What was the recipe for making butter on the farm?
Milk a cow.
Then what?
How did milk get turned (or should I say churned) into butter?

Eons ago, as I child, our class visited a colonial farm where the "top of
the milk" was put into a churn which was activated by a plunger which we a
plunged. We had the butter on crackers, the resulting whey was fed to the
hogs.
I just read a fictional account of life in Chile in the 1850's. The cook
tied the milk in skins and gave it to the servant who was driving mules down
a mountain and back up. When he returned from his journey, he had butter.
"Bryan" > wrote in message
. com...
> What was the recipe for making butter on the farm?
> Milk a cow.
> Then what?
> How did milk get turned (or should I say churned) into butter?
>

"Carolyn LeCrone" > wrote in message
. ..
> Eons ago, as I child, our class visited a colonial farm where the "top of
> the milk" was put into a churn which was activated by a plunger which we a
> plunged. We had the butter on crackers, the resulting whey was fed to the
> hogs.
> I just read a fictional account of life in Chile in the 1850's. The cook
> tied the milk in skins and gave it to the servant who was driving mules
down
> a mountain and back up. When he returned from his journey, he had butter.
> "Bryan" > wrote in message
> . com...
> > What was the recipe for making butter on the farm?
> > Milk a cow.
> > Then what?
> > How did milk get turned (or should I say churned) into butter?
> >
>
>
The "top of the milk" is called cream.
Purchase some cream and place it in a glass jar and shake it nonstop for
about 20 min. taking turns if you have some friends over. The result is
sweet cream butter, add a little salt for salted butter so it keeps longer
without spoilage.
A butter churn is a plunger with holes in it with an attached handle that
fits in a barrel and a lid is slipped over the handle and fixed to the
barrel. The handle is pulled up and down moving the milk through the holes
in the plunger. The milk solids ie: butter usually stick to the plunger
when it's pulled out.
The by-product is called butter milk which you could feed to the hogs,
however it's also used to make butter milk biscuits, butter milk pancakes,
in coating on fried vegtables such as okra, in salad dressings, since it's
slightly acidic it's used to marinate chicken before coating and frying, and
a whole host of other applications including drinking a frosty cold glass of
butter milk. Although butter milk tastes similar to clabbered milk they are
not the same thing, butter milk is not spoiled milk. It's a good idea to
avoid making clabbered milk unless you know what your doing. Clabbered milk
is milk that is intentionally left unrefrigerated to spoil. My grandmother,
who practically raised me, used to make and drink clabbered milk all the
time, however I never could get used to the thought of drinking spoiled milk
and never liked it.

"Bryan" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Muddle" > wrote in message
> om...
>> "Carolyn LeCrone" > wrote in message
>> . ..
>>> Eons ago, as I child, our class visited a colonial farm where the "top
>>> of
>>> the milk" was put into a churn which was activated by a plunger which we
>>> a
>>> plunged. We had the butter on crackers, the resulting whey was fed to
>>> the
>>> hogs.
>>> I just read a fictional account of life in Chile in the 1850's. The
>>> cook
>>> tied the milk in skins and gave it to the servant who was driving mules
>> down
>>> a mountain and back up. When he returned from his journey, he had
>>> butter.
>>> "Bryan" > wrote in message
>>> . com...
>>> > What was the recipe for making butter on the farm?
>>> > Milk a cow.
>>> > Then what?
>>> > How did milk get turned (or should I say churned) into butter?
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>> The "top of the milk" is called cream.
>> Purchase some cream and place it in a glass jar and shake it nonstop for
>> about 20 min. taking turns if you have some friends over. The result is
>> sweet cream butter, add a little salt for salted butter so it keeps
>> longer
>> without spoilage.
>> A butter churn is a plunger with holes in it with an attached handle that
>> fits in a barrel and a lid is slipped over the handle and fixed to the
>> barrel. The handle is pulled up and down moving the milk through the
>> holes
>> in the plunger. The milk solids ie: butter usually stick to the plunger
>> when it's pulled out.
>> The by-product is called butter milk which you could feed to the hogs,
>> however it's also used to make butter milk biscuits, butter milk
>> pancakes,
>> in coating on fried vegtables such as okra, in salad dressings, since
>> it's
>> slightly acidic it's used to marinate chicken before coating and frying,
>> and
>> a whole host of other applications including drinking a frosty cold glass
>> of
>> butter milk. Although butter milk tastes similar to clabbered milk they
>> are
>> not the same thing, butter milk is not spoiled milk. It's a good idea to
>> avoid making clabbered milk unless you know what your doing. Clabbered
>> milk
>> is milk that is intentionally left unrefrigerated to spoil. My
>> grandmother,
>> who practically raised me, used to make and drink clabbered milk all the
>> time, however I never could get used to the thought of drinking spoiled
>> milk
>> and never liked it.
>>
>>
>
> So that's it, butter is cream shaken until it turns into butter. I think
> I'll try the experiment; sounds like fun. Thank you.

