ON MAKING BUTTER AND CHEESE.
The directions in this article were given by a practical amateur
cheese-maker of Goshen, Conn., a place distinguished all over the
nation for the finest butter and cheese.
_Articles used in Making Cheese._
The articles used in making cheese are, a large tub, painted inside and
outside, to hold the milk, a large brass kettle to heat it, a cheese
basket, cheese hooks, cheese ladders, strainers of loose linen cloth,
and a cheese press.
It is indispensable that all the articles used be first washed
thoroughly, then scalded, and then dried thoroughly, before putting
away.
_Mode of Preparing the Rennet._
Do not remove any part of the curd that may be found in the rennet
(which is the stomach of a calf), as it is the best part. Take out
everything mixed with the curd in the stomach. Soak the rennet in a
quart of water, then hang it to dry, where flies will not reach it, and
keep the water bottled for use. Rennet differs in strength, so that no
precise rule can be given for quantity, but say about half a tea-cup
full to two pails of milk.
_To Make Cheese._
Strain the milk into the tub, keeping in all the cream. Heat a portion,
and then add it to the cold, till the whole is raised to 98° or 100°
Fahrenheit; no more and no less. Then put in the rennet, stirring well,
and take enough to have the curd form well in an hour. If it does not
form well, more must be stirred in.
When the curd is formed, cut it in small checks to the bottom, and then
break it gently with a skimmer, to make the whey separate. If this
is not done gently, the milk runs off, the whey turns white, and the
cheese is injured. The greener the whey, the better the cheese.
When the whey is separated, set the basket over the tub, spread the
strainer over, and dip the curd into it, occasionally lifting the
corners to hasten the draining.
Then draw up the corners, twist them, and set a stone on, to press
out the whey for ten minutes. Then again cut up the curd, and press
it again as before. Continue thus till it is thoroughly drained. Then
press it all into some regular form, and in cool weather it may stand
till next morning for more cheese to be added. But if the weather is
hot, it must be scalded the first day.
_To Scald the Curd._
Cut, or chop the curd into cakes the fourth of an inch in size, put
it in the strainer, and immerse it in the brass kettle of warm water,
enough to cover it. Then raise the temperature to 105°. Stir it well
till warmed through, say half an hour. Then gradually add cold water,
till reduced to 88° or 90°. Then drain the curd thoroughly as before,
and salt it, allowing four ounces of salt to every ten pounds of curd,
and mixing very thoroughly. Then put it into the small strainers, and
then into the cheese hoops, laying the strainer over smoothly, and
placing the follower on it. Put it to press, and let it remain two
days. When taken from the press, grease it with common butter or butter
made of whey cream, and set it on a shelf in a dark, cool room. Grease
and turn it every day till firm, and for six months grease and turn it
often.
If the cheese is to be colored, boil anatto with ley, and put to the
milk with the rennet. To make sage cheese, put in sage juice (some
add to the sage spinach juice) when you put in the rennet. Sew strips
of strong cotton around large cheeses, when taken from the press, to
preserve their form. In fly time, put cayenne pepper in the butter you
rub on.
_Stilton cheese_ is made of milk enriched by cream, and of a small size.
_Cottage cheese_ is made by pressing the curds of milk, and when free
from whey, adding cream or butter and salt.
_Welsh rabbit_ is made by melting cheese and adding wine and other
seasoning.
Old and dry cheese is very good grated and mixed with a little brandy,
just enough to wet it up.
_Directions for making Butter._
Two particulars are indispensable to success in making _good_ butter;
the first is, that the churning be frequent, so that the cream will
not grow bitter, or sour; and the second is _cleanliness_ in all the
implements and processes connected with it.
In hot weather it is important to keep the milk, cream, and butter as
cool as possible. For this purpose, those who have no ice-house, or
very cool milk-room, hang their cream down a well. In winter it is
needful to raise the temperature of the cream a little, while churning,
but care must be taken to do it very slightly, or the butter is
injured. The best way is to warm the churn, and churn in a warm room.
