How to make butter in a jar: fun kids project too

Here's one you can do with the kids and it really does taste better than store bought..

First let me say survivalists do not live on bugs and grass alone.. Often the real art of survival is simply knowing how to make things, other people buy at the store ... Milk butter cheese are staples of most homesteaders... goats milk cows sheep, once upon a time, my wife used her own breast milk for various recipes, including butter... let me tell ya, human milk is way better for you that cows milk will ever be...

anyway to get back on task... when you harvest your milk from whatever source you chose... the cream will rise to the top... that's what you skim off to make butter and butter milk from... for that all you need is a jar and the patients of a saint because your about to do a whole lot of shaking....

To practice this at home you don't need to go milk a cow... your grocer will be glad to sell you one pint of heavy cream which for the purpose of this lesson and practice I suggest you buy and try...

Now while you really only need cream and jar with a tight fitting lid I do want to say when I make this at home it's mostly a kids project so we like to add other things like spices or once we add sugar and cinnamon... the point is you can be very creative with butter... who knows might be a side job business there for ya as long as your arms don't fall off from all the shaking... A word of note... in a real SHTF without refrigeration butter will spoil pretty quickly unless you ad salt, then it can keep for a week or longer... Now I have a touch of high blood pressure so I never add salt to mine and only make enough that it's all used up within a day or two... if you want to store a dairy product longer you need to make cheese but that is a different lesson

Does anyone really need me to say, pour the cream in the jar fasten the lid and shake, shake, shake until your sure it's not working but you shake some more and WOW you made butter... (Maybe 20 minutes or so) that's it, it's just that easy...There will still be liquid in the jar... pour that off and that is what we call butter milk, great for bread making.... I used to make a game out of it for the kids... have a race to see who made their butter first... plus they get to eat their project with some homemade fresh bread...

I've added a video and it's pretty much just what I said... but if you want to watch it before you try ...

Hey that's awesome! I'm going to try it tomorrow! Please post some other cool food tips like this, as I'd love to learn from them. You never know, right? And it helps to be prepared. For instance, how do you milk a cow? lol I'll have to Google that one!

Thanks again!

As a kid on the farm, All us kids would sit down in the living room in a circle and made a game out of kicking the jar back and forth. The first one to miss the jar 'lost'. Good family fun, and no tired arms! And fresh butter on fresh bread..... another word for heaven!!!!!

Edit to add: We put a broken-off spatula head in the jar to increase the 'agitation'. It really sped up the process.

reply to post by Montana


Marbles work good too... makes mixing faster...
but I was trying to keep it as simple as I could,,, beside we old timers cant give all our secrets away right?

I remember when I was a kid, we would sit around watching the Sunday night Walt Disney hour and passing around the jar to shake.

That butter was incredible!

SnF

Just to add... when I said I sometimes add spices to flavor...
i mean things like onion, garlic basil, I've even added that powdered chicken bouillon... stuff like that...

we've tried mixing in cinnamon when it's going to be used for sweet breads and deserts... not bad when you put a dollop of that in a hot toddy...

still it's pretty good just as good old fashion butter

Originally posted by DaddyBare
Just to add... when I said I sometimes add spices to flavor...
i mean things like onion, garlic basil, I've even added that powdered chicken bouillon... stuff like that...

we've tried mixing in cinnamon when it's going to be used for sweet breads and deserts... not bad when you put a dollop of that in a hot toddy...

still it's pretty good just as good old fashion butter

edit on 13-7-2011 by DaddyBare because: (no reason given)

Yup, My favorite was garlic and basil.

Home made bread and done!

reply to post by DaddyBare


I have a carton of the same brand of cream the woman uses in the video in my fridge. Kiddo's are in bed now, but it will give them something to do tomorrow.

This was a pleasant surprise...
When I was a kid...we made home made butter like this in 2nd grade.
That was a while ago...but it was something that stuck with me...a fond memory, you could say.

Think I might just start doing it again. For y'all that might want to use something more than just a large jar...

www.creativecookware.com...

a bit pricey for me...but it is kind of like the old churns from the '50's I remember with a beater...

Have fun.

S & F for you. Although, I have to admit you lost me at your wife's breastmilk and her recipies for such. Yeah, I'm a woman too and not typically scared off but that was a bit...much for me.

Anyway, love your insightful posts and thoughts/ideas. Keep 'em coming.

Excellent information! Thanks so much.

Question: could this work with any form of canned milk?

And, will you be teaching how to make cheese too?

Sounds like your house is a lot of fun!

