Runners who churn butter on their runs

This is really funny. My wife and I watched all of New Scandinavian Cooking over a few months and there was an episode where he made butter. It blew our minds at how simple it was. We had no idea!

So we bought a couple of liters of cream (35% fat), put it in the stand mixer and made butter. There's a Serious Eats page about it.

The butter we made was better than what we normally buy. We live in Switzerland so the normal grocery store butter is very good. Our butter had less water in it (you can tell in a frying pan) and more flavor. Plus we take the resulting buttermilk and make ricotta cheese and then we take the leftover whey and make Norwegian cheese (more like fudge). So we get three products from one batch of cream. The butter comes out to be about 20 cents cheaper per 250g than store bought and then the ricotta and "fudge" are free, so financially you come out ahead. The cleanup is a bit of a pain though.

We've also made cultured butter from crème fraiche. It's tasty but even when the crème fraiche is on sale it's still like 2x the cost of using cream so probably not worth it other than gifts and special occasions. We made mandarin sorbet with the sour buttermilk after the crème fraiche butter and that was excellent.

When I tell old Swiss people (people in their 70s/80s) that we make butter they think it's hilarious. They tell me about how when they were kids their parents made their own butter and also at parties/gatherings the parents would give the kids a jar of cream and it was their job to shake it and pass it around until it was butter.

If you have an hour on the weekend and if you have a stand mixer I suggest just trying it. Start with the balloon whisk and when the peaks start forming switch to the paddle watch it because when the butter forms it happens quick and you get a big clump of butter rattling around in the mixer knocking it off balance. It takes maybe 25 minutes and then you have to wash it in ice water, mold it, then clean up. About an hour.

“So, are you exercising much?”

“Oh yes doc, I get out for a run most days of the week.”

“Wonderful news, got to look after your heart.”

“Yeah, and with my new butter churning bags, not only do I get to stay fit, but I also consume ungodly amounts of butter!”

“Sorry what”

This is amazing but even as a runner who loves to make my own "processed" food this really reads like a submarine article for the dairy industry.

"I used to be vegan, but you know I just can't liveeeeeeee without that real butter!!!!!!!"

Good competition for Fatih Karakaya (@runners_pie)!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCuSImnocL7 (November 23, 2024)

> Fatih is a master pastry chef and marathon runner, and he baked a Sachertorte during his marathon at the Ring Running Series at the Hockenheimring.

> Fatih ist Konditormeister und Marathonläufer und hat während seines Marathons bei den Ring Running Series am Hockenheimring eine Sachertorte gebacken.

Heh, I roll my natural peanut butter jar on my treadmill to mix it (when the pace is slow.)

the next fad fringe sport.

seriously, if you can do butter, you should also be able to do ice cream, with some ingenuity.

From the headline, I thought this was going to be about new mothers who’re breastfeeding/lactating accidentally churning butter during their runs. Glad that’s not the case.

- brings a big question

- what are the other things that we dont know of that can be done while running?

Did I miss it… the baggies contents would separate into butter and buttermilk, right? Not really ideal for trailside consumption.

Of course she's from Oregon. This is close to the most Oregon activity imaginable.

> “It was probably 40 degrees outside, but there’s a lot of heat going on in the back,”

Would this is safe to do on a sunny warm weather? Would body heat plus the sun ruin the cream?

This is probably how butter was invented in the first place - some herdsman in the Neolithic who ran somewhere with a skin full of milk, and went “hey this ain’t bad” at the resulting product.

What the heck is corn juice honey butter?

I laughed - but I don't want more of this