Over the month of January, I was blessed to teach a course all about food. From the biology of how plants & crops grow, how we harvest & transport, how we process, package & advertise our food, and finally, how we prepare food in our own kitchen.
Sound like fun?
It was.
One of the things we did during the course was make butter.
I had never made butter before, and I thought it would be fun to do alongside a class period that looked at historical approaches to cooking and preparing food.
Before class, I prepared a small quart jar by washing it well and sterilizing it in warm water. Then, I added 1 C whipping cream and a dash of salt.
I closed the lid, and brought it into my classroom.
The students passed it around the room, each giving it a shake for a few moments before passing it along to their peers. After about 20 minutes, we had butter!
Then, I used the butter the next day to make them breakfast. They really enjoyed that.
Butter
Materials
- 1 C whipping cream
- salt, optional
- Glass canning jar, or a jar with a tight lid
Directions
Pour the cold whipping cream into a glass canning jar that is cleaned and sterilized. Sprinkle in a dash of salt. Seal tightly.
Shake.
Shake.
Shake.
You’ll need to shake for about 20 minutes until the cream solidifies.
When you have a solid, decant the liquid (that’s buttermilk… use that for pancakes!) and if desired, shape the butter into a stick. Alternatively, you can keep it in the jar you made it in.
Use as you would with store-purchased butter.
Enjoy!
This post is linked to: Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday
That is awesome! Now I know what to do if I ever run out of butter!
ReplyDeleteThis is so great! :) Thanks for sharing this with us...I'm so curious to try it myself now!
ReplyDeleteHaven't made butter since I was a kid at grandma's house. I'll have to give it a try.
ReplyDeletePINNED! Can't wait to try this! Come share at my link party, PLEASE! http://www.dwellonjoy.com/2012/02/dwell-on-fridays-five.html
ReplyDeleteLove this, Next time my kids use the words "I'm bored, I'm going to hand them a jar with cream and salt in it!
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing better then freshly made butter. So delicious!
ReplyDeletewww.seekinghisgrace.com
I've been wanting to try this for some time. The end result looks really good! Thanks for sharing at Kitchen Tip Tuesday today!
ReplyDeleteWilla
www.armstrongfamilyfare.com
I used to do this with my pre-school classes, before I retired. I used baby food jars. Then we'd eat the final product, sweet creamy butter, on crackers. The kids loved it, but never had a class not ask why it wasn't yellow... so sad.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we did this somewhere through school, but I don't remember exactly when. That's fun that you were able to do it for class. It's always amazing how simple things can be to make at home.
ReplyDeleteCan you still bake with this as usual? Can it be frozen?
ReplyDelete@wizzo81 -
ReplyDeleteI have used it to bake -- it doesn't melt in the microwave very easily, but gets nice and soft if you let it come to room temperature. I would guess it would freeze well too, but I honestly haven't tried it. Let me know if you do!
Homemade butter freezes fine. We tried the jar method once and everyone got tired of shaking. Nowadays, I'm lazy; I put my cream in the blender on med for 10-15 minutes. Works great!
ReplyDeletei'm so doing this. and now all that leftover whipping cream in the fridge that's just waiting to be whipped but i can't seem to use it all up before it's expiry date will get used! love it!
ReplyDeleteI did this today & it did make the butter - amazing! However, there wasn't really much liquid to remove, & the butter was pretty soft - definitely wouldn't have been able to "shape" the butter into a stick as you suggested. I shook for nearly 20 minutes. Do you think I needed to go longer, or does my result sound OK to you? It tastes OK - definitely creamy, but I need to add more salt next time - I barely put any in.
ReplyDelete