How To Make Butter From Goat Milk

Image Gallery Apart from cream, here's what you need to make goat butter: a dairy thermometer or other instrument with a range of 50° to 150° F, a small glass churn . . . either hand or electric, butter color if desired, and a double boiler (or a pan of convenient size set into a larger pot of water). ILLUSTRATION: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF

Butter made from goat milk is every bit as good as the same spread made from cow's milk. "As good as", please note. . . not "just like".

For one thing, goat butter has a lower melting point other cow butter . . . possibly because the milk from which it comes contains a higher proportion of unsaturated fatty acids. It's also pure white (unless a butter color is added before churning). The reason is that Nanny — a more efficient machine than a cow — has already converted all the carotene in her product to vitamin A.

Another difference: It's a little more difficult to obtain cream from goat milk because the buttermilk globules are very small . . . partially homogenized, you might say. Thus the rich layer rises more slowly than the larger fat particles in cow milk. In fact, the process may take several days (and you'll have a storage problem to cope with meanwhile).

This problem, of course, can be solved with a create separator right after milking, while the liquid is still warm. The catch is that it's not easy to find such a device these days except as a lucky find, secondhand, in some out-of-the-way place. (Unfortunately, the De Laval Separator Company — one of the last firms to make small hand-operated and electric models in North America — has discontinued the line and I know of no other source for new cream separators except one yet-unproven company recently located in India by Countryside magazine. — MOTHER.) 

Apart from cream, here's what you need to make goat butter: a dairy thermometer or other instrument with a range of 50 degrees to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, a small glass churn . . . either hand or electric, butter color if desired, and a double boiler (or a pan of convenient size set into a larger pot of water).

Prepare for buttermaking by letting your cream stand at room temperature overnight — or about 12 hours — so that the butterfat globules will ripen. Add a few drops of coloring at this point if you want the finished product to be yellow.