Making Butter

Nicholas and I (and Megan of course!) have been reading a series called My First Little House Books. They are based on the Little House Books by Laura Ingals Wilder but they are picture books which I like for two reasons: they aren't as long (important for young ones) and they are beautifully illustrated! We have been devouring these books! Last time at the library I ran across My First Little House Cookbook. Nice! In the cookbook, are many of the foods Laura writes about in her stories. The one thing I don't like about the book is the use of modern appliances where it isn't necessary, so today, when we decided to make butter I did it the way I've seen it done before:)

It is so simple! Put heavy whipping cream in a jar (I'm not sure how much we used-about a cup) add a few dashes of salt and shake!


You shake for a really long time! The kids just took turns, each shaking the jar until they got tired then passing it to the next. When it started thickening they got really excited, but we opened the jar and it was more like whipped cream than butter so we put the lid back on and shook some more! I think they shook for about 15 minutes or so then I took over. It was almost done. The recipe recommended cheesecloth which I didn't have so I just shook some and drained the liquid off then did it again til we had butter!
Of course we had to have some buttered toast to check out our hard work! Nicholas had his eaten before I could get a picture!

I can't wait to make homemade jam this spring!