Make Your Own Butter (Without a Cow)
When I was a girl, my mother was a saint. I was one of those children who talked contantly (Never saw that one coming, huh) and was always right up on her with questions and endless conversation. I can’t ever remember a time, even now, when I haven’t been trying to figure the world out, finding some new angle almost daily to view it through and gain a better understanding of the whys and what-fors of any given situation.
I was one to question, examine, and then declare my findings. Again, much how I do now. But folks, I can tell ya, My poor mama needed a break from time to time and she always came up with wonderful ways to keep me busy while giving me something else to figure out.
Most of these actiities have become habit for me now, ways I busy myself in the odd need to be doing multiple tasks in order to focus. My friend, Jyl is night and day different from me in this respect. She actually focuses on one thing at a time, just like my husband. Mama is like that, too, so I’m really surrounded by people who stand in place doing one appointed task while I buzz around them talking away with the speed of my thoughts. I imagine it leaves us both a little tired.
Recently I was on the phone with Jyl talking over some things I have coming up with Southern Plate and while talking to her, I walked into the kitchen and got all of the fixin’s out to make a little butter. I poured my cream into a mason jar, screwed the lid on good and began shaking away. ~swish swish swish~
After a few minutes of talking while I swished in the background Jyl asked, “What are you doing?”
“I’m making butter.” I declared, as I continued swishing while I walked around the house talking on the phone.
Did you know I can’t stand still or sit while I talk on the phone? Doing only one thing at a time is very difficult for me and always has been. Of course it’s ADHD but it is certainly not a disorder, it’s a gift, a talent, and a blessing. The only reason it is called a “disorder” is because other folks beat us to the punch in declaring themselves normal and us abnormal. If we wouldn’t have been so busy up and leaving Europe and creating an entirely new country based on an entirely new governmental concept, we could have gotten to declare the rest of the world “OTATD” or “O-Tats” for short, One Thing At A Time Disorder. ~grins and giggles~ But that is a post for another day so back to what I was saying about butter..
Jyl sounded incredulous “You’re doing what?”
“I’m making butter, I’m going to spread it on some saltines.”
“Are you talking about actually churning butter?”
“Yeah, but in a mason jar. Haven’t you ever made butter?”
This is when it occured to me that Jyl, being the quiet person that she is, most likely never annoyed her mother like I did and therefore was never given the fascinating task of making butter in a mason jar. Since I can’t see her ever being able to annoy people to the extent that I do, I guess it is up to me to take the initiative and show her how it’s done so this post was born.
Tomorrow begins National Dairy Month and this is a great post to help us kick that off so yesterday, me and the kids made butter. This is a GREAT activity to do with kids, or to let them do on their own to buy you a few minutes of quiet in the kitchen while you cook. Even adults enjoy the “neatness” factor of making your own butter with just some whipping cream and a mason jar!
All you’ll need is: Heavy Whipping Cream and a jar or two.
I usually use the larger jars but these little eight ounce ones are easier for little hands to hold and do just fine.
Fill your jar 1/2 to 3/4 full, but no more than that. Your cream needs space to shake around a bit.
Put the lid on well and then start shaking!
This will take anywhere from ten to thirty minutes, but your butter will most likely be ready in twenty minutes or so. It all depends on how much you shake it. Little hands will take frequent breaks 🙂
Now let me tell you what is gonna happen here so you don’t think you’re shaking your arms off for nothing:
First, the liquid is going to completely coat the jar as you shake and you’ll hear it just a shaking back and forth
Then, the liquid is going to get really thick, still coating the jar, but as you shake you won’t really hear it shaking anymore and you’ll begin to doubt me. Hang in there, I promise there will be butter soon enough, just keep shaking on faith :). You can open the lid if you want and see that your cream is just really, really thick. Then…
After about fifteen or twenty minutes, you’ll notice the sides are no longer coated and it pulls away from the sides a bit.
You’re almost done!
A few minutes later you’ll feel solids shaking around in there and the liquid and solids will separate completely. Now your butter is ready.
When you open it up you’ll see this.
Pour that out into a strainer or colander so the liquid can drain out the bottom.
This is Brady and Katy’s jar both emptied.
