Butter churn

The wooden vessel in which cream was plunged or shaken into butter.

The butter churn was used on farms to make butter from cream. The cream was plunged with a stave or cranked until the fat separated from the whey.

The butter churn was found on every farm in the Nordic countries. Later came hand-cranked churns and finally the machines of the dairies.

Materials: Wood (spruce or oak) with iron hoops, staves

Manufacture: Made of staves with iron hoops by a cooper or carpenter; the dasher was carved from wood.

The tall, tapering shape of staves.

The dasher or the crank.

The lid with a hole for the dasher.

• Kitchen and household