Julia Child was shown by a French chef how to scramble eggs, gently and softly, with a dab of butter added to finish cooking. Not sizzling butter in which to cook the eggs, but a dab added to the custardy soft scramble on a low flame. Sound yummy? As I recall, the French chef said the butter was added to stop the cooking, to melt its buttery flavor all over softly set eggs.

Were YOU my teacher? I'm kidding about that, but my 3rd grade teacher did the same thing, only we shook the container of cream itself until it turned to butter, then opened it, and used a plastic knife to scrape the yummy butter out. It's one of my most vivid early school memories - it's wonderful that you are offering that same opportunity to your students!

Thank you, and that would be a way to cut down on the cleaning up!

Is there enough room in a container of cream to allow motion or churning? I'd think the cream needs to MOVE vigorously to get the chemical reaction that converts liquid white cream to solid yellow butter. Maybe there is enough airspace in a carton - but I can see some logic to putting the cream into a larger container for the shaking. Oh, I'm dead curious to try this myself. Might do it when there are enough folks around to keep on shaking - or might do this as a workout for my own upper arms/batwings!

When I was a kid, we wanted to make butter. My brother and I had a jar to shake. We shook and shook and shook. We thought our arms would fall off. LOL It ended up being butter, that we each could have for ourself to use at dinner. My dad tried some from each of our jars and liked it.

I think I like the circle of 20 kids passing it around. Better than doing it alone when you're 10 and having your arms fall off. hee hee.

I am crackin' up at this thread...and will be making butter with my 7 year old homeschooler as well!

Of course, I had to go get a teaspoon of peanut butter to enjoy while reading too. Yum-O!

there is an episode of Jimmy Neutron where the mother actually serves Butter Pats to the dad...lol

Vpeach - I'd forgotten that one! We're all Jimmy fans here - especially the 7 yo boy - but DH and I love it too. lol

Did you try this yet, JenB? We use raw (unpasteurized, unhomogenized) milk most of the time and from the discussions I've heard, if you tried leaving out the ultra-pasteurized cream from the grocery store, the only thing that would grow in it is bacteria, the bad kind. Everything good in commercial milk has been killed off in the pasteurization process leaving a great medium for bad stuff to grow. Raw milk, OTOH, is safe to let sour before churning. I know that sounds backwards to people who haven't heard about raw milk, but it's true. When raw milk sours, it is still safe to drink, cook with, make yogurt or sour cream, etc. When pasteurized products sour, they are not safe!

You can find more info at this site. At the bottom of the page is a powerpoint presentation that is very interesting.

Thanks, Sara, for that raw milk site. I'm off of milk for a year now, but can still use raw butter and other products. I've just found a store in my village (through the site's finder) that carries Organic Pastures' raw-milk products. Sorry to say, Trader Joe's is not on the list for raw-milk products, but then again - a lot of TJ's products are less than authentic. READ INGREDIENT LABELS and do not trust the words on the front of any product. I've been amazed at how often a product that looks simple is full of stuff that one simply does not want to pay for, as "cream" or "sour cream" often contains milk or skim milk or...whatEVER can be slipped in without an unwary consumer's knowledge. Bleagh!

I can't stand milk unless it's used in cooking. Never could. My dad said when my mother quit breast feeding, I would't take to cow's milk unless there was some other flavor in it. I'm still that way. YUCK!

Have I raved about my latest passion?

IRISH (European) BUTTER rocks!

4 of my favorites:

1) Kerrygold (Irish)
http://www.kerrygold.com/usa/irishbut.html

2) Lurpak (Danish)
http://www.lurpak.com/C1256F170024D...1256ED80028ECCD

3) Presidents (French)

(can't find it online - maybe I am remembering the name wrong, but it was deliciously instense, salty...)

4) Plugra (American-made European style)
http://www.kellerscreamery.com/

I'll never buy regular butter again. The European style butters have a higher butter-fat ration - just amazing for cooking or snacking!

Plugras is indeed tasty, but Kerrygold Irish is my first choice for a buttery bite. Certainly puts one off buying other butters. Yum!

Ahhh ..... ! Kerrygold! My very favoritest butter in the world! Have you tried the garlic and herb version? Delicious!

No - I've made some of my own compound butters, but never the Kerrygold garlic/herb...must find it!