Today I made butter. From scratch. I feel like a Colonial housewife who dips candles and tans leather. Not a real Colonial housewife, of course, more like a Colonial housewife in a historic re-enactment who goes home every night to air-conditioning and antibiotics.Anyway, my infinitely imaginative friend Cynthia explained to me how you can shake whipping cream in a jar until it separates into buttermilk and butter. (Butter-Milk, get it? Who knew these things? Isn't science wondrous?) It takes about twenty minutes and saved me having to do biceps at the gym today. After consulting Your Friend and Mine, the Internet, I discovered that this is the preferred method for pre-schoolers with extra energy. Further research on Your Friend and Mine revealed that the making of butter goes back ten thousand years to the Ancient Mesopotamians, who shook goat's milk in a goat skin. Eventually, they tired of shaking the goat and started milking cows instead.
5 comments:
Is shaking cows easier than shaking goats? I know tipping them is, but shaking them?
Good for you either way!
shaking the goat. i love that.
Sounds like an awful lot of work. How did it taste? I admire your quest, Marc. Can't wait to see what you'll come up with next!
Tasted a bit bland. I guess that's why salted butter is so popular. Or herb butter.
I have a vivid memory of the teacher putting my kindergarten class in a circle and making us shake a jar of cream - I remember it being awesome
Post a Comment