From dairy farms to kitchen science, discover the surprisingly fascinating world of butter.
National Butter Day celebrates one of the simplest (and tastiest) ingredients in the kitchen. Established in 2021, the day also recognizes the long tradition of butter making and the dairy farmers behind it.
Some state fairs are famous for enormous butter sculptures... including life-size cows carved entirely from butter!
by Eric Carle
Jack wants pancakes for breakfast… but getting them takes a little more work than opening a box of pancake mix! He gathers the ingredients one by one, including fresh cream that must be churned into butter.
Eric Carle’s colorful story is a wonderful reminder that familiar foods have stories behind them, and it pairs perfectly with today’s adventure of making butter!
You spread the butter across a piece of warm toast. Does it melt immediately or stay thick and creamy? Is it sweet, salty, spicy, fruity, or completely unexpected? Think about its color, texture, smell, and flavor. Describe it so vividly that someone else just has to take a bite!
Turn cream into butter with nothing more than a jar and a little family teamwork.
Pour heavy whipping cream into a clean jar, leaving plenty of room for it to move. Close the lid tightly and take turns shaking. Watch carefully as the cream changes along the way. It will thicken before eventually separating into solid butter and liquid.
When your butter forms, separate it from the liquid and taste your creation.
Then experiment with a simple flavor:
Every adventure has another path to follow. Choose a trail and see where your curiosity leads!
People have been making butter for thousands of years! In Himalayan communities, butter may traditionally be made from yak milk, while India has makhan, a soft white butter often churned from cream or yogurt. Around the world, different climates, animals, and cooking traditions have created some surprisingly different kinds of butter.
Wonder Challenge: Explore some of the different butters found around the world. Choose three that look especially interesting and discover where they come from, how theyβre made, and what makes each one unique.
Cream is filled with tiny droplets of milk fat surrounded by membranes that help keep them suspended in liquid. When cream is shaken or churned, those structures are disrupted and the fat begins sticking together. Keep going and the fat gathers into butter, leaving liquid behind.
Wonder Challenge: Watch The Science Behind Butter. What happens between whipped cream and finished butter?
Not every dairy cow looks (or produces milk) exactly the same! Common dairy breeds include black-and-white Holsteins, smaller brown Jerseys, golden-and-white Guernseys, Brown Swiss, Ayrshires, and Milking Shorthorns. Holsteins tend to produce lots of milk, while Jersey milk is especially rich in milk fat, the part that’s important when making butter.
Wonder Challenge: Compare a Holstein and a Jersey cow. Which breed produces milk with more butterfat, and which usually produces more milk?
Would you rather...
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Iβll go first: I love butter on a hot Pop-Tart. My kids tell me this is weird. ππ§
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