In the mid-80s a bunch of us toured an Amish farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, They gave a butter-churning demonstration, and while doing that told us about how during a traditional Amish funeral, the deceased’s family members were responsible for putting the “wake-clothing” on the dearly departed.

I looked over at my brother-in-law, who mouthed the words “I’m not dressing you….”

I mouthed back…..“Yes, you are….”

What does this have to do with butter-churning ??......

Well…....nothing. But I thought it might spice-up a thread about…..you know…....butter-churning…...

I’ve made it several times with a churn like this one.

I’ve done it several ways. I think we used the churn once at a pioneer village field trip. These days, we just shake it. The kitchenaid never really worked out like we hoped, but I think a good food processor could work. The big wood kind is only for people with cows, and needs a lot of cream and a lot of clean up. The product isn’t any different.

If you want butter as delicious as from the little house, you’re going to need a high quality, grass fed cream. The color of the final product should be stunningly yellow.

I think there’s an ideal temperature, I’m guessing around 50F. Room temp is probably too warm. I’ve experimented with culturing the cream for a day as well, but it will work right out of the fridge. How long will it take? Depends how hard you do it! It’s all about how much agitation can you get on the cream. Usually 10 minutes of hard shaking or less.