BUTTER AND THE BUTTER-DAIRY.
“Slow rolls the churn--its load of clogging cream
At once foregoes its quality and name.
From knotty particles first floating wide,
Congealing butter’s dashed from side to side.”
Butter, as we have seen, is the oily or fatty constituent of all good
milk, mechanically united or held in suspension by the solution of
caseine or cheesy matter in water. It is already formed in the udder of
the cow, and the operations required after it leaves the udder, to
produce it, effect merely the separation, more or less complete, of the
butter from the cheese and the whey.
This being the case, it is natural to suppose that butter was known at
an early date. The wandering tribes, accustomed to take on their
journeys a supply of milk in skins, would find it formed by the
agitation of travelling, and thus would be suggested the first rude and
simple process of churning.
But it is not probable that the Jews possessed a knowledge of it; and it
is pretty well settled, at the present time, that the passages in our
English version of the Old Testament in which it is used are erroneously
translated, and that wherever the word butter occurs the word milk, or
sour, thick milk, or cream, should be substituted. And so in Isaiah,
“Milk and honey shall he eat,” instead of “butter;” and in Job (29: 6),
“When I washed my feet in milk,” instead of “butter.” And the
expression in Prov. (30: 33), “Surely the churning of milk bringeth
forth butter,” would be better translated, according to the best
critics, “the pressing of the milker bringeth forth milk,” or the
“pressing of milk bringeth forth cheese.”
In the oldest Greek writers milk and cheese are spoken of, but there is
no evidence that butter was known to them. The Greeks obtained their
knowledge of it from the Scythians or the Thracians, and the Romans
obtained theirs from the Germans.
In the time of Christ it was used chiefly as an ointment in the baths,
and as a medicine. In warm latitudes, as in the southern part of Europe,
even at the present day, its use is comparatively limited, the delicious
oil of the olive supplying its place.
I have already stated that all good milk of the cow contained butter
enclosed in little round globules held in suspension, or floating in the
other substances. As soon as the milk comes to rest after leaving the
udder, these round particles, being lighter than the mass of cheesy and
watery materials by which they are surrounded, begin to rise and work
their way to the surface. The largest globules, being comparatively the
lightest, rise first, and form the first layer of cream, which is the
best, since it is less filled with caseine. The next smaller, rising a
little slower, are more entangled with other substances, and bring more
of them to the surface; and the smallest rise the slowest and the last,
and come up loaded with foreign substances, and produce an inferior
quality of cream and butter. The most delicate cream, as well as the
sweetest and most fragrant butter, is that obtained by a first skimming,
only a few hours after the milk is set. Of three skimmings, at six,
twelve, and eighteen hours after the milk is strained into the pan, that
first obtained will make more and richer butter than the second, and
that next obtained richer than the third, and so on.
The last quart of milk drawn at a milking, for reasons already stated,
will make a more delicious and savory butter than the first; and if the
last quart or two of a milking is set by itself, and the first cream
that rises taken from it after standing only five or six hours, it will
produce the richest and highest-flavored butter the cow is capable of
giving, under like circumstances as to season and feed.
The separation of the butter particles from the others is slower and
more difficult in proportion to the thickness and richness of the milk.
Hence in winter, on dry feeding, the milk being richer and more buttery,
the cream or particles of butter are slower and longer in rising. But,
as heat liquefies milk, the difficulty is overcome in part by elevating
the temperature. The same effect is produced by mixing a little water
into the milk when it is set. It aids the separation, and consequently
more cream will rise in the same space of time, from the same amount of
rich milk, with a little water in it, than without. Water slightly warm,
if in cold weather, will produce the most perceptible effect. The
quantity of butter will be greater from milk treated in this way; the
quality, slightly deteriorated.
It must be apparent, from what has been said, that butter may be
produced by agitating the whole body of the milk, and thus breaking up
the filmy coatings of the globules, as well as by letting it stand for
the cream to rise. This course is preferred by many practical dairymen,
and is the general practice in some of the countries most celebrated for
superior butter.
