Editor’s Note: Today’s blog contributor, AD Moore, is a potter, and as a hands-on artisan, tends to think out of the box. Thanks, AD, for your contribution that fits both our Recipe of the Week and LehmansHacks features!
I got my idea to make butter in a French Press Coffeemaker from watching a video on Youtube about how to make butter by shaking heavy cream in a jar.
I did try the jar shake method, and it does work, although your arms will certainly hate you for it in the morning. It’s easy to make butter with fresh cream in something the size of a baby food jar, but if you need quantities of fresh, homemade butter, you need a better way!
I wanted a non-motorized way to make fresh real butter at my historical re-creation group’s camping events. I looked up various real butter churns on line, and thought since I am a potter in the history group, I could make a jug myself, and make the plunger part with a long stick with some sort of criss-cross blades out of wood.
Then it hit me. I have an item similar to this in my cupboard already: A glass French Press Coffeemaker. A light bulb went off in my head.
I removed the screen and spring that attaches to the bottom of the press plunger, and replaced the “fan blade looking piece” back onto it. I poured in some heavy whipping cream, a teaspoon of lemon juice and started “churning” by moving the plunger up and down.
If you just want whipped cream, you can make it in the French press too–just stop when the cream’s whipped up. (If you don’t stop, you’ll end up with butter eventually.)
Half an hour later, with just a bit of elbow grease, I was done! I was so thrilled with myself that I had made a good quantity of real butter. And I got to taste honest-to-goodness skim milk once the leftover liquid was poured from the container…let me tell you… best tasting milk ever!
Photos of the process:
