How is Butter Made? Did you know it takes the cream from 20 litres of milk to make 1 kg of butter? Each golden kilogram is made up of 80% milk fat, 16% water, 2% minerals and 2% salt. Other than different proportions of salt, the only other ingredient in New Zealand butter is lactic acid culture for cultured butters.

Butter making is a fairly simple process:

• First the milk is separated into cream and skim milk.
• Next the cream is heated and cooled a number of times to kill bacteria and remove unwanted odours.
• Cream is stored in large crystallising (or solidifying) silos for 12 hours.
• The cream is then whipped with a rotary beater and pumped through a churning cylinder.
• In just a few seconds the cream separates into buttermilk and butter fat granules.
• The buttermilk is drained off the butter fat granules. Any salt is added at this stage.
• The granules are worked with a little added water until they are smooth and creamy. Now we've made butter!
• The butter comes out of the butter maker in a continuous stream and is formed into blocks and wrapped, or poured into other packaging.

Make butter yourself at home!

• Pour a bottle of Anchor cream into a clean jar with a tight fitting lid.
• Shake and shake until yellowish butter fat globules begin to form and make clumps.
• Pour off the buttermilk, add a pinch of salt and work your butter until smooth.
• Wrap your butter in a piece of clean muslin. Hang from a wooden spoon, spanning the rim of a bowl. Leave overnight to remove excess moisture.
• If your pioneer spirit is a little lacking, another quicker way is to beat the cream with an electric beater. Soon after it turns into firm whipped cream it will start to become butter.