Making Butter: Water, Taste, and Flavor in Mixtures

 Mixture: A combination of substances that does not change any of the chemical identities.

Butter

 This week, I made butter out of heavy whipping cream, and salt. The process was simple, requiring mixing the ingredients, "churning" them with a hand mixer, and washing, then kneading, the butter. 

It is important to remember that a main component in cream, and butter, is water. Since the particles are not dissolving into each other, but combining without significant chemical change, the molecules must be nonpolar, and responsible for the formation of a solid phase.

As I whisked, the butter began to separate from the buttermilk, which was drained. It formed a soft, clumpy consistency, that tasted fairly sweet and watery, despite the salt. The transition from liquid to solid went very well, I kept the mixture in a smaller container while mixing to ensure most of the energy was put into the solidifying butter. The final substance was a colloid mixture, a combination of ingredients with non-dissolved particles too small and well mixed to be separated. 

Once the butter formed into a smooth, creamy substance, I squeezed out the water I had used to wash and harden it, then molded it into a ball. It did not have much flavor, other than a faint, classically buttery taste. If I were to do this again, I would add a bit more salt, and remove the water wash a bit better. Not wanting to waste it, or eat plain-tasting butter, I split the butter into two batches; in one, I added some fresh garlic and seasoning to make garlic-butter, in the other, I added cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg.

Once the butters had spent some time stiffening in the refrigerator, I tested them out on pieces of bread (assisted, of course, by everyone else in the house).