We are learning about homesteading and self sufficiency right now, so we are making lots of fun things at home. Butter is a staple at our house (along with EVOO and honey) and since it is so easy to make and fun to shake together, that is a perfect activity for T. We started with a recycled apple sauce jar with a tight fitting lid, and a small container of regular whipping cream. (Normally we would use organic, but I wasn't sure how much of this would actually end up in the container.)
Surprise! T didn't spill a drop and loved pouring from the small container. Now it is time to shake. You can add a sterilized glass marble to help with the agitation, but we still put everything in our mouth, therefore we don't own glass marbles :) Now, shake it up!
Once you have shaken it until it goes from liquid to cream to liquid and solid, you are ready to take it out!
There are a couple additional steps if you are making good butter in a family size quantity: Reserve the buttermilk for scones, cornbread, or drinking. Put the fresh butter into a bowl and run cold water over it until the liquid in the bowl is clear. Then put the butter on a flat surface like a cutting board and use a potato masher or pastry spatula to knead the butter until no liquid come out of it. Put it into a butter crock to leave out or into a covered container in the fridge. Enjoy!
We are learning to use napkins and "big boy" utensils so T got his toddler table knife, butter drizzled with agave, and his favorite graham cracker cookies from Archer Farms and went to town!
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| He's such a big boy! He did a great job spreading his butter! |
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| I like this, mommy! |
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| Butter mustaches are in style, no? |
The final product (after following the steps above for the butter).
Cool fact: Grass fed cattle produce white milk and cream, but yellow butter. Because there is beta carotene (the stuff that makes carrots orange) in grass and it sticks to the fat molecules in the cream, when the butter is separated from the buttermilk it is naturally a beautiful shade of yellow.
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