HOW TO MAKE BUTTER.
Let the cream be at the temperature of 55' to 60'; if the weather is
cold, put boiling water into the churn for half an hour before you
want to use it: when that is poured off, strain in the cream through a
butter-cloth. When the butter is coming, which is easily ascertained
by the sound, take off the lid, and with one of the flat boards scrape
down the sides of the churn; and do the same to the lid: this prevents
waste. When the butter is come, the buttermilk is to be poured off and
spring-water put in the churn, and turned for two or three minutes:
this is to be then poured away, and fresh added, and again the handle
turned for a minute or two. Should there be the least appearance of
milkiness when this is poured from the churn, more is to be put. This
we found was a much better mode of extracting all the buttermilk than
placing it in a pan under the pump, as we did when we commenced our
labors. The butter is then to be placed on the board or marble, and
salted to taste; then, with a cream-cloth, wrung out of spring-water,
press all the moisture from it. When it appears quite dry and firm,
make it up into rolls with the flat boards. The whole process should
be completed in three-quarters of an hour.
We always used a large tub which was made for the purpose, and every
article we were going to use was soaked in it for half an hour in
boiling water; then that removed, and cold spring-water substituted;
and the things we required remained in it till they were wanted. This
prevents the butter form adhering to the boards, cloth, &c., which
would render the task of "making it up" both difficult and
disagreeable.
In hot weather, instead of bringing the cream-crock into the kitchen
it must be kept as cool as possible; for as it is essential in the
winter to raise the temperature of the cream to the degree I have
stated, so in the summer it must be lowered to it. Should your dairy
not be cool enough for the purpose, it is best effected by keeping the
cream-pot in water as cold as you can procure it, and by making the
butter early in the morning, and placing cold water in the churn some
time before it is used. By following these directions you will have
good butter throughout the year.
The cows should be milked as near the diary as possible, as it
prevents the cream from rising well if the milk is carried any
distance.* [In very cold weather the milk-pans must be placed by the
fire some time before the milk is strained into them, or the cream
will not rise.] It should be at once strained into the milk-pans, and
not disturbed for forty-eight hours in winter, and twenty-four in
summer. In hot weather it is highly important that the cream should be
perfectly strained from the milk, or it will make it very rank. Half a
dozen moderate-sized lumps of sugar to every two quarts of cream tend
to keep it sweet. In summer always churn twice a week. Some persons
imagine that cream cannot be "too sweet," but that is a mistake; it
must have a certain degree of acidity, or it will not produce butter,
and if put into the churn without it, must be beaten with the paddles
till it acquires it. The cream should, in the summer, be shifted each
morning into a clean crock, that has first been well scalded and then
soaked in cold water; and the same rule applies to all the utensils
used in a dairy. The best things to scrub the churn and all wooden
articles with, are wood ashes and plenty of soap.
In some parts of the country, the butter made by the farmers' wives
for sale is not washed at all; they say, "It washes all the taste
away." They remove it from the churn, and then taking it in their
hands, dash it repeatedly on the board; that is what they call
"smiting" it. The butter so made is always strong, and of two colors,
as a portion of the buttermilk remains in it: if any of it were put
into a cup, and that placed in hot water, for the purpose clarifying,
there would, when it was melted, be found a large deposit of
buttermilk at the bottom of the cup. We have tried the butter made our
way, and there was scarcely any residuum.
Besides, this "smiting" is a most disgusting process to witness. In
warm weather the butter adheres to the hands of the "smiter," who
puffs and blows over it as if it were very hard work. Indeed, I once
heard a strong-looking girl; daughter of a small farmer in Kent, say
she was never well, for "smiting" the butter was such dreadful hard
work it gave her a pain in her side. After this "smiting" is over, it
is put on a butter-print, and pressed with the hands till it is
considered to have received the impression. It is then, through a
small hole in the handle, blown off the print with the _mouth_.
I don't think I shall ever again eat butter which appears at table
with the figures of cows, flowers, &c., stamped on it. I should always
think of the process it has gone through for the sake of looking
pretty. Nearly all the fresh butter which is sold in London is made up
in large rolls, and, like that we make ourselves, need not be touched
by the fingers of the maker.