A butter churn is a cylindrical wooden vessel fastened with metal hoops. Adyghe craftsmen made butter churns without a single nail. For it to be durable and impermeable, it was submerged in water during the manufacturing process. The long wooden plunger with a wooden cross-shaped plate at the end is an important part of the butter churn. It was made of solid wood like oak or dogwood. The bottom of the butter churn is round. Just like any other kitchen or household utensil, the Adyghe made butter churns of wood, since it could maintain the appropriate temperature of the milk or cream poured into them for longer periods of time.
Butter serves as dressing for many dishes of the Adyghe national cuisine. With the addition of butter, the dishes became tastier, more nutritious and healthy. Fresh butter is served with freshly baked bread, flatbread, mamaliga, added to Kalmyk tea, mixed with honey or nuts. In the past, spring butter whipped from cow’s milk collected in May was especially valuable.
The Adyghe began cooking butter in the evening. The milk was boiled and left overnight. In the morning, the settled cream was collected in a butter churn and beaten with a stick while fresh, still-hot milk was added.
Despite all the qualities of fresh butter, clarified butter is more prominent in Adyghe cuisine. This is not only due to its longer shelf life. Clarified butter is used for cooking most fried, stewed and boiled second courses, and also serves as a paramount ingredient in many grain and pastry dishes. To make clarified butter, regular butter was melted, becoming grainy and fragrant. At the end of the 19th century, sunflower oil began to be used, however, nowadays, “thu” or clarified butter is used to give the national dishes that special taste of Adyghe cuisine.
The butter churn on display in the Adygeysk Museum of Local Lore belonged to Sarah Vaykok from Pchegatlukai village. According to her, the butter churn was made by her father-in-law around the 1940s. The butter churn has been in the museum since 1997.
