BUTTER
“From milk,” continued Uncle Paul, “we make butter and cheese. I have
just explained to you in a few words how the ingredients composing
them—that is, cream and casein—are obtained in their separate forms;
but further details are now called for, and I will give them to you,
beginning with butter.
“The material necessary for making butter is cream, a fatty substance
disseminated through the milk in excessively fine and almost invisible
particles. When milk is left undisturbed in a cool place and exposed to
the air, these particles of fat rise to the surface little by little
and collect there in a layer of cream. An example taken from things
familiar to you will explain the cause of this spontaneous separation.
“Oil, you know, cannot in any way be made to dissolve in water. If a
mixture of the two liquids is well shaken, the oil divides into an
infinity of tiny globules uniformly distributed, and the whole takes on
a whitish tint that looks something like milk. But this condition is
only temporary. If you stop heating or shaking the mixture, the oil,
the lighter part, comes to the surface, globule by globule, and soon
the two liquids are completely separated, the oil on top, the water at
the bottom. If a little gum were added to the water to make it sticky,
the separation of the oil would be less easily effected and the mixture
would retain its milky appearance for a longer time; nevertheless the
two liquids would always end by separating.
“The fatty matter composing butter behaves in the same way as the oil
of our experiment. It is not dissolved by the milk; it is simply
divided into very minute particles that are held in place by a liquid
thickened with casein, just as water thickened with gum holds for a
long time the tiny drops of oil. Left undisturbed long enough, these
oily particles free themselves and rise to the surface.”
“Cream rises to the top of milk,” observed Jules, “just as oil that has
been shaken up with water rises to the surface; only the separation is
slower on account of the casein that thickens the liquid.”
“That is the secret of this curious separation. Milk is placed in large
earthen nappies, smaller at the bottom than at the top, and thus a
large surface is exposed to the cooling action of the air, which
hastens the separation of the cream. The full nappy is put in a cool
and very quiet place. In summer half a day is long enough for the
rising of the cream; in winter it takes at least twenty-four hours.
When the separation is finished, the cream is removed with a skimmer or
a large almost flat spoon.
“Cream is yellowish white, oily to the touch on account of its greasy
matter, and sweet and very pleasant to the taste, having the flavor of
both fresh butter and cheese. It is most delicious eating.”
“We know that,” Emile assented, “from those capital sandwiches Mother
Ambroisine makes for us with cream on feast days.”
“That delicacy,” remarked his uncle, “cannot be allowed every day, for
the cream is needed for butter for the family.”
“Once I helped Mother Ambroisine work the little butter machine, a kind
of small cask called a churn. Why do we have to thump so long to get
the butter?”
“That is what I am going to explain to you. In cream the particles of
butter are simply grouped side by side, without forming a united body.
Besides, a layer of moisture, coming from the whey, isolates them and
prevents their uniting. To combine all these particles into a compact
mass of butter, it is necessary to squeeze out the milk and knead them
together. This is accomplished by prolonged beating.
“The implement used is called a churn. The simplest consists of a kind
of small cask larger at the bottom than at the top. The cover is
pierced with an opening through which runs a rod carrying a perforated
wooden disc on the end inside the churn. After the cream has been
poured into the churn, the operator takes the rod in both hands and
vigorously raises it and plunges it down in alternate strokes, thus
causing the terminal disc to rise and fall in the creamy mass. By this
prolonged beating the fatty particles unite and become butter.
Sometimes the churn is made of a small cask in which turns by means of
a crank an axle bearing perforated wings or blades which beat the cream
in their rotation.
“Some precautions must be taken to carry this delicate operation
through successfully. During the heat of summer churning should be done
only in the morning and in a cool place. It is even well to set the
churn in a tub of cold water. If this is neglected the butter may turn
sour in the process of churning. In winter, on the contrary, the churn
should be kept a little warm by wrapping it in warmed cloths and
working it near the fire. Cold hardens the fatty particles and prevents
their uniting. If nothing is done to raise the temperature enough to
soften them they will be slow in turning to butter and the operation
will be long.
“As soon as all the fatty particles are well stuck together the butter
is made. It is taken out of the churn and put into cold water, in which
it is kneaded over and over again with a large wooden spoon to press
out the whey with which it is impregnated.
“If the butter is to be eaten soon, it suffices to keep it in water
that is changed every day for the sake of freshness and to prevent the
butter’s souring. But if it is to be kept for a long time, more
thorough-going means of preservation are necessary. The most simple
method consists in kneading it with kitchen salt, well dried in the
oven and reduced to fine powder. After salting, the butter is put in
earthen jars and the surface covered with a layer of salt.
“Another way to keep butter is to melt it. I must tell you, to begin
with, that butter, however carefully prepared it may be, always
contains a certain quantity of whey and casein. These are the
substances that, changing later by contact with the air, make butter
sour and finally rancid. If the fatty matter were all by itself, if it
could be completely rid of the casein and whey that go with it, we
could keep it much longer. This result is attained by melting.
“The butter is placed in a kettle over a bright fire that is even and
moderate. Melting soon begins. The moisture of the whey is evaporated,
this process being hastened by stirring the melted mass. A part of the
casein rises to the surface and forms a scum which is removed; another
part collects at the bottom of the kettle. When the melted butter looks
like oil and when a drop of it thrown on the coals takes fire without
crackling, thus proving that it is quite free from moisture, the
operation is finished. The kettle is taken off the fire, the liquid is
left standing a few minutes to give the casein time to settle at the
bottom, and finally the butter is poured by spoonfuls into earthen jars
carefully dried in the oven. These jars should be of small capacity and
narrow opening, so as to prevent as much as possible the access of air,
the cause of change in all our food substances. It is advisable to put
on top of the butter, as soon as it hardens, a layer of salt, as is
done with salted butter. Finally the jars are closed with parchment,
which is tied on with string.”