In Sunday’s NYTimes mag food piece, San Francisco chef Daniel Patterson discusses his revelation that if you churn cream it turns into butter. The fact of his surprise is yet more evidence of how far even chefs are from the elemental properties of our food. This is nothing against Patterson—I’ve loved his food stories and look forward to more. And I too remember when I discovered this remarkable behavior of cream—“Wow, I didn’t know you could do that.” I watched the wife of a famous chef discover some good cream in her fridge the day she was leaving for a two week trip. She poured it into a Cuisinart, let it rip and a few minutes later strained out the butter milk to freeze the butter so she wouldn’t waste it.
Patterson uses a standing mixer to get the same result. It really works and it’s pretty cool. Even with store bought ultra-pasteurized cream you can get something that can be called butter. With generic cream, you’ll get flavorless butter—but you could conceivably flavor it with anything because it’s so neutral.
But should we? And even if we use really good cream from a farmer with excellent cows fed on lovely grasses—is this all there is to great butter, a standing mixer or food processor? Could everyone make artisanal butter? I asked Diane St. Clair about the article (Diane is one of the best butter makers in the country and also generous with her cow balls). In an email, she expressed frustration with the article. It mentioned nothing about the quality of the cream, she said, which is critical. It won’t taste like the real thing if you use the ultra-pasteurized stuff. And he mentioned nothing about culturing the butter, she said, introducing the bacteria that will give the butter complexity.
“Oh well,” she concluded.
I have read part of Diane’s struggle for superlative flavor, the trial and error, the trip from Vermont into Manhattan where she and a friend bought various butters at Zabar’s and sat on a bench on upper Broadway tasting an international variety against her own. That’s the butter that I want to taste.
Making your own butter is a fun kitchen parlor trick. It’s a cool sensory experience, if you like touching food, to feel the water squeezing out of it as you kneed it. And it’s important in its helping us to understand our food better (the main reason I’m glad Patterson wrote about it). But is the fact that we can churn our own butter valuable? If you’ve got a pint of good cream in the fridge and you’re about to leave for vacation, absolutely.
And if more people began culturing their own cream from local farms to make butter for their family and put the buttermilk to good use, that would be a real advance. The Wednesday Chef blogs rapturously on the this subject and also links to a blog on cultured butter—both worth reading.
Bob delGrosso
Nice one MR. This is the kind of stuff that inspires people to make their own food. You've done the gods work in this: I'm sure they are pleased.
Of course Diane is right about the cream. The stuff in the supermarket might be okay for applications where the basic flavor of the cream is masked by other ingredients. But when it is asked to stand next to fresh stuff is sure to inspire goons like me to make analogies to prophylactic assisted and unprotected carnal knowledge.
Kitt
Interestingly, The Traveler's Lunchbox blogged cultured butter a couple of weeks before the NYT article, and did a much better job of inspiring me to try it. (Not that I have yet, but I will!)
Here's the URL (sorry, Typepad doesn't allow me to make it a shorter link):
http://www.travelerslunchbox.com/journal/2007/6/21/getting-some-culture.html
Natalie Sztern
It's odd this post, because just this past week my son asked if we had any more butter, which was sitting in the back of the fridge and my daughter piped up "remember when I made butter at nursery school"?
She is 25. I remember her coming home with a container of butter that the teacher and the kids made together, and the explanation of the how and why she made butter that day, while we ate a slice of the challah she also brought home, is one I thought only I would remember for life.
eat4fun
As a datapoint confirming Chef delGrosso's comment, I am inspired to make my own butter. More so the cultured butter as described in Kitt's post.
In regards to supermarket butters... only recently have I noticed that I have butter made from cultured cream and butter made from cream (uncultured?). I thought butter was cultured, but I guess there is a difference. For mass production sake??? sacrificing flavor???
Tana
I ate God's own butter one day, out at Claravale Farm. There, a small herd of Jerseys are pastured on good green grass. I went to a birthday brunch there once, and came away to write this:
"The breakfast buffet included fruit salad, bagels, lox, Quiche Lorraine, bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese, buttermilk biscuits, apple tarts, berry tarts, fresh squeezed orange juice, and champagne. Everything was top notch, because that's how Ron and Collette do things. Best of all, there was Ron's butter...in my entire life, I have never had butter this good. It was so far beyond any good butter I've had, and so much the essence, the distillation of what butter should be, that I couldn't speak immediately. And when I could, I begged for more."
