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Butter Experiment

butter on a mixer

This is a simple butter experiment. If you want to learn more about some of the basic science behind butter and have links to the advanced chemistry and explanations, the longer post is here.

What you'll need:

  • At least 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
  • A jar that can be completely closed. The jar should be able to hold at least three cups.
  • two bowls of ice water (if you want to eat your butter and want it to last longer than a few days)
  • a bowl
  • a plate


You're going to bring one cup of heavy whipping cream to room temperature. You'll let the other cup stay cold in your refrigerator. Before you start, consider which one, room temperature or cold, you think will be easier to make into butter. Why do you think that?

Pour the room temperature whipping cream into the jar. Shake it, continuously, as long as you can.

After you've finished and let your arms rest for a while, clean out your jar, and pour in the one cup of cold whipping cream. Try to make butter with that.

Pay attention to the amount of time it took to make both kinds of cream into butter. Was there one that wouldn't turn into butter at all? Did one take longer? Was there a difference in texture between the results? Was there the same amount of buttermilk left at the bottom of the jars?

If both cups of cream turned into successful butters, and you want to eat them, make sure to do the following. Separate out the butter and the buttermilk. The additional bowl listed above is for you to pour the buttermilk if you want to use it (biscuits, fried chicken, cake, etc.).

Submerge your butter into the ice water and knead it gently, making sure to get out as much of the remaining buttermilk as possible. This will help the butter last longer.

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