Work out butter churn yield instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.
Butter yield is fat recovered divided by butter fat content. Since butter is about 82% fat with the balance water, salt and solids, each kilogram of fat makes about 1.22 kilograms of butter — an overrun of roughly 22%. Fat lost to buttermilk should be under 0.5% of the fat charged in a well-run churn.
Butter yield
Fat recovered = cream mass x fat % x (1 - loss); butter = fat recovered x 100 / butter fat %
Overrun
Overrun % = (butter - fat recovered) x 100 / fat recovered
Butter composition including minimum fat and maximum moisture is legally defined. Verify against the applicable dairy standard.
Cream fat content, churning temperature, ripening and churn fill level. Higher fat cream and correct temperature give cleaner separation; over-churning emulsifies fat back into the buttermilk.
It is the difference between fat purchased and butter sold. Working the butter to the maximum legal moisture content maximises yield, but exceeding the limit is a compositional breach.