The general treatment of milk and the management of cream have been
already alluded to in a former chapter. It has been seen that the first
requisites to successful dairy husbandry are good cows, and abundant
and good feeding, adapted to the special object of the dairy, whether it
be milk, butter, or cheese; and that, with both these conditions, an
absolute cleanliness in every process, from the milking of the cow to
bringing the butter upon the table, is indispensably necessary.
Cleanliness may, indeed, with propriety be regarded as the chief
requisite in the manufacture of good butter; for the least suspicion of
a want of it turns the appetite at once, while both milk and cream are
so exceedingly sensitive to the slightest taint in the air, in
everything with which they come in contact, as to impart the
unmistakable evidence of any negligence, in the taste and flavor of the
butter.
It is safe to say, therefore, that good butter depends more upon the
manufacture than upon any other one thing, and perhaps than all others
put together. So important is this point, that a judicious writer
remarks that “in every district where good butter is made it is
universally attributed to the richness of the pastures, though it is a
well-known fact that, take a skilful dairymaid from that district into
another, where good butter is not usually made, and where, of course,
the pastures are deemed very unfavorable, she will make butter as good
as she used to do. And bring one from this last district into the other,
and she will find that she cannot make better butter there than she did
before, unless she takes lessons from the servants, or others whom she
finds there;” and a French writer very justly observes that “the
particular nature of Bretagne butter, whose color, flavor, and
consistence, are so much prized, depends neither on the pasture nor on
the particular species of cow, but on the mode of making;” and this will
hold, to a considerable extent, in every country where butter is made.
Many things, indeed, concur to produce the best results, and it would be
useless to underrate the importance of any; but, with the best of cows
to impart the proper color and consistency to butter, the sweetest feed
and the purest water to secure a delicate flavor, the utmost care must
still be bestowed by the dairymaid upon every process of manufacture, or
else the best of milk and cream will be spoiled, or produce an article
which will bring only a low price in the market, when, with greater
skill, it might have obtained the highest.
From what has been said of the care requisite to preserve the milk from
taint, it may be inferred that attention to the milk and dairy room is
of no small importance. In very large butter-dairies, a building is
devoted exclusively to this department. This should be at a short
distance from the yard, or place of milking, but no further than is
necessary to be removed from all impurities in the air arising from it,
and from all low, damp places, subject to disagreeable exhalations. This
is of the utmost importance. It should be well ventilated, and kept
constantly clean and sweet, by the use of pure water; and especially, if
milk is spilled, it should be washed up immediately, with fresh water.
No matter if it is but a single drop; if allowed to soak into the floor
and sour, it cannot easily be removed, and it is sufficient to taint the
air and the milk in the room, though it may not be perceptible to the
senses.
In smaller dairies, economy dictates the use of a room in the house; and
this, in warm climates, should be on the north side, and used
exclusively for this purpose. I have known many to use a room in the
cellar as a milk-room; but very few cellars are at all suitable. Most
are filled with a great variety of articles which never fail to infect
the air.
But, if a house-cellar is so built as to make it a suitable place to
set the milk, as where a large dry and airy room, sufficiently isolated
from the rest, can be used, a greater uniformity of temperature can
usually be secured than on the floor above. The room, in this case,
should have a gravel or loamy bottom, uncemented, but dry and porous.
The soil is a powerful absorbent of the noxious gases which are apt to
infect the atmosphere near the bottom of the cellar.
Milk should never be set on the bottom of a cellar, if the object is to
raise the cream. The cream will rise in time, but rarely or never so
quickly or so completely as on shelves from five to eight feet from the
bottom, around which a free circulation of pure air can be had from the
latticed windows. It is, perhaps, safe to say that as great an amount of
better cream will rise from the same milk in twelve hours on suitable
shelves, six feet from the bottom, as would be obtained directly on the
bottom of the same cellar in twenty-four hours.
[Illustration: Fig. 73. Milk-stand.]
