Butter is a highly misunderstood food product. However, this was not always the case. Centuries ago, butter was regularly used by people in cooking and baking. Even with the advent of margarine, butter continues to rule the culinary world.

With the threat of coronary diseases, cholesterol and a host of other complicated illnesses, butter has been relegated to the background, to be used only in extremely dire situations. The reason for this is butter is said to contain a high amount of cholesterol, which can clog the arteries leading to heart ailments and a bunch of other problems.

What most people fail to understand and accept is that butter contains generous amounts of good cholesterol. It is also naturally reinforced with vitamins A and D. It is a far healthier food product because of its natural properties and preservative free composition.

In spite of all these reservations about butter, butter making is still a flourishing industry and there is sufficiently large demand for butter. Business enterprises are constantly innovating and aggressively marketing butter making equipments. In fact, the butter churning machine has evolved over the years to meet the growing requirements.

The Butter Churning Machine

The process of agitating the whole milk till the milk separates from the cream and the cream forms butter is known as churning.

This butter churning machine is as old as butter itself. In the ancient days, women on local farms made butter using a wooden butter churner. This was actually a wooden container with a deep device that agitated or shook the cream till butter was formed. This was a long and arduous process and often resulted in small quantities of butter.

This design was later on improved to a wooden, metal or ceramic container with paddles instead of a plunger. The paddles beat the cream faster, aerating it. This speeded up the production of butter.

The butter churning machine then progressed to a mechanical device called the cream separator. Based on the principles of centrifuge, the metal container spins while the paddles are stationery. While improving the separation process, it also allowed for larger quantities of butter to be manufactured. With the invention of refrigeration, exporting butter became yet another booming business.
Continuous floatation churns

Any discussion on butter churning machine would not be complete without mentioning the continuous floatation churns. These are the most common commercially used churns to make butter. In this churner, the cream is poured into a cylinder with paddles. This churns the cream at varying speeds and produces butter. This butter is then washed and its whey or buttermilk is drained out. This is again rinsed with water at high pressure to get rid of any remaining milk solids.

At this stage salt is added to the butter and then in the next step it is vacuumed. Finally, the water content is again adjusted after which the butter comes out of the nozzle at the end of the machine and is sent to the packaging section.

Butter in all its natural goodness is great for health assuming it is taken in moderation. Butter churning machines will continue to evolve and progress given the growing population and the ever present demand for dairy products.