SC -Making Butter in Period

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Hiya from Anne-Marie
we are asked:
>How was butter made in period?  I would like to have a childrens
> activity of making butter at the upcoming A&S.  I made butter at my
> grandma's knee in a pickle jar.  Shook that thing for a long time.

we have pictures of women standing at large wooden churns, (15-16th
century) and we have pictures of men in Scappis woodcuts, in a kitchen,
making "miel dulce", again standing at a large wooden churn. May describes
the role of the dairy, but doesnt mention butter making that I recall
(mostly being concerned with cheese). Le Menagier cautions that if one buys
milk from the milk maid, to be sure that she has not diluted it with water,
for that makes it go bad faster. Chiquart mentions buying cheese and other
dairy products, not producing them himself.

>From this, i assume that dairying was done, for the most part, in larger
urban households by dairy oriented people. the pictures show butter being
made the same way it was for generations, in large standing wooden churns
(no doubt coopered). I have yet to find a real, functional wooden butter
churn, but have seen ceramic ones that LOOKed like wood, if you can justify
going that way. Alternately, in my food and eating classes, I'll often do
the jar method jsut so they can do it while I lecture and then eat it on
fresh baked bread. yum!

If anyone knows of a source for REAL functional butter churns (most
homesteaders use the eggbeater ones nowadays, or at least that's what WE
had when I was a kid), let me know!
- --AM
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