Now adding a little salt is optional but I like to.
This is just a little kosher salt that I’m going to stir in.
You will need to add this to taste so start small.
Stir in salt, if adding it.
Spoon butter into small ramekin, cover, and refrigerate.
It will harden as it gets cold.
Enjoy!
Doesn’t this look good? I love it on Saltines!
Making Butter At Home (Fun activity for all ages!)
- Whipping Cream
- Mason Jar
- Salt (optional)
Fill jar 1/2 to 3/4 full with cream. Place lid on tightly. Shake for ten to thirty minutes, or until you hear solids shaking around and can see through the glass that the solids have separated from liquid (read up in post for more details of what the shaking stages will be like). Pour into colander to separate liquid from butter. Place butter in a ramekin or bowl and stir in salt, if desired. Refrigerate until hardened. Enjoy!
Did your Mama have creative ways to keep you busy as a child?
My Mama Reed used to have her grandkids shuck corn and snap beans on the front porch. They loved feeling needed!
I’d love to hear what your parentsand grandparents did in the comments section below!
We had a WONDERFUL time this past weekend when we got our own private tour of a working dairy farm in Alabama.
Stay tuned to my next post for details and photos!
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What you DO speaks loudly, I can’t hear what you say.
~A quote Nick Saban used in his book, How Good Do You Want To Be?
Submitted by JoAnn. We have a great collection of positive and uplifting quotes which I’d love for you to read through and enjoy, or add your own! Submit your quote by clicking here!
My mom had a “Daisy Churn” (I still have that churn). It had a big glass bottom and a handle to turn. My sister and I would take turns turning the handle. We had beans to break, blackberries to pick, floors to wax, the list goes on and on. Never a dull summer at our house – I loved it!
This is to Karen, buttermilk is actually the water/milk that Christy drained from the butter. You can drink this as it is actually sweetmilk still. If you left the cream to warm up and slightly turn sour before making it into butter, it will turn to butter faster and give you the sour tasting buttermilk that you get in a store. I go to a public restaurant supply store to get a 36% cream. When Christy describes the time when you are not hearing anything, you are at the whipped cream stage. If you want to use it like whipped cream you would have had to add sugar at the beginning. The reason for washing it is that any milk left behind will cause it to go rancid faster but the small amount that Christy shows will get used up a lot faster then someone using a gallon worth of milk will.
You rock Maryann! Thank you!
One of the ways my mom would get me out of her hair was to have me darn socks, A family of eight can generate a lot of holey socks. It could keep a jabbery little girl busy for a looooong time.
Oh, wonderful butter! As a child mamma would have me churn the butter, we had a glass gallon jar we used. It seemed like it took forever shaking the jar but I know it really did not take all that long. I loved the buttermilk (watery part) that was poured off, but do not like boughten buttermilk. Mamma would have me take ice water and keep changing it as I worked it into the butter to get all the milky stuff out, she said it kept longer this way. You have made me want to churn butter so i guess i will make a trip to the grocer and get myself some heavy cream.
also did this as a young girl…have been wondering how to keep my young niece and nephew entertained while keeping them for a few days of well deserved time away by their parents (my baby sister)…what a marvelous activity…thanks Christy!!!
I’ve been a teacher for 11years now. I can still remember when I was in 1st grade and my teacher had us make butter in class. Now I do it almost every year with my own students. Sometimes I let them make their own in baby food jars. They love watching to see who has butter first! I usually let them use it on saltines, but sometimes I get fancy and buy a really long loaf of french bread, and that is good too! I normally add the salt to the cream before shaking though. Love this post!
I snapped beans and shucked corn, but mostly we were given the chore of cranking ice cream. The youngest of us got the easy turning in the beginning with the older kids getting the finish line cranking. If you didn’t crank, you didn’t get any…kind of like the little red hen!
My grandparents had 12 grandchildren and in the summer they would have 4-6 of us at any given time. Now at this time, they had a working farm so there was always something to do. But being kids, there would be times when we would claim to be bored. That’s when Grandmother pulled out the butter churn or the wash board and showed us how she grew up. We thought it was fun, but now I can really appreciate the lessons she was teaching us and I hope to pass them along to my kids.