You know that famous painting, American Gothic, of the farmer and his wife? It’s iconic, almost a hundred years old, and you can still see the misery on their faces.
The farmer looks angry and the woman (actually his daughter not his wife…little bit of trivia for ya) looks listless and depressed. Probably from churning butter for hours and hours – she probably can’t even raise her arms!
Oh, if only your great-great-great grandma could see you now. For centuries farmers’ wives and daughters had to undergo the grueling task of churning cream into butter by hand, using a wooden dasher to smash, stir, and churn. It typically took hours and there was no guarantee that it would turn into butter. That famous picture is modeled off of rural Iowans where the winters get bitterly cold.
A little known fact before the turn of the 20th century was that if the milk was too cold, it wouldn’t churn. 18th century folks blamed it on witches. Sticking a hot metal poker into the cream seemed to fry the witches to death and lo and behold, there would be butter – eventually.
It wasn’t until the industrial age that the witch myth was dispelled by a new gadget that gauged the temperature of the milk in the churn. Those fancy new churns didn’t cut down on the time it took to make butter. It just killed all the witches by creating a chamber for hot water to warm the milk.
Fast forward to today where finally technology has caught up with this antiquated piece of machinery. You can find butter churns now that whip up a gallon of butter in a matter of minutes! Of course, you could just pop over to your local grocery and buy a tub of butter for less than the cost of the cream to make it yourself, but where’s the fun in that?
So for you homemade butter lovers we’ve got some exciting news for you! We’ve created the ultimate guide to butter churns of today. We’ve got electric churns, antique churns, and glass churns to choose from. And here’s the best part – your arms won’t fall off from hours of churning!
Best 2 Electric Butter Churns
Hydropolis - The Butter Brewer
Butter Churn that Makes Weed Oil Too!
Back in the day, if you wanted butter for your biscuits, there was no other option but to churn it yourself. The idea of having an electric butter churn where you don’t even have to use any muscle would have been unimaginable. Well not today! Case in point, The Butter Brewer from Hydropolis is a one gallon electric churn.
It heats up to 300 degrees and can brew butter for two days. When the butter is done, simply remove it from the non-stick removable pot and pop it in the dishwasher! You can use this with butter, oil or create your own herbal tincture (like cannabis) using zero elbow grease.
Cocktail Maker and Butter Churn in One!
An even bigger butter beater is the 220 Volt Electric Butter Churn from Motor Sich. This churn doubles as a cocktail beater too. Even better, it makes an ass load of butter. This baby holds up to 10 liters. Whether your mixing up drinks for your party guests or making a year’s worth of butter, you can whip up over two gallons of this stuff with no real effort on your part.
All you have to do is buy the heavy cream, pop it in the mixer, crank up the heat and voila, you’ve got a whole bunch of butter. Give some of it away as a gift or horde it all for yourself – either way, you can have fresh homemade butter anytime you want.Best 2 Hand Crank Butter Churns
Cute Little Butter Churn with a Crank!
So when you know that you can make homemade butter with just the flick of a switch, why would anyone want to crank it? Well, we don’t know, maybe because it’s fun and neat to watch. Plus, even though you have to turn the crank until the cream stiffens, it’s still not the onerous chore it used to be when your ancestors wanted butter.
It’s not like you have to go milk the cow and make the cream. You just buy some cream, put it in the jar and then crank it until it hardens into butter that you can eat. Although you can churn butter with the World Cuisine Fresh Butter Maker from Padermo, it also makes a cute little kitchen accent!
Small Old School Butter Churn for Decoration ONLY!
While all of the other butter churns on our list are useable, we included this because it is one of the cutest butter churns we’ve seen. Sure you can’t make butter with the Antique Style Glass Hand Crank Butter Churn from Dazey, but wouldn’t it be a great conversation starter in your home décor?
We think so, that’s why we added it! It is modeled just like an old timey hand cranked churn in miniature including fine details like the lid made out of cast iron and the traditional wooden paddles inside of the jar in the style churns used to be made with. On top of that, it makes an imaginative and unique giftBest 3 Glass Butter Churns
The Best of the Best Glass Butter Churns!
Glass churns are not new. They came about in the early 20th century as a way to churn butter faster. According to Slate.com, the first one that came on the market boasted that although you could only make a little bit of butter at a time, it only took two minutes to do it.
Well the Vintage Glass Butter Churn from Kilner doesn’t brag about two minute butter; it does however promise that you can churn up to 34 ounces of cream into butter in only ten minutes! All you need is whipped or heavy cream, and you can crank up a batch of creamy homemade butter in a lickety split.
Big and Tough One Gallon Glass Butter Churn!
One of the toughest glass butter churns we found is the Hand Butter Churn from Tamarack. The glass is thick enough to take a beating and the crank and paddles are made out of stainless steel for fast, easy butter churning. What we love the most is that this puppy holds a gallon of butter!
