Make Your Own Butter (Without a Cow)
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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?
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I used to do this with my third graders when I was a teacher. They loved it! It’s fun to put a marble inside the cream, the kids like to hear it knocking around and it’s easy to pick out later.
My Mama was from the beautiful hills of Newport, Tennessee. When my daughters were little, she would let them help her make shab beans by threading green beans on a string. She would use a needle and white thread and punch them in the center. When she had a strands about 18 inches, she would hang them to dry. After days (or weeks) of drying, she would bag them and put them in the freezer (to keep bugs out). When she was ready to cook them, she had to soak them just like with any dried bean. She called them shab beans but some call them leatherbritches. Whatever you call them, I call them delicious.
Mama died when my younger daughter was only 4 but she remembers making shab beans with her Nana.
When I was small, the roles were reversed, and my mom was the one who couldn’t sit still and had to be doing eleven things at once, while I was the unitasker. Actually, that’s still true. Anyway, my mom ran the print shop of our local community college the entire time I was growing up (back before computer-assisted word processing and graphic design, and high-speed copiers), and whenever I wasn’t at in school, I was at work with her. I got to be her marginally-paid delivery girl, copy editor (which really helped me in college), and coffee-getter. I also got to sit in on classes with some of the cooler instructors, play whatever kid role there was in the drama courses, and nurture my lifelong passion for libraries. It was awesome, and even though at the time I wanted to be doing summer camp or some other similarly expensive activity, I wouldn’t trade it for anything now.
One of my very favorite memories from kindergarten was making butter in babyfood jars and then eating it with saltines.
I seem to remember my mother making it from buttermilk. Anyone done that? Back when we had unhomoginized milk (long time ago) I can remember her scooping cream off the top and using that. But if milk soured, she used it as buttermilk and sometimes I think she did butter from it. She always used whole milk or 3% milk though. I use 1% most of the time and 2% when I can’t find 1%. I have started using Smart Balance now which I am not sure is really milk but it tastes good and is supposed to be better fats. Doubt it will make butter, even if it came in buttermilk. Guess the cream is the best. But anyone know about using buttermilk for butter? Or am I mistaken?
You actually used whole milk a long time ago and you would get buttermilk and butter from the whole milk. They use to churn the whole milk and from that you would get whole cultured buttermilk and then the butter would form on top.
I had my kids and their cousins do this when they were really little – put the cream in baby food jars and had 4 lumps of butter for Easter dinner!! They loved it. I will have to try with my grandboys when they visit this summer.
Memories! I was just finished working on my NCGW leaflet for Angel Food and guess what I told kids to do this summer… make butter, make nut butter, make leaf prints… and so on. To answer someone’s question, don’t put your salt in until it is done because you can’t judge how much to use. Different cows have different saltiness in their milk depending on their diet. We had guernsey cows which were high in butterfat and produced rich butter, little salt required. Mother made honey butter as well with the honey from Daddy’s hives.
I can’t thank you enough for this post!!!!! My son is exactly like you! I’m always trying to find things to keep him interested in the summer and give me a break! Geez…the boy can talk! I am running out first thing in the morning to get whipping cream and they can shake away!
I used to do this at Thanksgiving when I taught preschool. We would sit in a circle and roll the jar back & forth to each other. Another way to help speed up the process is to add a couple of marbles in the jar to help with the aggitation. Be sure NOT to eat the marbles. 🙂