Kid-Friendly Holiday Activity: Make Your Own Homemade Butter!
December 22, 2009 in Appetizers, Frugal Tips
Want to start a fun new holiday meal tradition and keep the kids occupied whilst you slave in the kitchen? Try this fun and super easy way to make your own homemade butter for the holidays! My kids LOVED to do this when they were little!
It’s too easy to even call it a recipe, but here goes:
Pour some very cold heavy cream into a jar (plastic is a good idea if small kids will be helping). Add a pinch of salt. Put the lid on the jar and then tape it closed with duct tape or heavy mailing tape. Use several thicknesses, just to be sure. Then hand the jar to your kids (willing adults will work, too!) and let them shake, roll and otherwise agitate it for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on how much and how frequently you shake the jar.
Then, open the jar and pour off the liquid – hey! I think this is the real “buttermilk, no?. Scoop out the ball of butter that has formed and Voila! Homemade butter!
– posted by Donna
I just love it! Can’t wait for Lily to learn to do this.
LOVE the vid. Keep ‘em comin’.
So great to have a high-tech helper like Neil!
So simple and fun! The kids would love this and I would love eating it.
Karly – I love the idea of having kids know how foods are created. Having them involved in cooking is such a bonding experience for all – grownups and kids alike. They will be so proud of themselves for making this. Happy New Year to you and yours!
How would you go about shaping the butter after it’s been made? I’m assuming maybe you stick it in a some sort of container, and then you might have to melt it a little bit to get it out.
You can just serve it in a small bowl as is – you don’t have to chill it until it’s hard.
I suppose you could try and make it into a log, but . . . that sounds too hard!
This month’s issue of “Organic Gardening” magazine shows a way to make butter without wrecking your biceps – you just go at it with an electric mixer! I scored a bunch of raw milk yesterday and this evening I’m skimming off the cream and making butter out of it with the electric hand mixer. I’ve made it before the other way with honey and herbs and such mixed in, so I’m very excited about this easier electric way!
that was so interesting. i had no idea that you can make butter like this. awesome!! love it!