I make my own butter all the time. I buy heavy whipping cream at the store and use my kitchen aid mixer to mix it for me. I get great tasting butter for much less and I get the buttermilk which is the liquid that is left over. I use cheesecloth to squeeze out the liquid/buttermilk. I like to add a little bit of salt to mine. You can freeze butter. I also freeze buttermilk in 1 cup portions. I buy the cream when it's on sale, make butter and freeze it. You all should give it a try sometime.

Originally posted by jude11
I remember when I was a kid, we would sit around watching the Sunday night Walt Disney hour and passing around the jar to shake.

That butter was incredible!

SnF

This statement is one of the best things that I have read in awhile.

reply to post by queenofsheba


back in the day my wife was kind of OCD about eating only organic foods...
I included the reference about breast milk just to point out that it can be used... when there in no other source available... Maybe not the best choice, as ladies dont make a lot of milk at one sitting... I'm guessing like 8 onces??? more or less... only a small percent of that is cream ... but enough of that ... you get the idea... when all else fails... it's an option... or if your OCD like my wife

reply to post by Copperflower


As for making Yellow (regular) Cheese that is a long involved process but if you all want yeah I'll do something... but for now...

Here's a quick easy way to make Farmers Cheese...

Ingredients
1 gallon whole milk
1 pinch salt
1 large lemon, juiced




Directions
1. Pour the milk into a large pot, and stir in a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pot.
2. When the milk begins to boil (small bubbles will first appear at the edges), turn off the heat. Stir lemon juice into the milk, and the milk will curdle. You may need to wait 5 or 10 minutes.
3. Line a sieve or colander with a cheesecloth, and pour the milk through the cloth to catch the curds. What is left in the cheesecloth is the Farmer's Cheese. The liquid is the whey. Some people keep the whey and drink it, but I throw it away. Gather the cloth around the cheese, and squeeze out as much of the whey as you can. Wrap in plastic, or place in an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator.

it's kind of bland so most folks add too... put hot pepper or black pepper into the milk before straining. This cheese is very flexible, so I'm thinking that you could put in jalapeno or toasted onion seeds... things that you like

reply to post by DaddyBare


Do you know how long its been since I heard Hot Toddy? I about fell down. You really are one of my favorites here. Thanks for the post brother.
Or should I say Daddy!

Originally posted by Montana
As a kid on the farm, All us kids would sit down in the living room in a circle and made a game out of kicking the jar back and forth. The first one to miss the jar 'lost'. Good family fun, and no tired arms! And fresh butter on fresh bread..... another word for heaven!!!!!

Edit to add: We put a broken-off spatula head in the jar to increase the 'agitation'. It really sped up the process.

edit on 7/13/2011 by Montana because: (no reason given)

We used to use an old fashion wooden clothes pin... the ones without the springs.

Thanks for sharing how to make butter and cheese...i'm gonna give it a whirl this weekend

Wonderful information! Thank you so much this looks like alot of fun for kids and adults im going to give this one a try tomorrow i love butter and the idea of haveing it on homemade fresh bread sounds outstanding!

here is a method for making rennet for making cheese from thistles

Vegetable Rennet. Yes, you can make this from various plants. It never acts as fast as regular rennet. At best it will curdle milk overnight. You can make veggie rennet from yellow (lady's) bedstraw, nettle, lemon or common sorrel, fumitory, unripe fig sap, or the giant purple thistle. Nettle and thistle are the best. All species of Compositae thistles have milk-curdling magic. It's best in giant, thorny kinds. Regular purple thistle will work. Globe artichoke is a Compositae thistle variety, and can be used also. Cardoon is another option.
To harvest thistle for rennet, gather the thistle flowers when they have turned brown. If you see thistledown, the plant is over-mature. Get it right after the end of bloom and before the stage where down blows away. Air dry the flowers. You can store them in jars to wait until needed for cheese-making.
To use your veggie rennet, a quick way is just to tie a bundle of thistle flowers together with string and leave it in the milk until it clabbers. But the more professional way is to pound and extract. You take out enough - 5 heaping t. of pounded dry herb will be needed per 1 gal. milk to be curdled. Pound in a mortar with your pestle until quite crushed. Then pour just a little warm water or whey over, just enough to cover. Let soak 5 minutes. Pound 5 minutes more. Repeat the soaking, and repeat pounding until you've pounded at least 4 times total. You should be seeing a dark (brown) fluid. Strain. Add the fluid to your milk. Be careful not to add too much of any veggie rennet herb because excess can, at best, be unpleasant-tasting for the cheese-eater at the end of the line, and at worst, actually cause indigestion.

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