Every once in a while I'll use a recipe that calls for whipping cream, but I always end up throwing away the leftovers. I doubt I'll ever do that again! I stumbled across this blog Live, Learn, Love and my kids and I learned how to make our own butter. I definitely had my doubts on how it would taste, but it got such rave reviews by my kids, we ended up making another batch the next day.
Supplies:
-Jar or small container (we used a baby food jar)
-Whipping cream
-Salt
-Marble (this is not necessary)
Directions:
Clean your baby food jar, then fill with whipping cream 1/3 of the way full. As you can see in the photo above, I added a marble to the jar. However, my daughter shook it too vigorously and her marble ended up puncturing a hole through the glass, causing a big mess. After speaking to a few people, they told me they've never made butter using a marble, so we omitted this the next day when we made some more. It only added a few more minutes to the process, and definitely omitted the nervousness I had of the glass breaking again.
Add a pinch of salt. You can omit this step if you want unsalted butter.
Put the lid on securely and start shaking away.
And shake some more...until you get really tired and then have mom take over. =) It took a good 10-15 minutes of shaking.
Drain the whey, put the lid back on and shake it a few more times to make sure you've gotten all the whey out.
The kids loved it! I decided to look up how to make honey butter, and added a tiny bit of honey, cinnamon and vanilla to the butter. Delicious!!
You can also use a larger jar and have the kids roll the jar back and forth on the floor. We did it that way in girl scouts!!
ReplyDeleteI love that you used a baby food jar so each child could have their own to shake. That's awesome!
ReplyDeleteThe kids and I make this often, and I have found that if you leave the UNopened whipping cream on the counter for a couple of hours to get to room temperature or close to it, you will be able to shake it into butter in about 5-7 minutes. As long as you monitor the whipping cream container and don't forget about it, it won't spoil as it gets to room temp. You can also pull just a little bit more cream out of the whey when it's at room temp also...you'll see that the whey is a bit more "fat-free" when you drain it. Also you can add a teeny bit of butter flavoring, garlic/onion powder, or cinnamon before shaking. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing that tip Dejah! I thought the whipping cream had to be cold in order to make it. Glad to know there is a faster way! =)
DeleteWe did this in first grade. Put it in a large mason jar. Shook it around the circle over and over until it was complete. It was part of our thanksgiving celebration, so amazing. One of my favorite memories of elementary school. <3 Thanks for posting this! I have been looking to see what we might have put in it back then, it has been so long, haha. Certainly something I'll be doing again in the years to come.
ReplyDeleteDoes it have to be a glass jar, or can you use plastic??
ReplyDeleteThought this might be a good idea to do with some of my more tactile students, but not sure about the jar breaking!!
Great activity!
Lauren
I'm sure plastic will be just fine. I would have preferred to use that...much safer! ;-)
DeleteI never thought to do this, when we were kids we shook gallon jugs of fresh cows milk and made butter for granny. I think i will do this in hopes it tastes like grannys butter. The butter i buy seems greasy today compared to it before oleo was invented.
ReplyDelete