One of the most convenient forms for shelves in a dairy-room designed
for butter-making is represented in Fig. 73, made of light and seasoned
wood, in an octagonal form, and capable of holding one hundred and
seventy-six pans of the ordinary form and size. It is so simple and
easily constructed, and so economizes space, that it may readily be
adapted to other and smaller rooms for a similar purpose. If the
dairy-house is near a spring of pure and running water, a small stream
can be led in by one channel and taken out by another, and thus keep a
constant circulation under the milk-stand, which may be so constructed
as to turn easily on the central post, so as often to save many
footsteps.
The pans designed for milk are generally made of tin. That is found,
after long experience, to be, on the whole, the best and most
economical, and subject to fewer objections than most other materials.
Glazed earthen ware is often used, the chief objection to it being its
liability to break, and its weight. It is easily kept clean, however,
and is next in value to tin, if not, indeed, equal to it. A tin skimmer
is commonly used, somewhat in the form of the bowl of a spoon, and
pierced with holes, to remove the cream. In some sections of the
country, a large white clam-shell is very commonly used instead of a
skimmer made for the purpose, the chief objection to it being that the
cream is not quite so carefully separated from the milk.
A mode of avoiding the necessity of skimming has long been used to some
extent in England, by which the milk is drawn off through a hole in the
bottom of the pan. This plan is recommended by Unwerth, a German
agriculturist, who proposes a pan represented in Fig. 74, made of block
tin, oblong in shape, and having the inside corners carefully rounded.
The pan is only two inches in depth, and is made large enough to hold
six or eight quarts of milk at the depth of one and a half inches. This
shallowness greatly facilitates the rapid separation of the cream,
especially at a temperature somewhat elevated. A strainer is shown in
Fig. 75, pierced with holes, the centre half an inch lower than the rim,
to which hooks are fixed to hold it to the top of the pan. On this a
coarse linen cloth is laid, the milk being strained through both the
cloth and the strainer, thus serving to separate all foreign substances
in a thorough manner.
[Illustration: Fig. 74. Milk-pan.]
[Illustration: Fig. 75.]
[Illustration: Fig. 76.]
[Illustration: Fig. 77.]
In the bottom of the milk-pan, near one end, is an opening, _a_, through
which the milk is drawn, after the cream is all risen or separated from
it, by raising a brass pin, _b_. The opening is lined with brass, and is
three fourths of an inch in diameter. Fig. 76 represents the tin
cylinder magnified. This is pierced, to the height of an inch, with many
small holes, diminishing in size towards the top. The cream is all risen
in twenty-four hours. The pin is then drawn from the cylinder, and the
milk flows out, leaving the thick cream, which is prevented from flowing
out by the smallness of the holes in the cylinder.
With the form of pans in most common use in this country, which are
circular, three or four inches deep, this shallow depth of milk causes a
little more trouble in skimming; but, if the principle is correct, the
form and depth of the pan will be easily adapted to it.
After the cream is removed, it is put into stone or earthen jars, and
kept in a cool place till a sufficient quantity is accumulated to make
it convenient to churn. If a sufficient number of cows is kept, it is
far better to churn every day; but in ordinary circumstances that may be
oftener than is practicable. The more frequently the better; and the
advantages of frequent churning are so great that cream should never be
kept longer than three or four days, where it is possible to churn so
often.
The mode of churning in one of the many good dairies in
Pennsylvania,--that of Mr. J. Comfort, of Montgomery county,--is as
follows: He uses a large barrel-shaped churn, of the size of about two
hogsheads, hung on journals supported by a framework in an adjoining
building. It is worked by machinery in a rotatory motion, by a horse
travelling around in a circle. The churning commences about four o’clock
in the morning in summer, the cream being poured into the churn and the
horse started. When the butter has come, a part of the butter-milk is
removed by a vent-hole in the churn. Then, without beating the mass
together, as is usual, a portion of the butter and its butter-milk is
taken out by the spatula and placed in the bottom of a tub covered with
fine salt, and spread out equally to a proper depth; then the surface of
this butter is covered with salt, and another portion of butter and
butter-milk taken from the churn and spread over the salted surface in
the same manner, and salted as before, thus making a succession of
layers, till the tub is full. The whole is then covered with a white
cloth, and allowed to stand a while. A part of this butter, say eight or
ten pounds, is then taken from the tub and laid on a marble table (Fig.
