Butter churn

At a glance

• Types: plunger churn, dug-out family churn, crank churn
• Materials: walnut, fir, wrought-iron hoops
• Period of the examples shown: nineteenth century
• Collecting note: small crank churns are fragile and now uncommon

What it is

A baratte is any vessel in which cream is agitated until the fat gathers into butter. The commonest country form is the upright plunger churn, a tall coopered barrel with a lid through which a wooden dasher is pumped up and down.

The large Provençal farm churn in the book is made of wooden staves held by wrought-iron hoops. Working its handle with regular strokes until the cream broke took real vigor.

Family churns and crank churns

In the same region, smaller churns called "family" churns were hollowed directly from a tree trunk in one piece. They made butter for the household rather than for market.

The Savoyard example is only about thirty centimetres high and dates from the late nineteenth century. Its lid carries a crank connected to a simple paddle mechanism inside, which made the work much lighter for the farmer's wife. Being more fragile than the big plunger churns, few have survived.

Collecting and using one today

Check that the staves are sound and that the hoops have not cut into the wood. A dasher or crank that is original to the churn adds a great deal to its interest. Signs of long use, such as a worn rim or a polished handle, are welcome; recent dark stain over the whole surface is not.

A tall churn stands well at the end of a kitchen run or beside a fireplace, and smaller ones make good umbrella or walking-stick stands.