Churning Butter

A bit of butter a couple years in the makin'.

For the past couple years, I've been on the lookout for a butter churn.

I realize they can be purchased new,

but between the price and the uncertainty of quality

I just couldn't bring myself to pay the price.

A couple weeks ago,

I attended a "Love of Junk" event with my mother-in-law.

I found one there, but the gears were wobbly.

They were asking shy of $100 for it.

My MIL asked if they could do any better on the price.

She said she could let it go for $75.

We thanked her and said we would think about it then didn't return.

I would have had to work on it in order to make it work.

Well, God has a peculiar way of making himself seen.

As I was looking for something on Craigslist for Mr.LB,

I thought, "This is silly.  I should look for something on my list too."

I pulled up "butter churn," and there it was ~ better actually.

I replied and gave the seller my phone number, then waited.

The next day I got that call.

I was over the moon excited.

Not only was there an electric butter churn, there was also the hand crank top

which is what I was really after.

It was an older gentleman who was selling them,

and it was right on my way home from work.

(I live in Timbuktu so this is not the norm.)

He said he didn't have the glass for the hand crank one anymore,

but he just threw it in incase someone wanted it.

I stopped by on my way home from work and picked it up.

We didn't really chat much, but in our exchange,

he said, "Oh you want to use it, not just for decoration?"

Oh yea!

Both are in perfect working order.

This morning on my way to work, I will drop off 

some homemade butter and buttermilk as a thank you.

I hadn't made butter since I was in high school.

So yesterday, I began with the electric one.

Here's the run down~

Pour cream into jar 1/2 - 1/3 full.

Plug it in :-)

Watch as it turns from cream to whipped cream.

My mom says it's really hard to get it past this stage.

She would eat a whole bowl of homemade whipped cream if she could.

Then after a bit, the fats separate from the liquids.

This part happens relatively quickly.

Once the butter and the buttermilk parted ways,

I set a colander in a bowl and dumped.

Then I poured the buttermilk into a mason jar and the butter into the bowl

to be rinsed.

Growing up, my mom either didn't rinse at all or not enough and there would be

little pearls of sour buttermilk in the butter so I never liked butter.

She liked it that way.

I rinsed it well, ate some with dinner last night - delicious!

I started out with two quarts of cream and ended up with 

about a quart of buttermilk and a quart of butter.

The one thing I had forgotten to do was to leave the cream sitting out 

for about an hour prior to churning it.

It will churn faster if closer to room temperature.