80), grooved around the edges, and slightly inclined, with a place in
the groove for the buttermilk and whey to escape. It is then worked by a
butter-worker or brake, turning on a swivel-joint, which perfectly and
completely removes the butter-milk, and flattens out the butter into a
thin mass; then the surface is wiped by a cloth laid over it, and the
working and wiping repeated till the cloth adheres to the butter, which
indicates that the butter is dry enough, when it is separated into pound
lumps, weighed and stamped, ready for market. The rest of the butter in
the tub is treated in the same way.
It will be seen that this method avoids the ordinary washing with water,
not a drop of water being used, from beginning to the end. It avoids
also the working by hand, which in warm weather has a tendency to soften
the butter. In the space of about an hour a hundred pounds are thus
made, and its beautiful color and fragrance preserved. If it happens to
come from the churn soft, it hardens by standing a little longer in the
brine.
The most common form of the churn in small dairies is the upright or
dash-churn, Fig. 77; but many other forms are in extensive use, each
possessing, doubtless, more or less merit peculiar to itself. The
cylinder churn, Fig. 78, is very simply constructed, and capable of
being easily cleaned. Some prefer the thermometer churn, Fig. 79, having
an attachment for indicating the temperature of the cream.
[Illustration: Fig. 78.]
[Illustration: Fig. 79.]
As already stated, there are two modes of practice with regard to the
process of churning, each of which has its advantages. The milk itself
may be churned, or it may be set in the milk-room for the cream to rise,
which is to be churned by itself. The former is the practice of a
successful dairyman of New York, who, in his statement, says: “I take
care to have my cellar thoroughly cleansed and whitewashed early every
spring. I keep milk in one cellar, and butter in another. Too much care
cannot be taken by dairymen to observe the time of churning. I usually
churn from one hour to one hour and a half, putting from one to two
pails of cold water in each churn. When the butter has come, I take it
out, wash it through one water, set it in the cellar and salt it, then
work it from three to five times before packing. Butter should not be
made quite salt enough until the last working. Then add a little salt,
which makes a brine that keeps the butter sweet. One ounce of salt to a
pound of butter is about the quantity I use. I pack the first day, if
the weather is cool; if warm, the second. If the milk is too warm when
churned, the quantity of butter will be less, and the quality and flavor
not so good as when it is at a a proper temperature, which, for churning
milk, is from 60° to 65°.”
But, whichever course it is thought best to adopt, whether the milk or
cream is churned, it is the concussion, rather than the motion, which
serves to bring the butter. This may be produced in the simple square
box as well as by the dasher churn; and it is the opinion of a
scientific gentleman with whom I have conversed on the subject, that the
perfect square is the best form of the churn ever invented. The cream or
milk in this churn has a peculiar compound motion, and the concussion on
the corners and right-angled sides is very great, and causes the butter
to come as rapidly as it is judicious to have it. This churn consists of
a simple square box, which any one who can handle a saw and plane can
make, hung on axles turned by a crank somewhat like the barrel churn. No
dasher is required. If any one is inclined to doubt the superiority of
this form over all others, he can easily try it and satisfy himself. It
costs but little.
In some sections the milk is churned soon after milking; in others, the
night’s and morning’s milk are mixed together, and churned at noon; in
others, the cream is allowed to rise, when the milk is curdled, and
cream, curd, and whey, are all churned together.
A successful instance of churning only the cream is found in the
statement of Mr. Lincoln, who received the first dairy premium of the
Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. He says: “The
cream, as it is skimmed, is poured into stone pots, which in warm
weather are kept in a refrigerator, and during the winter stand in the
milk-room. The times of churning depend upon the quantity of cream.
“The time usually occupied in churning is from fifty minutes upwards.
This is deemed a matter of importance. We consider it much better to
bring the cream to the degree of temperature necessary to the formation
of butter by a steady, moderate agitation, than to use artificial heat
to take it to that point before commencing to churn. By such moderate,
long-continued agitations, we think the butter has a firmer, more waxy
consistence than it can have by more rapid churning. The churn used is
‘Galt’s.’ Numerous trials have been made with many of the other kinds of
churns in comparison with this, and the result has been uniformly
favorable to this patent.
