Antique butter Churns

Many farms in the past and still a few in present days have a milk cow to provide the family Milk, cheese, butter and other dairy products. One of the better known product made is butter. This was done using a natural process to separate the fat component of the milk from the liquid. In this way milk quality is described by the butterfat content. This was determined by different factors such as breed of cow and nutrition.

The cow(s) were milked every morning and evening. After milking the milk was allowed to rest until the cream separated from the milk. Today Milk is referred to as skim, 1%, 2%, or 4 %. This refers to the butterfat content remaining in the milk. After the Milk and cream separated, the cream was poured off of the skim milk or run through a cream separator. The cream was allowed to sit at room temperature and start to sour naturally. This was a problem with early butter crafting in that that allowed infections to develop in the cream/butter due to air born bacteria and spores.

Experience told the butter-maker when the cream had soured to the proper point for making butter. When the cream was at that point it had to be agitated to separate the butter particles from the butter milk. This process was known as churning. The cream was poured into the butter churn. There were many types of churns ranging from mechanical to crock churns. While the cream was in the churn, it was agitated by either moving a paddle up and down, turning a crank or any one of various methods to supply the agitation. When there were small amounts of cream to churn, I remember my grandmother using a crock bowl and wooden spoon. She would stir and stir until the butter formed. As the churning continued, small particles of butter would begin to appear in the liquid. With more and more agitation, most of the fat formed together to make the finished butter. If salt was needed it could be added at this time. It could also be added at the beginning of the churning process.

The butter was now pressed into a Butter Mold. This had two benefits. One was a volumetric measurement of a pound of butter. When the mold was level full, this was a pound of butter which could be sold for extra cash during times when there was more than could be used. In the same way, when the cow was “dry” and not producing milk, butter had to be purchased from other farmers or at the local store. The other benefit of using the butter mold was to make a pleasing shape form which often times had design or some pattern on the top.

The butter making process was a method of survival for many farm families. It took a certain skill that was passed on from generation to generation. Anyone having an antique butter churn can own a link in to this interesting piece of early Americana.