Butter-Strainer Churn: Cream Thrown Into a Strainer That Keeps the Butter

"In front of the dasher an inclined plane (E) is arranged in such a manner, that it will convey the cream which is projected upon it, at a tangent from the dashers, into the strainer (F) through which it will run down to the bottom of the box and through the aperture (e) into the same compartment with the dasher, to be again elevated."

Print the dasher on end (/uploads/blueprints/butter-strainer-churn-dasher.stl), with supports, the dish strainer (/uploads/blueprints/butter-strainer-churn-strainer.stl) and the crank arm (/uploads/blueprints/butter-strainer-churn-crank-arm.stl). Print in PLA at 0.2 mm layers, 30 % infill, 4 walls; wash before first use.

Take a food-grade box about 260 × 150 × 170 mm. Drill both long sides 70 mm up, 75 mm from one end, for the axle. Bend a stainless sheet into a short incline rising from beside the dasher to the strainer, with a slot at its foot for the cream to return, and set it in with silicone. Fit ledges for the strainer's lugs so its rim stands only about 30 mm above the cream's level: the notebook shows a hand-cranked dasher throws the cream only a few centimetres up. Drill a hole low in the far end and one above the strainer for the air.

Pass a 10 mm square hardwood axle, rounded where it runs in the sides, through one side, the dasher and the other side. Glue the crank arm and a dowel handle on its outer end. Set the strainer on its ledges.

Let the heavy cream stand until it reaches about 15 °C, checked with the thermometer. Fill the box about half way up the dasher's arms, as he said. Crank steadily, throwing the cream up the incline into the strainer; lift the strainer out from time to time and take off the butter gathered on it. Time until no more forms. Pour off the buttermilk, add cold water, churn a little and pour off again until it runs clear; work in a pinch of salt and weigh the butter.

**Samuel Huff** of New Vienna, Clinton County, Ohio, received US 6,389, dated 24 April 1849. The strainer "may be either perforated, reticulated, or grated, made of metal, wood, or other material, and should be of a dish form, and removable." His view that the first-formed butter has a "nutty sweetness of flavor and waxiness of texture" is his claim, not a measured fact. He claimed the method of exposing the cream to the atmosphere and separating the butter as soon as formed, by the air tubes and strainer in combination with the dasher. **Honest limits.** A food-grade box, stainless sheet and printed parts stand in for his wooden box. At tabletop scale and hand speed the dasher throws the cream only a few centimetres, so our strainer sits low, just above the cream, where his stood higher in a larger box. FDM prints hold food in their layer lines, so wash well and replace when worn. Your times and weights are the result.