Homemade butter...in a pickle jar.

Butter AND pickles? Ew. No, thanks. Even while I was pregnant, I never had any weird cravings. I did, however, crave spicy foods like crazy, which was not a problem until the 7th month when the heartburn kicked in. Extra spicy (virgin) bloody Mary's, actually, a drink I had NEVER really been a fan of. Go figure. I also ended up developing gestational diabetes as well, almost halfway through, so all those greasy, yummy, spicy foods were no longer an option for me anyway. *sigh*. I had a specific list of things I could eat and HAD to eat every few hours or my sugar could drop and that wouldn't have been good for either of us. I was working as a server in a restaurant at the time, so that made everything all the more difficult. Definitely an interesting first pregnancy!

Anyhoo, on to the butter! (And buttermilk!)
Most of my childhood, I remember hearing the term "churning butter". I remember learning about it in school. I remember my Mamaw talking of it. I had never actually done it, nor even really had the notion to...until a few weeks ago. I had even seen a friend's post on facebook about doing it and her excitement over it. Still, it wasn't a huge deal. I though, "Oh, cool. Maybe I'll try it one day". Well, that day finally came, so after reading blogs and browsing Pinterest, I decided to give it a try.
I got the instructions from www.2littlehooligans.blogspot.com, in which she used a small canning jar. I don't have any canning jars, so I used a recycled plastic tub from one of our Chinese take-out meals. It worked great! So...what about the pickle jar? I moved up to it on my next batch because I wanted to make more at once. The plastic tub was a tad too small.
Below is my take on it. Perfect science experiment for kids!! Oh, and be prepared to build up some arm muscles!! Ha! The whole process takes about 30 minutes or so.

fill jar 1/2 to 3/4 full. close lid tightly and make sure it doesn't leak!

 Start shaking away, as vigorously as you can! Your arms will get tired, so take breaks if you need to. My last batch sat on the dining room table for almost a half hour because, *gasp*, I got side-tracked. So it's all good if it takes a little while to keep shaking.

After 5 minutes or so, whipped cream. check it out, try a taste.

 Shake, shake, shake!

Another 5 minutes or so, it looks like it is starting to curdle.

 This process it really neat because you can feel all the changes that it makes, which is why I can't wait until Lucas is older and we can do this little science experiment together! :)

 Keep shaking!

Almost there! This is where the solid and liquid really start separating.

 Now, this is when you will start getting the buttermilk for those biscuits! Take the lid off, drain some of the milk into a separate container. Replace lid, continue shaking.

Yummy butter and milk!

Once it has gotten to where there isn't much more milk to pour off, you can rinse. Leave it in the jar or put it into a bowl, run some cold water over it until it goes mostly clear. Living in Southern Georgia, our cold water doesn't get very cold in the summer, so it clearly doesn't have to be super cold to work.

After rinsing.

All done! 

Place the butter in a seal-able container and voila! Put it, along with the butter milk, into the fridge to keep cold!
I had made up another small-ish batch before leaving for Tennessee last week and by the time I got back, it was almost gone! So clearly, my husband is a fan. :) If you do try it, let me know!

xo-mk