Reproduction butter churn

Soubrette

It's my birthday shortly and I have a hankering to get an old fashioned butter churn and have some fun with some cream.

The ones on ebay go for about £20 and are fairly old but I've found some reproduction ones here:

http://www.blackcountrymetalworks.co.uk/Dazey-Glass-Jar-Butter-Churns.htm

They are for ornamental use only so I emailed the nice sales people to ask why. They responded to say that it was because the wooden paddle was not treated and so not suitable for use with human food.

What could I treat with? beeswax? Also I'm sure I have wooden chopping boards that are untreated and they're ok with food, or at least I hope so:eek:

Any ideas if untreated wood would be safe or if not what I could treat it with?

Thanks

tim_n

Hi - don't know what the wood type is, but if it's ornamental it may not be sealed inside and will leak cream when it's used. Similarly the wood may have been treated with pesticides etc. It may also not be seasoned and may absorb moisture and crack.

Be careful of the beeswax out there. Some of the beeswax are polishes and have nasty stuff in them (you need gloves to apply it)

Mineral oil (used for chopping boards) is probably the best to use imho.

You know you can just put a tub of cream into a screw top jar (one a bit more substantial than a cheap jam jar) and just shake it until it's butter? It doesn't take very long at all and doesn't take up loads of space - you don't need to make massive quantities after all...

babyshoes

Or you can just put it in a mixer and let the electricity do it's thing. Works just as well!

If you really want an old fashioned one, I'd go for one of the real vintage ones. Otherwise, speak to the company selling the reproduction ones and ask if they could make you one with food-safe wood.

Seakay

tim_n wrote: »

Hi - don't know what the wood type is, but if it's ornamental it may not be sealed inside and will leak cream when it's used. Similarly the wood may have been treated with pesticides etc. It may also not be seasoned and may absorb moisture and crack.

Be careful of the beeswax out there. Some of the beeswax are polishes and have nasty stuff in them (you need gloves to apply it)

Mineral oil (used for chopping boards) is probably the best to use imho.

You know you can just put a tub of cream into a screw top jar (one a bit more substantial than a cheap jam jar) and just shake it until it's butter? It doesn't take very long at all and doesn't take up loads of space - you don't need to make massive quantities after all...

The churns are made of glass!
Mineral oil is not recommended for food use, although it is allowed. See best answer: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100324120636AASol29

theoretica

I use olive oil to treat new wood spatulas and the like - oil, wrap in clingfilm, leave somewhere warm to soak in and repeat as seems necessary.

Soubrette

Thanks all,

Just to clarify the sales people said that the wood is untreated so I could get it treated to food standard requirements but didn't go into what that would be.

I'm just doing it for fun - like a science museum present that looks nice I like practical birthday presents that I wouldn't buy myself so I'm quite hard to buy for

I quite fancy trying the jar idea v the churn and seeing which one works best.

I think if I were going to do this on a regular basis then I would use the electric mixer but it's just something I want to do if there's any cream on sale and I'm topped up with ice-cream.

It's still a while until my birthday so I'll mull it over but at the moment I quite fancy the olive oil solution

Thanks again for all your thoughts and suggestions.

Kevie192

I saw this website this evening and for some reason instantly thought of this thread! Thought it might be worth sharing in case you are still looking

Kevin

Topher

My glass butter churn is a French one bought from an antiques/junk shop. I see plenty of them around. The shaking cream in a screw top jar method
works well.