He made it using a Kitchen-Aid mixer, himself.
Posted here:
http://smallfarms.typepad.com/small_farms/2005/09/farms_are_the_n.html
Jennie/Tikka
I'd sure like to know the specifics of the two butters I had back in January at The French Laundry. One of the two artisinal butters had nearly a chedder cheese quality flavor to it - and a mild orange color, too. I honestly thought it WAS cheddar cheese before they explained it was butter from a local dairy. God, it was glorious!!!
And I'm pretty sure there's a culinary student or two who found out the hard way that cream turns to butter when you leave it in the Robocoup too long in pastry class 🙂
Briana
I loved making butter when I was little! One year, I won a blue ribbon at the 4-H tent at the fair for making butter in a mayonnaise jar. I still do it sometimes as a fun kitchen magic-trick when I make french toast for my boyfriend.
It honestly never occurred to me to make it in my KitchenAid....though that would save me about 25minutes of jar-shaking.....
Connor
Interesting post here. Coincidentally, I was just talking to my parents a few weeks ago about making butter since it was one of their chores as kids. They recalled how the thickest layer of cream off the top of the milk was always a favorite with fresh fruit, and how they would make the remaining cream into butter using a hand-cranked wooden churn, the whole process taking about 15 minutes. My parents still farm but don't raise cattle, and like millions of other folks, they buy and use good 'ole Land O'Lakes since, according to my mom, doing it by hand with store-bought cream just isn't worth the trouble.
the pauper
"But is the fact that we can churn our own butter valuable?"
Yes. Absolutely.
once again, i'm disappointed by your take on the article.
the answer is yes, of course the article is a good thing. how many times do i have to harp on you about this? things happen in a progression.
ruhlman, do you walk into a middle school, read the essays of 7th grader writers and say, "you suck. you're not doing it the best way. you should just read the best that's out there. the end."
come on man. let me just ask you, isn't it possible that people will try making butter at home and get more into food and all that it encompasses? (including eating local and sustainable) And Diane St. Clair too, isn't it possible people try making butter at home and think, "You know, Diane's butter tastes so much better. She must really know her stuff." and then go out to buy better tasting butter.
it's like food bloggers think if there is a dark path, once you show someone the path, then they are doomed. you need more faith in the people who read newspapers and make an attempt at homemade butter, no matter what kind of cream they use and no matter the result.
rockandroller
I think he was "musing" rather than "accusing," pauper, but that's just my take.
These kinds of posts inspire me to thought always, to action only sometimes. If I have what I consider to be an excellent and healthy source of butter already, it's not something I'd be likely to try on my own (and I do, I get it from some Amish who raise their cattle on a grass diet supplemented only with a limited amount of organic grain, no hormones, etc.).
There are just some things that, at least with my current lifestyle (work full time, work out or have dance class most evenings and live in an apartment with a tiny kitchen) I'm just not going to bother attempting due to the time and effort involved. Some are impractical for me (anything that requires counter space), some are just unnecessary for me I think. I'd rather support the amish farmer I know and help keep him in business by buying his butter than make my own.
Karin
"But is the fact that we can churn our own butter valuable?"
In my house, as the one who does nearly all of the cooking and cleaning up, I appreciate this question. We make many things from scratch in our house, including soap, and I can certainly say that making everything within your own household is not sustainable. (As it all too often happens, there is only one person in this house bearing the brunt of sustainable living.) Yes I remember the flavor of home made butter, I used the same butter churner my grandma did, and we bought the cream (illegally, as it was not pasturized) from the neighbor who had a couple of pasture fed jersey cows. But I can think of three artisan butters that I can buy and all are available for the same price as what it would cost for me to buy the cream (and that is not including the cost of gas and the length of time it would take for me to drive to the cow). Oh yeah, and those butters are just as good and a 10 minute walk away.
Hank
I've used this "trick" several times to make flavored butters. Wanna freak out your dinner guests? Add the flavor to the cream, THEN make the butter. Want green? Chop something like parsley or basil or chives then add to the cream. Or try estratto or regular tomato paste. Or, if you "really" want to freak people out, add squid ink...now THAT's beurre noir for ya.
kevin
I remember making butter as a kid in school (1st grade, maybe?). The teacher put cream in a large jar and we all took turns shaking the jar until we had butter. And a couple of years ago I wrote an article for the local paper doing a taste comparison of various butters available in this area including two artisinal butters and a goat butter from Vermont. That was huge fun.
ruhlman
pauper, you are a prickly cur.
