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Fort Bend Lifestyles & Homes March 2009
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Photos and historical facts courtesy of the Fort Bend County Museum Collection
and the George Ranch Historical Park archives
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Fresh from the cow: butter production on the farm
A 19th century farmer had to be more than someone who knew how to rise early, tend
livestock and work the fields.
He also served as manufacturer, grocer, dairyman, clothing designer, butcher and
teacher, to name just a few. Farmers supplied themselves with much of the food,
clothing and other household goods required for life on a farm located far from
the
From the top: box butter mold, round butter mold, and crock butter churn
down movement of the dasher to clump the butter together and pull it out of the
watery remaining liquid. Butter churning was a family affair as mother and the
children shared in the labor. The churned butter was removed with scoops and
placed in a tray or bowl where it was worked with paddles to remove any excess
water. The butter was then stored in a bowl or jar.
If the butter was going straight to the table, it could be worked into balls
with scotch hands
—paddles with grooves in them.
Another option was the pat-sized butter mold. Butter was molded or stamped for
storage and table. Butter was scooped into molds and tamped down. Molds were
usually round or rectangular and had a print inside them. The butter would then
be forced out with a plunger attached to the print and the resulting butter
would have the design of the print on top. Some women also used stamps that
depressed a design on the butter without shaping it into a form. Stamp and mold
designs were often flowers, cows, eagles, wheat, pineapples or monograms.
Butter making was just one of many chores on the farm, but it did provide for
the self sufficiency of farmers as they attempted to tame the prairies of Texas
and the West.
Butter was scooped into molds and tamped down. ...and the resulting butter would
have the design of the print on top.
conveniences available in towns.
Butter was one item self produced by farmers. The process began with milk from
the farmer
’s cow. A portion of this milk was saved for drinking, and the rest was kept in a
tub or crock to cool and allow the cream to separate and rise to the surface.
This cream was skimmed off daily and placed in a covered bucket or sour cream
tub. Once enough cream had accumulated, it was poured into the churn.
In the churn, the cream was agitated by the up-and-
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