And how did I make that fresh buttermilk? Oh, I was hoping that you would ask that question. Because you see, The Matriarch gave me a Butter Churn for Christmas. She said it was from Santa!! Apparently Santa is a very clever old bugger. He knew just what I needed.
A glorious old butter churn. On the label it reads ‘Guaranteed Highest Quality Elgin for the Modern DairyMan.’ Which is kind of strange as often the kids and women did the milking and almost always did the butter churning. But there you are. DairyMAN indeed. It should read Dairy Family. Elgin made this model in the 1920’s. But no matter how old, the gears are good, and back to work it goes, in the old fashioned Farmy Kitchen. 
So, as you can imagine I pounced on it, scattering wrapping paper in all directions, washed it, skimmed the cream off a jug of milk from the cow down the road, and between Our John and I, we cranked that thing until we got some butter. Because the cream was too cold it took a long time. I knew that, but I could not wait. 
I washed and patted the butter while talking trifle on the phone, with my sons in NZ, sluicing the buttermilk out. The Buttermilk was put aside for pancakes. Buttermilk is the left over milk. It is thin and slightly acidic. Not to be confused with Cultured Buttermilk which is slightly fermented milk. I will make some of that too.
So this morning John made pancakes using the home made butter, and a couple of fresh eggs that had miraculously appeared in the laying boxes, (Big day on the egg farm!) and the fresh buttermilk.
Johns Buttermilk Pancakes
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 3/4 cups fresh buttermilk
- 2 small eggs
- 3 tablespoons melted homemade butter
- Mix dry ingredients together. Make a well. Add mixed wet ingredients. And you know the rest.
- Mama the Sheep was doing so well yesterday morning that I did let her out into the field for a stroll. She shot out of the barn like a stallion out of the starting gate, took herself for a gallop and within seconds was limping again. So I called her back in to a bigger pen. She has more room but no room to run. She is standing in there now practicing baleful looks. The naughty girl. But she is standing on all four feet, so we are winning.
- The sun is rising, time for me to get busy.
The Kitchen's Garden 
88 responses to “Boxing Day Fresh Buttermilk Pancakes”
Well, your churn is certainly a change from the more usual bathsalts and body lotions as a Christmas pressie! Lucky you – I got a wormery!!! Can’t wait to get it started! Belated Merry Christmas,
Christine
Oh, I have a worm farm in my basement, you will love it. That is a fantastic pressie. Did you get the worms too?.. c
Not yet because they might have been unhappy worms hanging around waiting for Christmas day! But there’s a wee postcard included in the package which I’m sending off today and apparently my Tiger worms will be here by the time I’ve got their new home ready!
Christine
I love it! Mine have been going for about four years now, I must do another post on them soon! c
How beautiful – I’d love one of those, though I don’t suppose I’d ever use it without any cows 😉
you could find a cow, you pop it in your backyard, next to the bicycle shed! c
I’m very tempted, though I quite fancy keeping a pig or some chickens first 😉
CHICKENS!! There are some fantastic designs for little chook houses. c
I lived on a dairy farm when my son was very young and I used to make butter. I had forgotten until I saw your lovely gift. Homemade butter is so good. Lucky you!
It is good isn’t it Debra, lighter! c
I shouldn’t read this while being hungry! 😛
probably not, they were very light and tasty, the fav recipe! c
It’s all so beautiful. The pancakes (perfectly golden)…the churn…and that butter. I have a great butter story, but it’ll have to wait. Thanks for reminding me, though. Continue to love the blog.
Thank you Charlotte and now I am looking forward to your butter story!! c
Isn’t is great when a gift works out so well – for the giver as well as the receiver. During WWII butter was rare as hens’ teeth, so we used to skim the cream off our (rationed) milk, save it all week in a Horlicks jar, and on Saturday morning my sister and I had to take it in turns to shake
the jar until the butter formed – about the size of a plum! It was very, very hard work for our little arms.
I always meant to ask you whether people kept their own chickens in the war. I have heard stories of people who did not see eggs for months and i wonder why there were not more people who kept their own chooks? c
You have to admit that the Matriarch is cool: or guided. Whichever, that is an excellent present except for the “typo” of “dairy man”. If it was not a typo, I think there would have been more fat free diet in the US.
It is rather gorgeous and the butter is so good. Real butter here is SO expensive plus you can’t always find it. There is less and less of it in the supermarkets so i am happy now that i can make my own for most of the year.. c
That butter churn photo brought back memories of occasionally churning butter on my childhood dairy farm. Hmmmmm…wonder what happened to that churn?
Don’t you just love presents like this that are so udderly (no typo) perfect?
yes i wonder, go find it audrey! And yes This present is quite perfect! c
Those look absolutely amazing. Although, my Christmas pancakes were better, and it had nothing to do with the ingredients. Because you can’t top those. But you will soon see why young Jedi.
You may call me Grasshopper, Master! c
I love your churn, Celi! What a great gift to give you! And those pancakes sound like the perfect way to use your freshly made butter. I make quite a bit of butter around here but I don’t have any new-fangled machines like yours. I use my “old” KitchenAid stand mixer. I don’t know of your markets but, up here, the trick is to avoid the ulta-pasteurized cream and to read the carton’s ingredients.There’s an awful lot of “stuff” in our dairy products these days and I try to avoid them, when possible.
There is an awful lot of the bad stuff in ‘dairy’ products for sure, not to mention the ULTRA pasteurised aka boiled to death stuff. hopefully daisy will save us from that! c
Sounds wonderful. Enjoy! 🙂
Thank you hetterbell. c
I am on a dash, but HAD to pop in to read the report on Mama. The silly wench! I’ll be back soon to read about the Churn and the Pancakes…
Off you dash then lovey!.. c
Wow – you two amaze me. That’s what I call a Christmas Season Breakfast! As a child, I used to churn butter when I stayed on a friend’s farm. I milked one of the cows, separated the milk and then made butter. In my youthful self-centeredness, I thought I was exceedingly clever – no credit to Snow-the-Cow or mother nature! The churning took f-o-r-e-v-e-r and I beamed as my arms numbed!
I will make john do the churning when he is sitting reading the news after work.. He has big mans arms, mine are spiders legs!! c
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had fresh, homemade butter. What kind of a life have I been living? I need to make some changes.
Chg John makes it in his mixer! But it is good! c
What a lovely gift you got and you made perfect use out of it. I like your boxing day breakfast better than beans (not that I don’t like beans) that so many have on boxing day morning. Tell John they look beautiful.
OH i did not know there was a traditional boxing day breakfast. Though I really should have boxed up the left overs and shared them out. But John is making a lamb curry.. c
I was so hoping you’d post a pic of your churn! It looks great – I’d envisaged a wooden thing with a big handle sticking out the top of it, although that would probably produce far more butter than you really wanted.. 🙂 We love fresh butter, and will often let our cream go a week or two past its use-by date before making it! Have a wonderful Boxing Day, Celi and John! 🙂
I have three churns actually and one is the wooden thing with the handle, but it has been rebuilt and the stick think will not go up and down easily..It is more ornamental really, and you know how i feel about ornaments. I shall get the other BIG butter churn up out of the basement and into the light to show you one day, it is amazing and came from the old farm.. But this one is just right.. thanks for dropping by celia.. c