I meant to praise the article, and certainly didn't mean to discourage people from making their own butter if they have a mind. i was just asking a question. and i'm optimistic about readers, certainly readers of this blog--look at all these great comments. You seem to be the cynical one. I am grateful for all these comments (including yours. And butter in a jar! brilliant. patterson should have given this method as well!
david
I agree with Kitt that the Traveler's Lunchbox post was far more inspiring. I almost made some myself!
I had some kick-butt butter at Manresa (a great restaurant in Los Gatos, CA) last week, tasting as good as the best you get in France. So it is possible. When I asked where it was from, David the chef looked exasperated and mumbled something about the price. But both of us knew it was well worth it. There's nothing as good as great butter.
One you taste it, it's tough to go back. People should try it once to see what they're missing. Even if they have to churn it up themselves.
FoodPuta
As a child, I resented the fact that we had to always make that crap. I would think, geez mom, you can buy this shit in the grocery store you know!
Fast forward about 30 years, with a recent trip to Paris (my first), and I find myself reacquainted with the flavor.
How I wished I could go back to making "that crap" again.
Everyone should go buy a cow!
Bob delGrosso
Pauper
I cannot do otherwise than concur with Ruhlman that you are a nettlesome soul (and don't you dare get pissed off or accuse me of sycophancy). And I will go one step further and add that if someone like you does not have his own blog or some other form of public organ with which you can express his/her unique and valuable voice then the world is not a just place.
So how about it, where are you?
Victoria
It was kindergatern. We made butter in honor of Thanksgiving. We sat in a circle as the teachers read some Thanksgiving story, each taking a turn at shaking the cream and salt the teacher added to the jar. Even at 5, I was not a believer that this was going to work.
When it was done, we each got a smear of the creamy goodness. I'm 31, and I can still remember the taste.
It's something basic, something fundimental that everyone should know how to do. Knowing the basic can open your mind to what else can be done to make it better.
Sorcha
We did it in kindergarten too, back in either 75 or 76 (I don't remember which part of the year it was) and my son did it in Children's House (preschool-kindergarten in the Montessori system.) It really is pretty magical at that age. Heck, it's pretty magical now.
Jennie/Tikka
Clearly this has hit the Nostalgia-never for quite a few people.
My maternal grandparents each made their own butter for their respective families. Grandma grew up on a farm where they slaughtered all their own meat, grew their own veggies, etc. Grandma had the responsibility of butter-making and chicken "dispatching."
Grandpa's family owned a restaurant. He was the short-order cook. I never lacked french fries a day in my life, thanks to him.
Jennie/Tikka
Oh crap! That was supposed to be "Nostalgia NERVE"! Remind me to actually preview this once in a while! 😀
Jen
lorettalockhorn
My grandmother had a couple who lived on her cattle and timber farm when I was young. They paid their rent with the best veggies and homemade butter ever. Before I moved to BFE, I used to make my own similarly good tasting butter from raw milk available at the hippie food co-op. It's great that people are being inspired to make their own or taste something new. hmmm Now I'm craving toast!
diane
Just thought I'd comment on all the comments--
I am the butter-maker for The French Laundry and Per Se--I guess I'm the one who made the cheddar cheese like butter, though I don't think it tastes like that. It is very very yellow, and the way we see food often affects the way we taste food, so maybe that contributed.
My butter is cultured--that's the way it "used" to be made, esp pre-commercialization of dairy products. It was done to help its shelf-life, but I think it enhances the flavor of the cream and thus the butter. Unfortunately, you can't culture cream from the store that has been ultra-pasteurized--there is no bacteria left for grow anything once you introduce the culture.
In my mind, there is no flavor benefit to making your own butter from store bought, ultra-pasteurized cream.
However, I must agree that there may be a benefit to the feeling of making your own food, and knowing how a product you regularly eat is made. It may also cause one to say, "Shit, how some I made this in my kitchen and it doesn't taste any different than Land O' Lakes...." thus propelling one to search out a good local source of unpasteurized Jersey cream from a nearby dairy that grazes its cows and VOILA--your butter WILL taste different, believe me. Seek and ye shall find.
