Churning Butter

Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up. -John C. Maxwell

A few days ago (or maybe a few weeks, who am I kidding - it's been a wild sort of month or so in our houseful) we had the pleasure of making our own homemade butter. And it was surprisingly easy. There were two methods that I could have chosen. The load the whipping cream into a mason jar and shake, shake, shake what my momma gave me method, or the put it in my cake mixer and let IT do all of the work method. Guess which method I chose?

For butter you need the following:

Heavy Whipping Cream
Salt (if you desire - and to your taste)

Start with heavy whipping cream (I started with a small carton because I wasn't sure that I would like this)
Whip in a mixer until you see full peaks from the whipped cream
Continue Whipping
This is where the next change comes - you're whipping out most of the liquid  or "buttermilk" Pour that off.
Whip a little bit more. Yes, still!
Rinse the butter in COLD water and mold it all together.
Pack it into a container, and refrigerate. You can keep it up to one month in an  airtight container.

The children and I enjoyed this activity because it provided a teachable moment (nerd alert) about how a liquid can change to a solid with the introduction of air and removal of MOST of the liquid. This was a proud mommy moment of mine.

Now, if you don't have a mixer, you can do this is a mason jar and just shake, shake, shake your heart out. This method would probably be more fun for toddlers. If you do some, let me know! I'd love to see!

~Make it a FANTASTIC DAY!

16 Comments

  1. Rae - It was super easy, and I am sure that you could really play around with flavorings and all of that. Great stuff!

    Amber Faith - Hopping on over to see you!

  2. Oh, my goodness! My daughter and I have been reading Little house on the prairie and talking about all of those old-fashioned homemaking chores. We HAVE to do this! Thanks for posting!

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