Making Butter

I asked Hannah about her kindergarten screening the other day, and she could not remember most of the questions.

"Oh, I know!" she exclaimed. "She asked me what french fries are made out of, but I didn't know, but then she told me it's potatoes!"

"Hmmmm," I thought, "perhaps my kids need to know a little more about where their food comes from... other than the grocery store!"

Josh is out on Wednesday nights, so I often look for activities to reign in some of the wildness that bubbles out of the kids in the evenings. As they began to bounce around the living room, I announced, "I'm making butter! Who wants to help?" Instantly, three kids hopped up and down at my side, yelling, "Me! Me! Me!"

I grabbed a glass jar and poured about a cup of heavy whipping cream into it. Then, sealing it tightly, I handed it to Hannah. "Here, shake this!" As she gently wiggled it back and forth, I laughed, "No, like this," and I grasped her hands and the jar together and shook as hard as I could. Giggling loudly, she began jumping and shaking all over the living room.

After a minute or two, she handed the jar to Ben, and he took a turn.

Then, Becca shook the jar for a while.

As the cream became stiffer, the kids passed the jar to each other more frequently. Soon, I opened the jar and showed the kids how the cream had become whipped cream.

Of course, everyone needed a taste!

Eventually, I did most of the work, as the whipped cream was much harder to shake. The kids and I sat on opposite sides of the room and rolled the jar back and forth. The cream became thicker and thicker, until suddenly it separated into a solid clump of butter surrounded by buttermilk.

I removed the butter from the liquid and pressed the remaining liquid out into the sink, shaping the butter into a pretty pale yellow lump.

With the kids circling my legs, I grabbed a couple slices of bread and spread the fresh butter on each slice.

The kids loved the taste of the creamy, slightly sweet-tasting butter on the bread.

I explained to the kids that the cream had fat in it, like tiny floating balls of play dough. As they shook the cream, the little balls of fat stuck together, like balls of play dough would, until eventually they formed one big ball.

Hannah finished the evening by writing a beautiful journal entry about making butter. In case you can't read it, it says (with the spelling corrected), "We once made butter. We took a can and poured some milk in the can. We shook it. It turned into whipped cream and then butter. We had toast."