I get lots and lots of notes, calls etc from folks who remember hand-made butter from their grandparents' farm and want to taste it again. Similarly, I hear from Northern Europeans who miss eating "grass butter", the first butter of the season, made after the cows are just turned out in the spring. We all need to rediscover what real food tastes like, when it was made on-farm, out of factories, by hand.
ntsc
In college one summer I worked in a cheese factory. We turned out 20 1600 lb Swiss Cheese every day, the cream was skimed off and churned (huge mechanical churn) and the fresh butter was better than ice cream.
I don't recall how much butter we made daily, but figure most of the cream from on top of 16 tons of milk. Unpasturized although they knew that wouldn't last out the decade.
I refuse to have anything to do with American Cheese, I know how it is made and it isn't pretty.
Jennie/Tikka
Wow, Diane - THANKS for that! I'll confess my memory is probably a little hazy and I'll confess to just getting over a really bad cold at the time I was there - that also could have affected how and what I tasted. For that reason I think I'm going to have to make another pilgrimage to TFL and have dinner all over again!
French Laundry at Home
We made butter in kindergarten, too -- I forgot about it completely until you guys mentioned it here.
It's raining here on the southern Jersey shore this fourth of July... and we have a nice little organic dairy not far from the island where some of our local restautant owners get their wares. We need a "project" today, so now I'm think we'll make butter. Headed out now to get some cream!
fiat lux
Skawt and I were just discussing whether, instead of making compound butter, we could make our own flavored butter from scratch, with the flavors added in at the start.
He pointed out that it wouldn't taste as good, since we don't have access to the right milk. Which is a bummer. Although we could theoretically drive up to Napa and try to find some local farms willing to sell us the milk, in reality, that's an awful lot of work when there's a market selling easily a dozen kinds of butter, including some nice European imports, just down the street.
Happy 4th to all!
Sorcha
Well, at least you do have access to the good stuff, Fiat. That's a consolation.
S. Woody
I never had the experience of making butter when I was in school (Burbank, CA, in the 60s). And I seriously doubt that my partner's grandchildren will have the chance to learn this in school, even though they live in the Maryland countryside where this would be more obvious knowledge.
So, I guess I'll have to sit down with them for an experiment in the kitchen sometime this summer. It might not taste like the butter their mother buys at the market, but she's inclined to buy the cheapest stuff, so maybe whatever I use will taste better. The chance to get an "Oh, Wow!" out of the younger lad will make the effort worth it.
Bob delGrosso
Fiat
I don't know why you could not make flavored butter from scratch even if you don't have fresh cream. As long as whatever you are using to flavor the butter has fat soluble oils it should work.
The only problem that I see is that because the cream must be kept and churned at low temp, the oils will have to either have been previosuly extracted from whatever. This is by no means -impossible and pretty easy to do with plants at least.
For example: baisil butter.
Puree the basil and filter out the solids with filter paper or very fine cloth. Heat the liquor over low heat so that the oils rise to the top. Skim off the oil, cool it down, mix it into the cream and churn.
You could achieve an even better effect with a centrifuge. With a large centrifuge you could dump the puree into the vessel and spin it. The solids will go to the bottom, the oil to the top and the water will stay in the middle.
With a smaller centrifuge you would filter out the solids and spin and separate the water an oil.
In either case the centrifuge method is superior to heating because there will be less loss of volatile aromatics due to the lower temps.
the pauper
Ruhlman, Bob,
I read you wrong. My apologies.
And Bob, I don't know what 'sycophancy' means, had to dictionary that word up. Hmm.. ok?
Really though, I enjoy this blog very much and it's just fun to insert inflammatory comments here and there. Although it does seem it's a good idea for me to read correctly what someone is trying to say instead of speaking too soon.
Ms.Anthrope
Bob...Playing with food AND lab equipment...?!?! Be still my heart.
I can't wait to try this and seeing my "handler" is out of town for the week, this would be a great time to give it a whirl (pun intended) without being run out of the kitchen. Thanks!
