How to make butter, cheese from home

According to Zaituni Nalwadda, who produces ghee at Sanga in Mbarara district, it can be made from milk, cream, butter and curd.

To make ghee from milk, you need milk with a good amount of cream.

"Cream is fatty substance that floats after milk is boiled," Zaituni says.

"Milk from Ankole cows has a lot of cream. The other option could be the one from Jersey breed. The one from Fresians is not good."

Steps to follow

Boil the milk. Allow it to cool then collect cream from Milk.

The cream will be floating on the top. Filter it and keep it in a stainless steel container (with lid). Most farmers in Uganda use the milking can while others use the gourd (endeku).

Collect this for at least one week to 10 days to get good amount of ghee. At the moment, a kilogramme of ghee goes for between sh15,000 and sh20,000 in Mbarara. The ghee is either packed in containers and branded or simply put in polythene bags and sold.

Making butter

Use the cream collected from milk (or store bought cream) to make butter. You can either use a mixer, food processor or you can do it manually. Both the mixer and food processor can be bought from sh200,000 in shops around Kampala.

The process

You need a churning blade.

Just transfer the cream into the mixer jar and add a cup of water.

Process it till you see the butter separating itself from the milky water.

Collect the butter in another clean container. Cleaning the mixer jar is a long and irritating process, but you have to do it. On the other hand, making butter from cream manually without food processor and mixer involves taking the cream in a wide container, for example a saucepan depending on the amount of cream. Add a cup of water to it. Whisk it using a whisk (wire whip) which is used to beat the curd.

Beat the cream continuously.

The top will become frothy in sometime. You can soon see the butter getting separated from the milk water.

The water will become clear in sometime. Till that you have to beat it. Once the water becomes clear, drain the water and collect the butter. Wash the butter three times to get all the milky water separated from butter. You can then pack it.