Anika's prep class made butter last week at school. The teacher sent home directions, so we could do it at home again, or have something in which you could converse with your child about. Since it was pretty simple, we decided to give it a go on the weekend.
You Will Need:
100mls heavy cream
jar with a tight cover
3 marbles
Directions:
Put the cream in the jar with the marbles. Screw on the lid. Shake the jar in a figure of eight motion for around 10 mins. ( All take turns)
Butter will form all of a sudden; drain the butter from the buttermilk (whey) and keep shaking. Add a little salt and shake a little more until it looks firm. Refridgerate to harden.
What Happened?
Cream is an emulsion of fat in water. The fat droplets are held in suspension by the milk protein. When you make butter from cream, you force the fat droplets to join together.
This process is called coalescing.
If you ever happen to see a lot of cream on sale - you can make your own butter, before the cream expires. eg herb butter, garlic butter, cinnamon butter etc.
This was very fun and I didn't know how easy it would be. A good "food" experiment!
3 comments:
You know what, it is actaully not overly easy to find cream here. It's there, you just have one choice and it is kind of hidden. We use a non-dairy product called "Whip Cream" in so many recipes, but I don't even know where to buy thickened cream. Kind of weird.
oh really... oh i got that off some website that said like got 8 litres of cream etc at the like walmart or something... and dont know what to do with it... turn it to butter.... and i thought i never seen that much cream here, so it must be american.. maybe not... whoops
aussies love their milk, cream, icecream ha ha ha ha though I did put on 3kgs when i went to the states... it was all that cool whip... mmmmm.... so glad they don't have it in australia!
great idea! i'm sure my daughters would love the shaking even more with the loud rattling of marbles! we'll have to try it again. your info about the science behind the butter is great too. thanks for your comment.
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