-ey aftertaste to it because, of course, we’re using yogurt culture; note: if you don’t have cultured yogurt where you live you can just buy some live yogurt culture yourself instead (many grocery stores carry it, and Amazon has it for less than 5 bucks ). He uses a food processor , but if you don’t have one you can just stir or shake it yourself for approximately the same amount of time (you could try a blender set on low, but I doubt that will work well); a stand mixer like what you would use to make whipped cream will also work. Here we go, stick around for the recipes and additional stuff I’ve got afterwards:

Wicked cool flavored butter recipes

*Note: you combine these ingredients with the butter after you’ve made it. Good quality sea salt is recommended whenever salt is called for.

Garlic Butter

Resulting butter from 1 quart heavy cream

3 Tbs. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. salt

Honey Butter

6 ounces honey

Resulting butter from 1 quart heavy cream

3 teaspoons cinnamon

Pesto Parmesan Butter

Resulting butter from 1 quart heavy cream

4 Tbs. prepared pesto

4 Tbs. Parmesan cheese

2 Tbs. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. salt, optional

Italian Butter

Resulting butter from 1 quart heavy cream

2 1/2 Tbs. finely chopped fresh basil

2 1/2 Tbs. finely chopped fresh oregano

2 Tbs. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. salt

Mediterranean Butter

Resulting butter from 1 quart heavy cream

3 Tbs. finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil)

3 Tbs. finely chopped black olives

2 Tbs. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. salt

Additional Resources and Further Reading

There’s not too much out there for the home dairy-product-maker, but there’s a nifty (and cheap: $3.95!) 32 page booklet called Making Cheese, Butter & Yogurt (Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin, a-283) that’s specifically centered on doing this sort of thing, as well as The Home Creamery which shows you how to make your own butter as well as creme fraiche, kefir, yogurt, sour cream, and all sorts of cheeses. And if you really want to get into making every sort of food product at home that you can possibly make at home, then have a look at Homemade: How-to Make Hundreds of Everyday Products Fast, Fresh, and More Naturally .

Here are a bunch more delicious-sounding butter and spread recipes you can do in a just a few minutes.

How about some apple butter–god that looks good?

If you don’t have a food processor and want to mix your butter by hand, instructables.com has got you covered with these simple instructions, and they’ve also got some on how to do it with a mixer.