Thinking about churning your own butter at home? We know you are! Here’s a look into how they made their butter in the 19th and early 20th centuries
Supplies: (1) cow for milking, (1) pail, (1) setting dish, (1) cream skimmer, (1) butter churn (any style)
Step 1
Get Your Milk
Milk your cow into a pail, then transfer into a shallow setting dish. Let sit to allow the cream to separate and rise to the top. This may take about a half a day.
Step 2
Skim the Cream
Skim the cream from the surface of the milk using a cream skimmer. You’ll want to keep the cream in a cool place, such as a nice 19th century icebox (as pictured below) or an underground cellar, for it may take several days of repeating step 1 to render enough cream to make the next few steps worth the work.
Step 3
Pick Your Churn
Once you have a good amount of cream, pour it into your desired style of butter churn (pictured below is a ‘barrel’ style)
Step 4
The Hard Part
Churn and churn until your arms burn! About half an hour.
Then your butter is ready! Enjoy! Everything is better with a little bit of butter. You could store some in an ice box (pictured above) if you happened to have one.
**This is a general description of the process of 19th cent. style butter-making for entertainment purposes only. We encourage further research if attempting to make butter yourself.**
Come see this and many other artifacts from Boerne’s past here at the Kuhlman-King historical complex. We are open every second Saturday or contact us to set up a private tour.
BAHPS 