page_title: Churning (butter)
section_title: Types of butter churns
hierarchical_section_title: Churning (butter) / Types of butter churns
caption_attribution_description: English: Churning milk; Ethnographic Museum of Western Liguria, Cervo, Flower Riviera, Italy
context_page_description: Churning is the process of shaking up cream or whole milk to make butter, usually using a butter churn. In Europe from the Middle Ages until the Industrial Revolution, a churn was usually as simple as a barrel with a plunger in it, moved by hand. These have mostly been replaced by mechanical churns.
  Butter is essentially the fat of milk. It is usually made from sweet cream. In the USA, Ireland, the UK and the Nordic countries, salt is usually added to it. Unsalted butters are most commonly used in the rest of Europe. However, it can also be made from acidulated or bacteriologically soured cream. Well into the 19th century butter was still made from cream that had been allowed to stand and sour naturally. The cream was then skimmed from the top of the milk and poured into a wooden tub.
  Buttermaking was done by hand in butter churns. The natural souring process is, however, a very sensitive one and infection by foreign microorganisms often spoiled the result.
context_section_description: Butter churns have varied over time as technology and materials have changed.
  Butter was first made by placing the cream in a container made from animal material and shaking until the milk has broken down into butter. Later wood, glass, ceramic or metal containers were used.
  The first butter churns used a wooden container and a plunger to agitate the cream until butter formed.
  Later butter churns used a container made from wood, ceramics or galvanized (zinc coated) iron that contained paddles. The hand-turned paddles were moved through the cream quickly, breaking the cream up by mixing it with air. This allows the butter to be made faster than by simply agitating the cream.
  Centrifugal cream separators allow the properties of centrifuge to be applied to butter making. Instead of having spinning paddles, the paddles are fixed and the container spins. This allows better separation of the butter from the buttermilk and water.
  Small batches of butter can be churned at home by hand with the use of a decent-sized container, such as a Mason jar.
  With electric mixers and food processors commonly available in most household kitchens, people can make butter in their own homes without a large churn. These small appliances are used to mix the cream until it is close to forming solid butter. This mixture is then mixed by hand to remove the buttermilk and water.
  Also See Butter churning in Nepal
caption: Churn with plunger 
    Ethnographic Museum of Western Liguria, Cervo, Italy
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