“When the butter has _come_, the butter-milk is drawn off, and the
butter, after being thoroughly worked, is salted with from one half to
three fourths ounces of salt to the pound. It is now set away for
twenty-four hours, when it is again worked over thoroughly, and made
into pound lumps with wooden ‘spatters.’ After standing another
twenty-four hours, it is sent into market. In ‘working’ butter we use a
table over which a fluted roller is made to pass (Fig. 80), rolling out
the butter into a thin sheet, and completely and entirely depriving it
of butter-milk.
“From many years’ experience, the observation is warranted, that by no
other process of manufacture can the butter-milk be so completely
extracted. I am aware of the truth of the objection made that the
shrinkage occasioned by its use is too great; yet there is, in fact, a
difference in the worth of the butter made upon it, over that
manufactured in the ordinary way, quite equal to the loss in weight
occasioned by it.”
The high reputation of Philadelphia butter being so well known, I was
desirous of ascertaining the opinions of practical men as to what this
was due,--whether to any peculiar richness of the pasturage, or to the
careful mode of manufacture. In reply to my inquiries, I have received
satisfactory statements from several sources, and among them the
following communication from one of the most successful of the
butter-makers who supply that market. “The high reputation of
Philadelphia butter,” he says, “is owing to the manner of its
manufacture, though I would not say that the sweet-scented vernal and
other natural grasses do not add to the fine quality of well-made
butter.
“In proof of what I say, I would refer to the experience of my brother,
who is the owner of two farms. His tenant, an excellent butter-maker,
lived on one farm, and made a very fine article, which brought the
highest prices. He moved to the other farm, where the former tenant had
never made good butter, and had ascribed his want of success to the
spring-house. On this farm he succeeded in establishing a higher
reputation than he ever had before. The tenant who followed him on the
first farm never succeeded in gaining a reputation for good butter, his
inability arising from his ignorance of the proper mode of manufacture,
and his unwillingness to improve by the experience of others.
“Only a part of the information as to the best mode of manufacture can
be given, so much depends on the _judgment_ and experience of the
operator. The first thing required is to provide a suitable place. This
should be, for the summer months, a well-ventilated house, over a good
spring of water. The second requisite will be proper vessels to hold the
milk and cream, and for churning. A table is needed which shall not be
used for any other purpose than for working and printing the butter on.
I have always used a lever in connection with the table (Fig. 80). A
large sponge, with a linen cloth to cover it, with which the milk can be
removed from the butter, is another important article; and then a
skimmer, either of wood or tin, or both, as may be necessary in the
different states of the milk; a thermometer, and a boiler convenient for
heating water for cleansing the vessels. No person can expect to make
good butter without the greatest attention to the cleanliness of the
vessels used for the milk and cream, and care in exposing them to the
sun and air.
“After the milk has been brought from the yard or stable, strain it
immediately into the pans, in which has been put a little sour milk from
which the cream has been removed, the quantity varying from a
tablespoonful to half a common teacupful, according to the state of the
weather. In very warm weather the smaller quantity is sufficient. But
the rule for warm weather will not always hold good; for, from the
electrical state of the atmosphere, the milk may sour either too slow or
too fast.
“The pans containing the milk should then be set into the water, if the
weather be hot: and here is a point where the operator should exercise
his or her judgment; for even in warm weather it may be necessary to
draw off the water from the milk, if the spring be cold. The milk should
remain there, under no circumstances, longer than the fourth meal, or
forty-eight hours; but thirty-six hours is much to be preferred, if the
milk has become thick, or the cream sufficiently raised, when it should
be taken off carefully, so as not to take any sour milk with it, and put
in the cream-pot. When the cream-pot is full, sprinkle a small handful
of fine salt over the top of the cream, and let it remain. Our custom
has been, when making butter but once a week, to pour the cream into a
clean vessel at the end of three days, keeping back any milk that might
have been taken up with the cream, which is found at the bottom of the
jar.
