Pioneer Study: Mason Jar Butter

We make Mason jar butter a lot.

Proof positive:

• making Mason jar butter in June 2010
• making Mason jar butter in March 2011
• and again, making Mason jar butter in August 2012:

Pour heavy whipping cream into Mason jars. Some people add marbles, but that isn't necessary.

Shake it like a Polaroid picture!

 Since we've made Mason jar butter so often, I now know that the whipped cream stage?

It's special.

Willow made whipped cream!

 Although both kids had Mason jars full of cream, and each shook her own jar--and, unlike in previous years, they each shook their own jar all by themselves (it wasn't as much about the process this time, or the science, but about mimicking the hard work that went into Ma's butter in Little House in the Big Woods)--when the first jar reached whipped cream, the girls unscrewed it, gathered a couple of spoons, then took turns, one kid shaking the remaining jar and one kid spooning whipped cream into her happy face:

We're listening to Story of the World just for fun, if you're wondering what the audio track is there. Did you also see the look on Willow's face as she intently watches her sister eat whipped cream? Cracks me up.

This batch didn't take as long as in previous years, but it was still well over half an hour before we had--

--butter! To really do this right, you should then squeeze it and rinse it to get out all the buttermilk, but we just plop that jar into the refrigerator and eat it up until it's gone.

Next time, my new experiment is going to consist of putting cinnamon and sugar in the jar with the cream. In that situation, I may be right there with the girls, peering into the half-shaken Mason jar, spoon in hand.