Despite the popularity of butter, very little is actually known about it, and scientists often refer to it as "The Delicious Mystery." People have been making butter for centuries using a process discovered by accident in 1528 by Gabriel Silas, an elderly baker with Parkinson's disease*. Gabriel was making a batch of his famous Soggy Cake and realized that he didn't have enough milk to make it properly soggy. He walked over to his neighbor's house and borrowed a cup of milk, but in the 2 mile journey back to his bakery, something peculiar happened. When he opened the container, he saw that some of the milk had magically transformed into a paste-like substance. Upon tasting it, Gabriel discovered that it was quite good. Using his new discovery, Gabriel went on to invent the croissant.
Today butter is made in large factories by robots with robot-Parkinson's disease**. But even though hundreds of gallons of butter are made every year, we still cannot scientifically explain what causes the cream to turn into butter.
This is a gallon of unprocessed milk. We have been getting organic unprocessed milk from a local dairy farmer.The first step in the butter-making process is to allow the cream to separate from the milk. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can kind of make out where the cream ends and the milk begins.
This is an action shot. The blurred hand and arm indicate movement.The next step is to agitate the milk. In layman's terms, this is known as "Shaking It Like A Polaroid Picture". The milk needs to be agitated for about thirty minutes, which is why most television shows are thirty minutes long.
Once the milk has been properly agitated, globules of butter begin to form.
And finally, the miracle of butter has come again. Butter can be spread on toast, used in baking, or even deep-fat fried and eaten in chunks. It is also an excellent stain remover. The next time you do a load of laundry, try throwing a stick of butter in during the first spin cycle!***
* Andrea didn't want me to make jokes about Parkinson's, so don't let that joke reflect poorly on her.
** Yeah, Andrea didn't like that one either.
*** Everybody knows that a joke, right? Please don't put butter in your laundry.
3 comments:
sweet. question.. do you use only the milk and not the cream in the butter making process? or do you shake em both up? anyhoo, nice butter. i tried your advice about butter and laundry. it didn't really work, the stains are still there. on a side note, i've got zits all over my body. not sure where they came from.
You use only the cream at the top (which you skim off). The rest of the milk is then used as regular 1%/skim milk. After you've shaken the smaller jar with the cream and the butter has formed, the liquid around it is then called Butter Milk. We're still not sure what to do with that. I wish dad was here to drink it. Ben usually does, but mostly out of obligation.
-Andrea
I didn't know you guys were doing that, have you just started or is this actually old news? How often do you get a gallon of organic milk and how much does it cost? Do you use the milk for everything you would normally use milk for? does it taste very different? Maybe you shouls send me an email, I am too curious!
Post a Comment