Cream From Milk

I know that there are still a lot of us around that remember the old cream separator. Many people started with the crank separator and later progressed on to the luxury of an electric one. In my mind the process of separating the cream from the milk, whether by hand, crank or electricity, was the minor part. Anyone who has the experience of separating cream no doubt can also remember the joy of washing this wonderful piece of equipment.

Many of you have seen the old separator bowls that are mostly used as flower planters, and that was the easy part to wash. There was also a set of “disks” that had to be separated and washed as well as the spouts for skim milk and cream. Those darn disks were in all separators, manual or electric, table top or floor model.

I do remember having a self-wash separator. I think that we washed that maybe once a week. I really wonder how sanitary that was. Or for that matter, when you consider that early users of this appliance washed it up in dishpans, one for washing and one for rinsing, maybe a little bacteria didn’t hurt us at all.

Separators were a pricey piece of equipment in the late 20s, which rather surprised me, but because so many rural people sold cream to help make ends meet, I suppose that drove the market somewhat. Many of us no longer use cream, and when we do, we have the luxury of opening a cardboard carton and disposing of this carton in the garbage. Pure enjoyment with no work!