Buttermilk plays an important part in our bread. To describe how buttermilk is made, I will take you back to your childhood, because homemade butter & buttermilk is a rarity in Ireland.

As you are well aware, cows are milked twice a day in the morning and evening. The milk was strained and put into earthenware crocks. Every day the cream was skimmed and held in the dairy undisturbed until it soured and enough gathered for churning.

This was tipped into a revolving barrel churn and was rotated with a handle at the side. There was another type of churn, one with a dash that was thrust up and down to strike violently against the liquid, they both served the same purpose, but in different ways.

In reference to the revolving barrel churn, the handle was turned round and round on it's axis

until some instinct told one that it was time to unscrew the lid and pour boiling water into the churn, the lid was re-clamped, the churn handle rotated and moments later the butter had separated from the milk and formed itself into solid lumps in the liquid. Cold water was now added. The butter was collected in a wide wooden bowl, washed in running water until the water was clear, salted and shaped into oblongs, each weighing about one pound.

The liquid left in the churn after the butter is removed is the buttermilk. Fresh buttermilk is sharp and tart and very refreshing to drink. It is far above water as a thirst quencher. In days gone bye, if one was suffering from a hangover, it was a swift cure.

There was an old tradition, if anyone visited the house when a churning was in progress, they had to participate, if they left without rotating the handle the butter would not form.