🫙 Milk churn
Also known as: churn
A 20–40 L metal container, traditional farm packaging.
A milk churn is a metal container with a lid for carrying and storing milk. It is usually tall and round, with handles. In English it is called a milk churn or a milk can.
Churns used to be made of steel, and later of a light aluminium alloy. A churn usually holds 20–40 litres. Old steel farm churns in Britain were even bigger — up to 12 gallons, which is about 55 litres. The farmer poured the fresh milk into the churn and took it out to the road. In many European countries, special platforms stood by the roads. They were just high enough to make it easy to load the churns onto a cart or a dairy lorry. A tag with the farm's name was tied to the lid. Churns of milk were also sent by rail.
When dairies began to collect milk straight from farms in tankers, churns almost vanished from the industry. But small churns are still used at home and on small farms.
How it connects to milk
🫙 Milk churn ← packed in ← 🥛 Milk
Links
- Carried by
- 🛒 Milk cart
- What is packed
- 🥛 Milk
- Who works with it
- 🧑 Milkman
- Wine and milk
- 🍷 Demijohn
Frequently asked questions
How many litres does a milk churn hold?
Usually 20–40 litres. Old farm churns could be bigger, up to 55 litres, and household ones are much smaller.
Why did milk churns almost disappear?
Milk began to be collected from farms by tanker, so there was no longer any need to carry it in churns.
History
Similar
🫗 Vacuum flask · 🪣 Bucket · 🍼 Baby bottle · 🍼 Bottle · 🫙 Milk can · 🫙 Carton