Easy Homemade Butter

Fun for all ages
Time: 15 minutes
Materials:

• small jar with a lid
• heavy or whipping cream
• salt (optional)

Before butter was available in grocery stores many families, especially those living on farms, made their own butter at home. In order to make butter from cow’s milk, they would let it sit until the cream in the milk separated and rose to the top. Then they would skim the cream off and put it inside a butter churn where a plunger would be used to churn the butter until it solidified into butter.

This simple activity shows how to make butter from cream without needing a butter churn.

Step 1: Fill the jar with as much cream as you’d like to make into butter.

Step 2: Season the cream with salt (optional).

Step 3: Seal the jar.

Step 4: Shake the jar. Don’t stop! It will take about 15 minutes before the cream begins to solidify into butter.

Step 5: Try your homemade butter on bread or use it to cook food!

Back to Learning at Home