Saturday, February 17, 2007

Making Butter

If you're just "tuning in," scroll down the page to see plenty of posts on the new baby!

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The mother of one of Leslie's violin students told us one day how to make butter from the raw cow's milk (absolutely delicious!) that we get from her.

First, we let a few quarts of this milk (completely "whole milk") sit in the refrigerator until all of the rich cream rose to the top.


Next, we spooned all of the cream off of the top and put it in a small, tightly-sealed mason jar.


And then we shook it.


And we shook it.


And we shook it some more.


Pretty soon, something happened!


And we had butter!!!


We only had to shake the cream (butter) for about five minutes. After a few minutes of shaking, Austin asked if we had to shake it constantly, or if we could stop for awhile.

Ever-poetic Leslie replied with:

"Neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor dark of night...."

Ah, what would we do without Leslie? She's our "fount of wisdom," our encourager, and now ... our butter maker.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aye! You finally made butter, Leslie! :) If you try making it in the blender it's much quicker and easier...but I suppose that's cheating, haha. Great pictures!

FitzClan said...

Well, we thought about doing it in the blender, but we decided to do it the "primitive" way. There's something about making butter in a blender that is so much less romantic than making it in a jar ... the way they did it before blenders were even thought of!

Maybe we will try it in the blender next time, though!

Nice to "see" you, Alisa!
Lauren

EL said...

Wow...I never though of "butter shaking" as romantic in any form! Maybe it is in an Anne Shirley-ish sort of way. =)
I've really enjoyed all of the posts! Your Mom's were great.

Thank you so much for the letter, it was really sweet of you!
Talk to you later!

FitzClan said...

Okay, maybe "romantic" wasn't exactly the word I was looking for, but if you use this definition, it could fit:

"marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized"

Just maybe....

: ) Lauren