If you love homemade butter and plan on making a lot of it, this is the gadget for you. Even though you have to crank your cream into butter, the way that it is designed makes even hand cranked butter churning easy as pie! Besides, we think it’s a handsome little tool to have in the kitchen.
Amazing Electrified Glass Butter Churn!
Lordy what would an old farmer’s wife have given to have a butter churn like this one? The Buttermeister Butter Churn from Wisemen Trading is a hole-in-one we think! Not only is it electric so you don’t have to crank it yourself, it is made of glass so cream churns quicker into butter.
Moreover, this thing holds a lot of butter – one gallon! Inside, your cream gets churned around quickly and efficiently using paddles made of stainless steel. It plugs into any outlet and you get butter making tips and a one year guarantee when you buy this butter churn! Butter churning doesn’t get much easier than that.
Best 2 Small Butter Churns
A Butter Churn You Only Have to Shake!
This nifty little thing right here is something that we found absolutely extraordinary. In this little plastic churn, you can make like a stick or two of butter in only three minutes. With the Buttercup Butter Maker from Chef’n, you just fill it up with your heavy cream and then shake for three minutes. Strain it, rinse it, and season to taste and there you have it – fresh homemade butter in minutes!
Keep in mind that it only makes a little bit of butter and you have to use it up within a week or else it will go bad. But it’s cute, small, dishwasher safe, and comes with a book of recipes for making flavored butter.
Handy Dandy Tiny Butter Churn with Dasher!
Made like the butter churns of yore, this modern take on the churn and dasher takes a little more work than our other churns. Just like the big wooden churns of the past, you have to use the wooden dasher inside of the four ounce jar to smash, stir, and churn cream into butter. But it’s much easier with the Fresh Butter Maker 1500 from PL8.
All you need is a one and one third cup of cream to make the equivalent of a stick of butter. There is no strainer in this one so you’ll have some whey leftover which the makers recommend you use to make homemade biscuits – we say give it a try!
Best 2 Antique Butter Churns
Exquisite 18th Century Style Butter Churn!
After looking in the face of the farmer’s wife (daughter) why on earth would anyone want to churn their own butter old school for hours?
Ours is not to wonder why. We just know that some people do and for you all, we found a fantastic 18th century style churn – the 3-Gallon Hand-Turned Pottery Butter Churn from Martinez Pottery.
You can step into the past and experience what it was like to make your own homemade butter centuries ago. It comes with its own dasher and weighs over 14 pounds! Prepare to churn for a couple of hours with this one or just sit it in the corner as a decorative piece – your choice!
Large Microwave Safe Old Fashioned Butter Churn!
You wouldn’t think it to look at it, but the Three Gallon Churn from Ohio Stoneware is completely dishwasher safe. Like our previous antique churn, this one can serve as part of your décor but is also fully functional as a traditional butter churn. The only catch is, this one does not come with its own dasher – you have to buy that separately.
When you buy this product you are buying a piece of the past as well as an opportunity to walk a mile in your ancestors’ shoes. Before grocers were able to carry dairy without it going bad, this was the only way you could have real butter. Think about that as you’re churning out three gallons of butter with this monster!
Best 3 Butter Churn Dashers
Hand-Made Oak and Birch Dasher
The Wooden Dasher Oak Round from Picklemeister is the perfect tool for making genuine butter from scratch in a butter churn. Made in the traditional style, if you buy an antique churn, you’ll need something like this to go with it!
Large Microwave Safe Old Fashioned Butter Churn!
Dashers need to be made of quality wood. That’s why we love the Wooden Butter Milk Churner from Sahishnu Online and Marketing. It has an original and attractive design, plus it is dishwasher safe and rust proof!
Handcrafted Foot Long Dasher
Finally, we chose the Wooden Butter Churner Hand Crank from Tanish Trading. Made from sturdy, durable Sagwan wood, this long dasher makes churning and whisking much easier and faster. Those are ideal features when churning butter in the traditional fashion!
Best Butter Making Supplies
Complete Butter Making Kit
Is this your first experience with homemade butter making? We think this is exactly what you need to complete your purchase. The Butter Making Kit from Standing Stone Farms comes with a recipe book for making butter using any one of the churns on our list, a drainage cloth, paper for packaging and storing your butter, and some butter flavoring packets to get you started!
Heavy Cream or Whipping Cream
This product doesn’t need much explanation. No matter what else you do, you’re going to need cream to make homemade butter. We like both the Heavy Cream and Whipping Cream from Hood. No matter what brand you use, you’ll want to use the cream with the highest fat content to make the best butter!
Lastly, even though a few items on our list come with butter making recipes, we think none of them compare to the book, The Home Creamery written by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley. In it you’ll find recipes for not just making creamy, delicious, homemade butter but all kinds of dairy products. Churning your own butter could just be the beginning – think of what all else you can do with your new churn!
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