How to Make a Butter Churner

Antique churners consist of a vessel and a dasher.

Simple agitation separates cream into butter and buttermilk, so you can turn any household vessel into a butter churner. Provide sufficient agitation to separate the butter by using an electric mixer or shaking a jar with a lid by hand. If you want to create a replica of an antique butter churner, again you may use common household objects: a coffee can and small pieces of wood function as the vessel and the dasher. Does this Spark an idea?

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Cream
Glass jar with lid
Bowl
Electric mixer
Coffee can with lid
Children's Plastic Construction Set

Instructions

Functional Churner
- 1
  
  Clean and sterilize the vessel -- such as a bowl or glass jar -- with boiling water. Cool the vessel down with ice water until chilled.
- 2
  
  Pour cream into the vessel. If you are using a bowl, agitate the cream with electric beaters. If you are using a jar, close the lid and shake it.
- 3
  
  Agitate or shake the cream until lumps of butter form. This may take from 10 to 20 minutes. Pour off the buttermilk and rinse the butter clumps with water. Form the butter into one mass and chill it in the refrigerator to set it.
Functional Churner with Antique Shape
- 4
  
  Create the vessel by rinsing and drying an empty coffee can. Cut a small hole in the center of the lid.
- 5
  
  Gather materials for the dasher by removing one long dowel, a wheel and eight short, 1-inch dowels from a children's set of wood or plastic construction toys. Fit the short dowels around the edge of the wheel and fix the long dowel into the center of the wheel.
- 6
  
  Remove the lid from the vessel and slip the dasher through the lid.
- 7
  
  Sanitize the imitation churner with boiling water and then chill it with ice water. Add cream to the chilled churner, close the lid and move the dasher up and down till clumps of butter separate from the cream.
- 8
  
  Rinse the butter with clean water. Form the butter into a single patty and chill in the refrigerator to set.