buttermilkpasteurization
I was reading about making butter at home and all the recipes called for raw (I presume this means unpasteurised) milk. Why is this?
They also said to wait for the cream to separate from the milk. I've never seen this happen – is there something about pasteurisation that stabilises the emulsion?
It's not hard: First milk cow :-), then let the milk settle in the fridge for a day or two. Skim the cream off the top
Use a food processor, or hand shake in a cocktail mixer or similar sized jar (only about a 100 ml at a time)
First you get whipped cream (2 to 5 minutes), then another minute of shaking and suddenly butter appears
It should separate very cleanly, with watery whey (save for soft cheese making), and lots of rough yellowish fat globules. If it still looks smooth it needs more shaking
If you want to keep the butter for any length of time you will need to wash it a few times with clean water, and squeeze the water out of it after each wash
The colour you get depends on what your cows have been eating. It can be quite white
There is no need for heating, or any other additives
In all cheese making and especially with young cheeses like cream cheese, fat adds a lot to the flavor and texture.
You can skim off extra fat but your cheese will be thinner and less richly flavored.
Shaking the cream in won't help if you are using a fermented method (as opposed to using boiling and acid to curdle the milk) because it will separate out again during the fermentation.
Your thickened, fermented milk will be richer on top where the cream rose. It will mix back in when you drain the cheese and form it.
Best Answer
You don't need raw milk (or more precisely, raw cream). I've made butter from cream many times, but never from unpasteurized cream -- I prefer locally sourced organic cream for reasons, but the actual butter-making process is exactly the same with a pint of store-bought.
If you are starting from milk rather than from cream, you will need to get non-homogenized (or unhomogenized) milk. Homogenization and pasteurization are separate processes (even though both are typically performed on milk): pasteurization uses heat to kill bacteria and other pathogens, while homogenization breaks up milk fat particles so they stay mixed into the milk instead of rising to the top.
If you want to buy pasteurized, non-homogenized milk to skim your own cream, it may be labeled as cream-top or creamline milk. Raw milk is both unpasteurized and non-homogenized, but I personally like the increased safety that comes with pasteurization.
Personal anecdote: I once bought cream-top milk to try to skim it for butter, and the amount of cream a half-gallon produced was about a tablespoon. For me, that wasn't nearly enough to justify the extra work -- my family doesn't drink nearly enough milk in a week to salvage the necessary cream for butter-making. I personally recommend skipping straight to cream :)