Butter Churn

From the collections of PVMA • Digital image © Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Assoc. • Image use information

About this item

Before refrigeration, making butter and cheese were ways of preserving milk and cream. Farm families made cheese in the hotter months when milk soured too quickly to be used for making butter. When set out in the cooler months, cream rose to the top of the unhomogenized milk. The fat in the collected cream coalesced into butter as it was agitated, or “churned”. The thin buttermilk left behind was washed out before the butter was carefully packed away. New England farmwomen played a vital economic role in the 19th century by producing surplus butter and cheese to sell at the local store.

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Details

Item typeHousehold Objects
Food Processing Equipment
Date1750–1790
PlaceDeerfield, Massachusetts
TopicFood, Cooking, Beverage, Alcohol
EraRevolutionary America, 1763–1783
The New Nation, 1784–1815
MaterialWood
Dimension details; ;
Catalog #1926.11.05
View this item in our curatorial database →
Butter Churn. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/1926-11-05/. Accessed on December 8, 2024.

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