Mar12
Ahhh...I fondly remember making butter in 3rd grade in the 60's. But what I remember even more fondly and have mentioned to many people who think I'm nuts is that there used to be 'summer milk' and 'winter milk' and by extension 'summer cheese' and 'winter cheese'. You could always taste the difference in the milk in about mid-June after the cows had been feasting on grass for awhile. The milk had an 'earthier' quality and tasted-for lack of a better description-thicker. It always took a few days to get used to it. Then winter would come and you would get the 'winter milk', milk from cows that were now eating grains and such and the milk was less flavorful and more watery. And of course the cheeses would taste different too--the 'summer cheese' was always so much more flavorful. Sigh---you absolutely cannot get great cheese anymore--I live in Wisconsin and I have visitors who tell me that they 'can't get good cheese where they live as you can in Wisconsin'--but what we have can't compare with cheeses of even 10-15 years ago. Why do we put up with such bland tasting food products?? No wonder people eat so much salsa and other spicy-type foods--they are desperate for something with flavor! Sorry rant over.
seemore
knead, not kneed
t-scape
I think for the most part we don't put up with bland flavors - our palates have become accustomed to them, for the most part. If you don't have a point of reference, then you don't know that supermarket butter tastes like nothing, for example. It's just what butter tastes like to you.
Assertive flavors, too, are often associated with heat (as in, spicy). Where I come from, food is very spiced, but not spicy. I think that flavor profile, of strong use of herbs and spices as opposed to heat, is largely missing in the mainstream US diet.
The example of butter is a good one for me, because until recently I hadn't had the chance to taste some of the good stuff. My husband got some artisanal butter from Rogue Creamery here in Oregon, and when I tasted it I flipped out. I used to think that I wasn't big on using butter for anything other than cooking, but now I use it on way too much stuff. My palate is happy, but my waistline is going to hate me before long.
Michelle
My Dad's family were farm people and I still can remember the amazement of my mother, the city girl, watching an aunt whip up a batch of butter for Sunday dinner (they had their own cows) and we thought it was magic. Then we picked fresh peaches from a tree and made cobbler. I told a friend about this experience once and she said, "you can make butter at home!" My mom didn't cook much, but these experiences on the farm made an indelible mark on who I am today and what I eat. I wish all kids could have that.
Amanda
I've never made butter in my entire life and likely never will. Butter makes you fat if you eat too much of it.
Stick with Olive Oil.
Although, it does look fun to make if I was completely bored out of my mind.
Jennie/Tikka
Okay, so - thinking a step or two ahead here. So, doing a lobster "a la Keller" and poaching it in this pasteurized/flavor infused artisinal butter clarified.....who's gonna try it first???
Jennie/Tikka
Did it again! Meant non-pasteurized 🙁
Sorcha
t-scape, I'm coming to your house for toast.
t-scape
olive oil makes you fat if you eat too much of it, too 😉
sorcha, if you are able to hit any the various farmer's markets around town, i've seen Rogue make an appearance at almost all of them - and they always bring their butter 🙂
E. Nassar
My grandmother in North Lebanon still makes her own butter from local milk she buys from farmers. She uses an old fashioned smallish (fits maybe 10 gallons) washing machine. I grew up watching her do this and enjoying the fresh warm butter on fresh baked bread. We also love drinking the buttermilk chilled and salted! So, it is quiet amazing to me that a chef or anyone remotely associated with food would be surprised that yes, churn milk and you get butter.
E. Nassar
"I've never made butter in my entire life and likely never will. Butter makes you fat if you eat too much of it.
Stick with Olive Oil."
Yeah, cause eating too much olive oil is not going to make you fat. After all olive oil is almost fat free :). Cute...
Eating too much of anything is not good.
Sorcha
Eating too much of anything will make you fat, Amanda. The "too much" is the operative phrase.
t-scape, I will do that. I'll also investigate places like New Seasons. They may have it.
wcw
Butter!
So, my mother's mother lived (until recently, RIP) in Vorarlberg. Wherever she got her butter (I doubt she made it), it was good. Real darn good. The likes of which you just don't get here (California; we mostly don't eat at the French Laundry, more's the pity).
A decade or two back I spent a half-year nearby, in Basel, Switzerland. I told her on a visit how much I liked her butter.
The next week I got a package from her in the mail.
It was a kilogram of butter.
It tasted fine.
The day I can buy the same in a store, I shall.
Amanda
Yes, I understand that eating too much of anything isn't good for you. 🙂
I'm not a farm girl so that's why I said I would likely never make butter.