After the weather gets cold, the cream rises more perfectly after
allowing the milk to stand say ten or eleven hours, to set it over a
furnace a while till it is warmed through, but not heated hot enough to
boil. Then take it back, let it stand eleven hours longer, and skim it.
This secures more, and better cream.
In hot weather, set the churn into a tub of cold water, and churn
steadily, as stopping puts back the process, and injures the butter. In
hot weather, do not churn very fast, as it makes soft butter. When the
butter has come, collect it in a wooden bowl, which is the best article
to work it in, having first scalded it, and then put it in cold water
till cold. _Do not use the hand_ in working over butter, as it injures
it so much that a higher price is often paid for butter made without
using the hand.
A wooden spad made for the purpose is the proper article for working
over butter.
As soon as the butter is put in the bowl, pour in as much of the
coldest water as will allow you to work the butter, and keep adding
and pouring off cold water, as you work it, until the water will run
off clear. It is continuing this process until _all_ the buttermilk
is extracted, which alone will secure butter that will keep good and
sweet. Water hastens the process, but butter keeps longer not to have
it used.
No precise direction can be given for salting, as tastes vary so much
in regard to this. It is a good way to notice the proportions which are
most agreeable, and note the measure, and then measure ever after.
In salting down in firkins, use the nicest rock salt, as much depends
on the nature of the salt. The firkins must be very thoroughly
seasoned, and the bottom covered with salt, and the sides rubbed with
it. Pack the butter in layers, with salt between. After a few days,
the butter will shrink from the sides, and then the space must be
filled with new and nice brine. Muslin spread under and over the layer
of salt, between the layers of butter is a good plan, as it saves the
butter.
It is said that butter will be preserved sweet a long time for
journeys, or voyages, by working into it very thoroughly a mixture
composed of one-fourth salt, one-fourth saltpetre, and two-fourths
white sugar.
In large dairies, the milk is churned soon after it is taken from the
cow.
The quality of butter depends very much upon the kind of cows. Those
who give a great deal of milk, are usually small and thin. Every cow
should have a tea-cup full of salt each week, and must be well fed.
Green cornstalks and carrots, are excellent for cows. Turnips, cabbage,
and parsnips spoil the milk. The waste of the kitchen, with a quart of
corn meal, and as much hay as she will eat daily, is good fare. Skimmed
milk for drink is good, and if it is refused, withhold water, and the
cow will learn to love it. Milk three times a day, and you get much
more cream; stripping must be done thoroughly, or you lose cream, and
dry up the cow. Never make a cow run, as it injures the milk. Use tin
vessels for milk.
A stoneware churn is best, and a tin one is better than wood. Keep milk
in a cool place, where air circulates freely; close air spoils milk
and cream. Never stir milk after it is set, as it stops the rising of
the cream. Skim milk as soon as it becomes _loppard_. Put a little ice
in each pan in hot weather, and you get more cream. In skimming milk,
do not scrape off the hardest portion that adheres to the pan, as it
injures the butter. Put a spoonful of salt to each pailful of milk
(except what is for family use), and it makes the butter sweeter, and
come easier. Salt your cream as you gather it, and it keeps better, and
makes sweeter butter. In hot weather churn in the coolest part of the
day, and in a cool place, and do not shut the air out of the churn, as
it is necessary to make the butter come. Butter is best, to work it
enough the first time. Never work it three times. It will keep better
to work out the buttermilk without putting in water. The more entirely
it is freed from buttermilk, the longer it will keep sweet.
A good brine is made for butter by dissolving a quart of fine salt,
a pound of loaf sugar, and a teaspoonful of saltpetre in two quarts
of water, and then strain it on to the butter. Packed butter is most
perfectly preserved sweet by setting the firkin into a larger firkin,
and filling in with good brine, and covering it. Butter will keep sweet
a year thus.
Buttermilk kept in potter’s ware dissolves the glazing, and becomes
poisonous.
Never scald strainers or milky vessels till thoroughly washed, as the
milk or cream put in them will be injured by it. The best way to scald
such vessels is to plunge them all over into scalding water, and then
every spot is scalded.
Butter will sometimes not come because the air is too much excluded
from the churn.