It takes some time to get it to turn to butter, then you have to seperate
it out and get all the buttermilk out of the butter by squeezing it in a
couple of layers of cheese cloth, you then have to work in just enough salt
to make it taste good but not too salty, then put it in a mold and chill.
Its a lot easier to just run to the store and pick up a pound and keep
trying till you find one brand you really like..

My wife buys two pints of cream, puts it in a quart jar, and lets it set on
the cabinet over night. She smells it and if it smells sour it is ready for
the next step. If not she lets it set a few more hours until it does. Then
she shakes it until it forms butter and butter milk.

Dairies put the milk in a separator to remove the cream from the milk. I
don't remember how it works, but I believe it is a centrifugal force type
action that causes the cream to come out. I could be wrong on that point.

If you need more information, contact me and I will get her in on the
discussion.

Dwayne

"Bryan" > wrote in message
. com...
> What was the recipe for making butter on the farm?
> Milk a cow.
> Then what?
> How did milk get turned (or should I say churned) into butter?
>

Muddle wrote:
> A butter churn is a plunger with holes in it with an attached handle that
> fits in a barrel and a lid is slipped over the handle and fixed to the
> barrel. The handle is pulled up and down moving the milk through the holes
> in the plunger. The milk solids ie: butter usually stick to the plunger
> when it's pulled out.

Butter churns with plungers were a lot of hard work and were only useful
for small quantities.
Churns came in many designs; my favorite to use when I was a kid was a
10 gal. barrel mounted horizontally in a cradle, a handle on the end to
turn it with. It had baffles inside the barrel and would make about ten
pounds of butter in one batch.
Regards
Lee in Toronto

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You may want to make sure when buying the cream, do not purchase the
"ultrapasterized". I believe it will go quicker if you get the regular
cream.

"Bryan" > wrote in message
. com...
What was the recipe for making butter on the farm?
Milk a cow.
Then what?
How did milk get turned (or should I say churned) into butter?

Interesting question :
When I was a kid (1930's &early 40's) living on a farm, churning butter was
usually my job. I hated it !!! It was boring to sit with that darn churn
between your legs and move the plunger handle (about the size of a broom
stick) up & down for an eternity. We made about three pounds a week, and I
hated every lousy minute of that job.
Heck, I'd even rather milk the cows then churn butter.
During the war (WW2), butter was virtually not available, and it took meat
stamps because of war rationing. So the butter we made was welcome. Most
people bought margerine, which was white like lard. A small evnvelope of
yellow dye came with it, and they mixed the dye into the white lard like
stuff.

Bob wrote:
> "Bryan" > wrote in message
> . com...
> What was the recipe for making butter on the farm?
> Milk a cow.
> Then what?
> How did milk get turned (or should I say churned) into butter?
>
> Interesting question :
> When I was a kid (1930's &early 40's) living on a farm, churning butter was
> usually my job. I hated it !!! It was boring to sit with that darn churn
> between your legs and move the plunger handle (about the size of a broom
> stick) up & down for an eternity. We made about three pounds a week, and I
> hated every lousy minute of that job.
> Heck, I'd even rather milk the cows then churn butter.
> During the war (WW2), butter was virtually not available, and it took meat
> stamps because of war rationing. So the butter we made was welcome. Most
> people bought margerine, which was white like lard. A small evnvelope of
> yellow dye came with it, and they mixed the dye into the white lard like
> stuff.

To answer the OP's question, the cream was separated from the milk and
was sloshed around in a container until the fat globules started
clumping together. There were many variations on churns, with the one
described above being the most simplistic.

When I was a kid on the farm, our main churn was a large wooden barrel,
mounted horizontally in a stand with a crank on the end to turn it.
Instead of a bung, it had a hinged door that you poured the cream in and
removed the butter from. Once it was rotating, it had a treadle that
could be worked to leave your hands free for other things. i.e. knit,
read, sew, nurse the baby, peel potatoes, etc.

Regards
Lee in Toronto

My children used to love taking sweet cream, usually bought to make
whipped cream for strawberry shortcake, put it into a jar, screw on
the top, and sit watching TV while they gently shook the jar from side
to side. Then they each had their own little pats of butter.

On Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:50:46 -0600, "Bob" >
wrote:

>
>"Bryan" > wrote in message
.com...
>What was the recipe for making butter on the farm?
>Milk a cow.
>Then what?
>How did milk get turned (or should I say churned) into butter?
>
>Interesting question :
>When I was a kid (1930's &early 40's) living on a farm, churning butter was
>usually my job. I hated it !!! It was boring to sit with that darn churn
>between your legs and move the plunger handle (about the size of a broom
>stick) up & down for an eternity. We made about three pounds a week, and I
>hated every lousy minute of that job.
>Heck, I'd even rather milk the cows then churn butter.
>During the war (WW2), butter was virtually not available, and it took meat
>stamps because of war rationing. So the butter we made was welcome. Most
>people bought margerine, which was white like lard. A small evnvelope of
>yellow dye came with it, and they mixed the dye into the white lard like
>stuff.
>
>
>
>