Butter Churn

Object/Artifact

-

The Cardinal Collection

Name/Title

Butter Churn

Entry/Object ID

2021.2.3.4

Description

Butter has been a part of human history for thousands of years. Dash churns such as this one were a simple way to agitate under ten gallons of room temperature cream until it separated into buttermilk and butter. According to the 1897 Sears and Roebuck catalog, a model similar to this would cost about 70 cents, but they offered more elaborate churns for large dairy farms that could take on up to 60 gallons of cream at a time. This same catalog also offered several brands of butter color to enhance the final product, paper to wrap the finished product, ladles, and even butter molds to help make the home-churned butter as appealing as possible. This wooden butter churn has a long wooden handle going through the top cover and a dasher at the bottom which is worked up and down inside the churn to change cream into butter.

Location

Building

Antique Barn and Nature Center

Ohio State Park

Barkcamp State Park