A Thanksgiving Science Experiment

Kitchen Science Experiment

Are you ready to make some delicious homemade butter with your little ones? It's the perfect kitchen science experiment for Thanksgiving! Bake up a batch of soft rolls or a loaf of holiday bread, and we'll show you how to make the sweetest, creamiest butter to accompany any Thanksgiving feast!

There aren't many recipes that call for only one ingredient, but this is one of them! The only thing you need to make butter is heavy whipping cream. You'll also need a mason jar with an airtight lid. You don't want the cream spilling out once things get shaking!

Fill the mason jar about halfway with the heavy whipping cream. Fasten the lid tightly.

Homemade Butter Experiment

Set a timer or watch the clock. It takes about fifteen minutes of continuous shaking to turn heavy whipping cream into butter.

Now it's time for the real work to begin! We recommend shaking the mason jar over a sink or paper towel in case the lid leaks. (Ours did, and we had to readjust it a couple of times.)

Since shaking the jar can become tiresome, we recommend taking turns. If you are at home in the kitchen, pass it back and forth between you and the kids. If you are in a classroom setting, have each student shake the jar 20 or 30 times before passing it to the next person. (You might have to do a lot of the shaking!)

After about eight minutes, our heavy whipping cream became even more frothy and looked like homemade whipped cream. 

Homemade Butter Activity

We kept shaking and a few minutes later the liquid became lumpy, like cottage cheese.

Homemade Holiday Butter

At about the fifteen minute mark, the fat molecules separated from the liquid. We were left with butter and buttermilk. The butter had even turned yellow! 

We removed the butter from the mason jar and set it in a pretty dish. It went perfectly with the loaf of cranberry orange bread we made! Yum!

Kitchen Science Experiment

Now it's your turn! Try out this kitchen science experiment with your little ones, and let us know how it goes. Drop us a line in the comment section below; we'd love to hear from you!

Thanksgiving Science Experiment

If you're looking for more fun Thanksgiving activities, visit the Super Teacher Worksheets Thanksgiving page!

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