Butter Churns and Butter Molds
Butter churns turn whole milk into butter by separating the butter from the buttermilk. Hand-cranked butter churns stir the cream to break down the fat molecules and thereby separate it from the liquid, resulting in what was then called buttermilk.
In Europe and America, women usually did the hard work of churning butter on devices such as a plunge or dash churn or paddle churns, all seen here, where human hands turned the paddles, or by a barrel churn where the barrel of milk itself is turned instead of the paddles. Centuries ago, people tied bags of milk to horses and mules to shake and separate the milk while walking.
Farmers made butter molds, usually carved in wood, to identify their butter. These designs, which often depended on the carver’s creativity, could identify the creamery where the butter was made and qualified for prestige and even copyrights in the 18th and 19th centuries. Beautiful butter could also be used as bartering currency.
Butter paddles come in twos and are rubbed together with tricky hand movements to create designs and butter balls to serve to guests.