SC -Making Butter in Period

[Phil & Susan Troy]

Deborah J Hammons wrote:

> For those of you who are stuck at home during Pennsic, I have a question.
>  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.

I recall having read (probably in C. Anne Wilson's "Food and Drink in Britain")
that butter was traditionally made in period Britain in wide bowls, with the
dairy maids leaving the night-time milk to cool and sour slightly overnight. In
the morning they would work the milk with their hands, using the heat from
their fingers and the coolness of the settled milk to cause the butter to
separate from the milk and rise to the top, where it could be pushed together
into lumps and lifted out.

I have since seen a 16th century English text on dairy husbandry (I have it
lying around somewhere in photocopy form) which pretty well confirms this. I
believe the text is written by the son of a Suffolk dairy maid, who basically
says he used to watch his mum and the other dairy maids at their work all
through his childhood. There's a fair amount about cheese in this, too.

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com


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