A reader wrote that some historic sites have children make butter by shaking half and half cream in a jar until it solidifies into butter. The butter is then put on crackers to eat. They were wondering if there was a way to do this vegan.

Notes from VRG’s editors and writers.

-From Hannah: I do love the idea of it! While you can certainly make your own vegan butter at home, I’m afraid the same principles don’t apply and it’s a very different process. However, you could do a similar sort of group activity for making vegan ice cream with kids. This is a good explanation, just swap out any vegan ice cream recipe: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a54721/ice-cream-in-a-bag-recipe/

-From Nancy: Unfortunately, this would not work. The fat in vegetable oils is not as easily solidified, so it takes a bit more “chemistry” and “elbow grease.” To make a vegan butter, you usually need to combine several fats such as coconut or palm oil (which solidify more easily than other plant oils, but are not very palatable) with soy or corn oil. You also need to add an emulsifier, such as liquid lecithin. You’ll then need a blender or a food processor to actually prepare the product. Perhaps they might have a “dipping” party… have different vegetable oils and dip toast points into the oils to have a taste comparison. Or have a ” this comes from that” demo… have some corn for the students to taste, and then corn oil, some edamame, and then soy oil…

-From Rissa: I have 100% seen this butter making activity at places where I have worked and/or traveled. But making vegan butter isn’t the same. I think parents or chaperones could carry some vegan butter in a small cooler or something.

-From Reed: I agree with others that making vegan butter isn’t feasible. I’d have to wonder what the purpose of the activity is. If it’s to show how butter was made in the olden days, it’s somewhat misleading to shake cream from the supermarket in a jar. I like Nancy’s idea with the olive oil—providing another substance people would eat on bread long ago, which challenges the idea that everyone ate butter (or bread for that matter). It would take some research to determine what other spreads might have been used—mashed chickpeas, guacamole, crushed berries?

Email [email protected] with your ideas.