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Recipe for old cream maker?

Little up & down handle to pump milk & butter through holes to make cream.Usually Bakelite top screwed onto glass bottom. Uses milk & unsalted butter but what quantity & how? Mum had one 65 years ago. Grateful.
Thankyou Michael for recipe. will be trying it tomorrow.

First I'll give you the recipe for turning skim milk into light cream and then heavy cream. Then I'll give you the equations to use in order to tailor recipes to your needs, e.g. using whole milk and butter to make half and half.

To make 1 cup of Light Cream:

0.775 cup skim milk, which is equivalent to 3/4 cup + 1 teaspoon or 183 mL
0.225 cup butter, which is equivalent to 3 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons or 55 mL

To make 1 cup of Heavy Cream:

0.73 cup skim milk, which is equivalent to 1/2 cup + 3 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons or 172 mL
0.27 cup butter, which is equivalent to 4 Tablespoons butter + 1 teaspoon or 65 mL

note: these quantities are derived assuming that volume is conserved, i.e. 1/4 butter + 3/4 cup milk = 1 cup. This is not necessarily the case, but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

Now the equations:

p(____) is the fat density (grams of fat per cup), e.g. p(cream) is the grams of fat per cup of the type of cream you wish to produce.
V(____) is the volume in cups, e.g. V(milk) is the volume of milk required for the recipe
* is multiplication
/ is division

p(cream) * V(cream) = p(milk) * V(milk) + p(butter) * V(butter)

assuming volume is conserved, we know
V(cream) = V(milk) + V(butter)

so,
V(butter) = V(cream) - V(milk)

substituting, we have
p(cream) * V(cream) = p(milk) * V(milk) + p(butter) *[V(cream) - V(milk)]

collecting the volumes gives us
V(cream) * [p(cream) - p(butter)] = V(milk) * [p(milk) - p(butter)]

solving for V(milk) yields
V(milk) = {V(cream) * [p(cream) - p(butter)]} / [p(milk) - p(butter)]
V(butter) = V(cream) - V(milk)

example: making 1 cup of light cream from skim milk and butter

V(cream) = 1 cup
p(cream) = 40 g fat / cup
p(milk) = 0.5 g fat / cup
p(butter) = 176 g fat / cup

V(milk) = {1 * [40 - 176]} / [0.5 - 176] = 0.7749 cup
V(butter) = 1 - 0.7749 = 0.2250 cup

The conversions required are 1 cup = 16 Tablespoons, 1 Tablespoon = 3 teaspoons, and 1 cup = 237 mL

I got the fat content of milks and creams from the website referenced below. I got the fat content of butter from the nutritional info on a box of butter. You could also get the fat content of milks and creams from the labels.

A little background - A cream maker is a homogenizer. It makes the fat droplets so small that they stay in suspension with the water in the milk. Though, given enough time, the fat droplets will coalesce and float to the top. The fat and milk must be at the same temperature and the fat should be liquid. What this means is that you should melt the butter with the milk in a saucepan or microwave. Worth noting is that heat speeds up the rate at which the fat droplets separate from solution so you don't need the milk to be boiling, just hot enough to melt butter is sufficient ~100F or 38C. It is also worth noting that I have never used a cream maker, so it's possible that I'm wrong. Use your own common sense if it doesn't turn out quite right the first time.

Instructions:
Add enough water to saucepan to cover the bottom. Pour water out, but do not dry (this helps keep the milk solids from sticking to the bottom of the pan, I don't know why but it works). Add milk to pan and cook over med-low heat. When milk is warm ~80F or 27C, add butter in small cubes and stir until melted ~100F or 38C. Remove from heat. Pour mixture into cream maker and pump. Use immediately or chill quickly.

Now a few last remarks. You must use unsalted butter or your cream will probably taste gross, especially if whipping for a dessert. It would be really neat to try using a fat other than butter, like almond or walnut oil to impart different flavors. I bet one could make vegan cream using soymilk and a nut oil or vegetable shortening. In fact, coconut oil would probably be best. That being said, I'm pretty sure the fat must be solid at refrigerator temperatures or else it will separate really quickly. Still, worth experimenting. Imagine clotted cream made with almond oil and served over fresh berries. And a final note: I apologize for the equations being cumbersome. I tried using HTML to code them and it failed, I don't think the text window supports it.

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