I'm a poor Italian who didn't have the option of "making butter with my dad and mom or grandma and grandpa" while growing up. Now, as an adult, I prefer cooking with Olive Oil but in moderation.
SunshineGrrrl
I'm so lucky I live in Seattle. I've found a source for Raw Milk from Jersey Cows. I think I'll weather the expense of the ferry and have a go at chatting up the farming family on some lazy saturday soon and pick up a few quarts for butter making and a bunch of experimentation I'd like to do. Just been reading about milk in McGee and the prospect of raw milk from Jersey cows specifically for butter has put me in a completely mischievious mood. Clotted Creme, Butter, maybe some new cheese and/or butterscotch.
Jennie/Tikka
I'm going to have to see if Bristol Farms carries it.....there's a fairly good chance they do. Its where I get everything else I can't find in supermarkets.
Lynn Eve
Daniel Patterson's article prompted me to make butter this past weekend - but it was not the butter that was the surprising outcome (however delicious). It was the buttermilk. THAT you won't find on any supermarket shelf. The accompanying Spring Pea/Mint Soup recipe that followed the article was to die for. And I will happily churn butter again, just to get the buttermilk.
Peter Zelchenko
So, who needs a food processor? I showed my boy how to make butter with a little glass bottle. It only took three or four minutes of shaking.
But the best parlor trick is to make real, live milk from nonfat box milk and a dollop of heavy cream. Can you tell the difference?
Patricia
Whne I was in the 6th grade , I had to come up with a science project. My Grandfather was a dairy farmer and my patents still had the Delaval cream separator from the farm. I obtained 3 gallons of whole, raw, unprocessed milk from a farmer that was fresh out of the cow. (Holsteins I believe...) I separated the milk to make heavy cream. I made butter by shaking the dickens out of it in a mason jar, and I made ice cream from the cream. It was kind of a cool project that went over well with the Nuns as it didn't involve bringing in a live animal and I didn't need an electrical outlet.
During the Depression, my Grandmother made butter in her Maytag wringer washing machine.
If you're short on ideas for school projects for your kids, making butter and ice cream is a very good and unusual idea. It sure beats a paper mache volcano.
gen
call me insane, i whip my butter by hand. i guess it's just the satisfaction of creating it, i don't actually like to use butter except in mashed potatoes and a few other dishes.
Michael Y
My father worked at the Morning Milk Company in Stockton california. When I was 10 or 12 years old he showed me how to take a carton of cream, and while holding the top closed, to shake it up like a bartender mixing a martini. It seemed to take forever, but after about 3-4 minutes of continuous shaking you could feel it start to "crack" as he called it. If you opened the container at that time you could see bits of butter fat starting to clump together. Then after continuing for another couple of minutes all of the butter would have formed a ball. What was left was the buttermilk. After draining it off, you continue to shake the ball in the container and additional buttermilk would be pressed out of the ball until it was very solid. At that time it was obviously unsalted. But adding a bit of salt to taste made it delicious. No machine needed. Wonderfully simple. And I always enjoy showing it off now that I'm much older.
Anita
After reading about butter-making on so any blogs in the past few months, and going through all the comments here, I can see that fighting against 'only-pasteurized' milk and cream (when and if, it becomes mandatory)here in India may be a worthy battle!
Till just a decade ago, even in the biggest urban centers (Delhi, for example), 80% of us bought milk directly from the milkman who raised his cows/ buffaloes - unpasteurized milk, naturally. Everyone bought only full cream milk! And therefore, everyone made their own butter!
Alas, now we have choices - 3% homogenised, 1 1/2%, skimmed, but also 6% whole - and I get the first kind 🙁
We do get decent butter though - a taste of which carries with Indians who cross the oceans to the other side. They still crave for Amul butter which I have seen sold in Indian stores there! Now I understand why - the ordinary butters sold in the west are un-cultured!
Andree Bodemann
I picked up some fresh unpasturized butter from area mennonites, always love the stuff, tough to find but some are saying don't eat it, bad for you. The stuff is sooo good, what are the risks to eating this type of product??
Suzanne
To JOHN Y in New York:
You mentioned your dad worked in Stockton, CA at THE MORNING MILK COMPANY. I am trying to research the history of the company because my 1950 California birth certificate was drawn off a "Morning Milk Company" certificate used by a doctor in Hayward, California.
Can you or your father provide me with any additional information?
Thank You,
Suzanne