Butter! Every kid should make it!

I was telling a story the other day to a co-worker about how one of my chores as a kid was to make butter. “What? You made butter? How do you make butter!” It was pretty easy as I remember. I did the shaking and my dad would do the rest. He liked salted butter, so he added salt. He didn’t use food coloring, instead he left it natural.

Our cream came from our cow Jesabelle. My brothers and Mom would milk her daily. The milk was refrigerated and the cream from the top would be skimmed off for making butter.

Did I mention you could get in big trouble if you tried to ride Jesabelle? Mom would chase you around the yard letting you know she would tell father. (Apparently, Jesabelle needed to have a stress free environment to keep giving milk.)

I often raced with my sisters to see who could finish first!

Ingredients

1 to 1 1/2 quarts heavy cream (You need at least 30% butterfat cream, so buy the heaviest cream you can.)
1 tblsp salt (optional)
4-6 drops yellow food coloring (optional)

Instructions

You can place the cold cream in your kitchenaid bowl and whip it, but I think you need to take a quart jar and fill it 1/2 full, and hand it to your kid! Then they will always know where their food comes from.
As they shake the jar, the butter will separate from the buttermilk. When it clumps together, pour off the buttermilk, and knead the butter to remove the excess moisture. Save the buttermilk for the pancakes or baking later.
Use your hands and press the butter together adding the salt you love so much. You can add the food coloring drop by drop to the desired color you prefer, careful not to stain your hands.

By the way, depending how vigorously you shake your jar it will take 10-20 minutes.