Shake, Shake Shake...Shake Your Butter

Oliver and I decided we'd make some butter after reading Snipp, Snapp, Snurr and the Buttered Bread yesterday morning. He was curious about the churn and the process so I went with it. I know Oliver well enough to know that he wouldn't eat it even after we made it so I wasn't worried about his milk allergy.

I have fond childhood memories of making butter in baby food jars. We ate it on saltines and it was delicious. Perhaps I just had a lot more energy when I was a kid but I learned today that the butter-making process is slightly more complex when making more than a tablespoon or so. It is tiring work!O was growing weary and ready for lunch so I decided we'd wait until after naps to finish making the butter. It was pretty much just whipped cream when I put some on Truett's bread:
Oliver ate his bread plain after politely declining the whipped cream butter.I told O that the butter wasn't finished so we still needed to shake the jar. He tried. So hard. To stay awake. And complete his task.Butter-making is hard work. He was out. Snoring. Hilarious. I thought I might wake him up with my laughter.

I finally transferred him to his bed without a hitch. When he woke up we put the whipped cream into the food processor and agreed that this was much more efficient way to make butter.

We still weren't finished, though. I did my research and learned that if you leave the buttermilk in the butter it will quickly go rancid, so you have to "wash" the butter. You do so by pressing out the buttermilk with a wooden spoon, putting it back in the food processor and adding water to rinse it, pressing out the liquids and then repeating over and over until the water is clean. We still had several rinses to go when I took this picture:
We certainly had fun but learned that it is much easier to buy butter at the grocery store.

Chrys