If you need a fun easy way to include your kiddos in Thanksgiving this year – make some butter. This was hands down one of the coolest kitchen science experiments we have ever done – and that says a lot because we have done many experiments over the years!
What you need: heavy whipping cream, a jar, and a willing shaker😉
What do you do:
1. Pour a jar about 1/3 full of heavy whipping cream.
2. Screw the lid on tight and start shaking, rolling, and dancing around (like we did!)
3. Go ahead and take a peak in the jar – you won’t be able to help it when the sloshing seems more solid.
4. Keep shaking
5. And shaking…
6. Finally you’ll hear a solid clumping around with a liquid.
7. Drain off the liquid (buttermilk) and rinse the butter solid in ice cold water to remove remaining buttermilk!
8. Dry the butter with a paper towel and mix in your flavorings! We added salt to one batch, honey to another batch, and cinnamon and sugar to another batch.
What’s the science? Heavy whipping cream contains milk and fat globules. When you shake the cream it will first appear like whipped cream but keep shaking and the fat globules will break apart and clump together to form a solid. The remaining liquid will be buttermilk and the solid is butterfat – but let’s just call it butter!
We hope this experiment will be a favorite on Thanksgiving this year! We are so thankful for YOU in this community of parents, grandparents, teachers, and science extraordinaries here on She Loves Science. This post is rounding our 9th year of sharing our family’s science fun and I am so thankful for the emails, comments, and support over the years… Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!
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