Mini Butter Churn ?

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I understand the basic process of making butter, so anyone should be able to do it if they have a churn. Does anyone know if a mini butter churn exists, something you could put a pint of milk or so into and work a crank or something and put out a small amount of butter?.

Seems like SOMEBODY must have done something like this by now.

Would love to have fresh butter on demand in small quantities.

-- Fat Tony (FatTony@youmammashouse.com), August 10, 1999

Answers

Can't help you with churns, but actually you don't absolutely even need that.

When I was a kid (60s)---(thats 1960s), we had a milk holding action and made butter from the cream in covered quart canniong jars. Basically you just shake it a lot, altough some had a better talent for making it than others.

It came out soft, but little difference from "the real stuff" in stores.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), August 10, 1999.


Tony- Use cream, not milk (I'm sure you realized that). A quart canning jar with a good lid works okay, just shake it up good, using a cup or so of cream. You could probably use a half-gallon canning jar with a pint of cream. It works well- our church always has a big potluck dinner before thanksgiving, and the younger kids make the butter for the meal using this method with mostly pint jars.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), August 10, 1999.

Yes, I remember seeing them sold Tony; Lehmans Catalog maybe? As I recall, they fit on a quart jar, maybe a half gallon, and sort of like an egg beater with paddles.

A long time ago, I made butter, but didn't stick with it. I have only attempted it once recently, you understand, but this is the way I did it w/o alot of "equipment". Since I don't have a cream separator, I just set the milk (goats) out overnight in as many shallow pans as I have (this is the reason I never got into it much before, didn't have enough pans, nor counter room for them) by morning, the cream had came to the surface. I skimmed that off with a slotted spoon, for the milk to run back out. Then put it into pint jars, and handed it to the family to shake till they couldn't take it anymore. :-)

I hung the "butter" in linen cloth over the kitchen sink to see if any more milk ran out, hardly any did. Put it in the refridgerator to cool and later checked it. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I had created butter or sour cream! So we had baked potatoes for supper since either was ok there! :-)

Perhaps this hot weather we are having was the difference between butter and sour cream? When we did this before, seems like we ended up with butter. Perhaps I left something out this time or the weather was cooler? Either way it was tasty, not too strong if sour cream, but it didn't exactly taste like store butter either? I didn't salt it. LOL, anyone know what I made?

Incidentally, I used three part quarts of milk, in the pans, and ended up with a approx.little over 1/2 cup of "butter". Sorry can't be more exact on measures, I cook that way too; might as well throw my measuring cups out the window.

-- Lilly (homesteader145@yahoo.com), August 10, 1999.


No mini churn is needed.

Pour into a canning jar. Secure the lid. Shake until done.

-- walt (longyear@shentel.net), August 10, 1999.


This may be a dumb question, but why does this result in butter instead of whipped cream? Is is a temperature thing?

-- Mark (a@b.com), August 10, 1999.


Whipped vs shaken.

-- It's (all@the.wrist), August 10, 1999.

If you whip cream (pure cream, without gelatine or agar) for too long it starts turning to butter. The difference is when the little fat globules start getting squeezed together and the moisture (buttermilk) that was holding them in suspension starts getting squeezed out.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), August 11, 1999.

Tony, Lehman's sells butter churns, both the old fashioned wooden kind & a crank handle type with a glass jar. The smallest wooden one is $52 and the glass is $129. Certainly shaking milk in a mason jar is more economical! They give the following recipe for 'sweet cream butter'--"churn heavy cream until buttermilk can be poured off (about 15 minutes). Knead with butter paddle to force out additional buttermilk. Add ice cold water and repeat unitl water pours off clear. Add coarse salt or butter color if desired then chill". They also offer a sour-cream starter.....You can reach Lehmann's website at www.lehmans.com.

-- Deb (deb@needhelp.com), August 11, 1999.

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