Churn

Often fashioned from materials such as wood, brass, and earthenware, plunger-style butter churns were essential in domestic spaces. After collecting fresh milk, a worker would set it aside to ferment and allow time for the cream to rise to the top before it could be churned. Folklore from around the world maintains that exhausted workers would attempt to accelerate the labor-intensive process by singing songs and chants as they used the dasher (the pole portion of the tool) to beat the cream until the desired yellow fat separated from the buttermilk. "Come, butter come," they'd sing. "Peter [is] standing at the gate, waiting for a butter cake. come, butter, come."