“I would mention that it is essential, in making a fine article, to keep
the cream clear of milk. The next operation will he preparatory to
churning, by straining the cream, and reducing the temperature of the
churn by the use of the cold spring-water. The operation of churning
should neither be protracted nor hastened too much. After the butter has
made its appearance of the size of a small pea, draw off the milk, and
throw in a small amount of cold water, and gather it. After the butter
has been taken from the churn, it is placed upon the table, worked over
by the lever, and salted; then worked again with the lever, in
connection with the sponge and cloth, a pan of cold water being at hand,
with a piece of ice in it in summer, into which you throw the cloth and
sponge frequently, and wring out dry before again using it. These, as
well as every other article which will come into contact with the
butter, must be scalded, and afterward, as well as the hands, placed in
cold water. I would here add that the use of the sponge is one of the
important points in making butter to keep well; for by it you can
remove almost every particle of butter-milk, which is the great agent in
the destruction of its sweetness and solidity. For the winter dairy a
room in which is placed a stove should be provided, which can be made
warm, and also well ventilated. I prefer the use of coal, on account of
keeping the fire through the night. My dairy-room is adjoining the
spring-house, and connects with it, which I consider important. This
room should be used for no other purpose, as cream and butter are the
greatest absorbents of effluvia with which I am acquainted. I have known
good butter to be spoiled by being placed over night in a close closet.
“The thermometer should always accompany the winter dairy. There is one
thing very important in the winter dairy, which, perhaps, I should have
placed first, and that is the food of the cows; for, without something
else than hay, you will not make very fine butter. Mill-feed and
corn-meal I consider about the best for yield and quality, although
there are many other articles of food which will be useful, and
contribute to the appetite and health of the cattle.
“The process for the winter dairy is similar to that of the summer, with
the exception of the regulation as to the temperature of room, etc.,
which is as follows:
“Particular care should be taken not to let the milk get cold before
placing it in the dairy-room; for, should it be completely chilled, the
cream will not rise well. Add about a gill of warm water to the sour
milk for each pan, before straining into it, which will greatly
facilitate the rising of the cream. Keep the temperature of the room as
near fifty-eight degrees, Fahrenheit, as possible, and guard against the
air being dry by having a small vessel of water upon the stove, or else
a dry coat will form on the surface of the cream. The cream should be
kept in a colder place than the dairy-room until the night before
churning, when it might be placed in the warm room, so that its
temperature shall be about 58°.
“The churn may be prepared by scalding it, and then reduced to the same
temperature as the cream by cold water, using the thermometer as a test.
“This regulation of temperature is of the greatest importance: for,
should it be too low, you will be a long time churning, and have poor,
tasteless butter; if too high, the butter will be soft and white.”
What is especially noticeable in the above statement is the use of the
sponge, and the thorough and complete removal of all the butter-milk.
Here is probably the secret of success, after all. I have given the
statement in full, notwithstanding its length, on account of the
well-known excellence of the butter produced by the process, as well as
for the suggestions with regard to the dairy-rooms, and not because I
can recommend all its details for the imitation of others. The use of
sour milk in the pans is based, I suppose, on the idea that the cream
does not begin to rise till acidity commences in the milk,--an idea
which was once pretty generally entertained; but the process of souring
undoubtedly commences, though imperceptible to the senses, very soon
after the milk comes to rest in the pan. At any rate, there is no doubt
that the separation of the butter from the other substances commences at
once, and without the addition of any foreign substance to the milk.
Nor do I believe there is any necessity for the milk to stand over
twenty-four hours in any case; for I have no doubt that all the best of
the cream rises within the first twelve hours, under favorable
circumstances, and I am inclined to think that whatever is added to the
quantity of cream after twenty-four hours, detracts from the quality of
the butter to an extent which more than counterbalances the whole of the
quantity.
Many good dairy-women make an exceedingly fine article, in spite of the
defects of some parts of the process of manufacture. This does not show
that they would not make still better butter if they remedied these
defects.
The more we can retard the development of acidity in the milk, within
certain limits, the more cream may we expect to get; and hence some use
artificial means for this purpose, mixing in the milk a little
crystallized soda, dissolved in twice its volume of water, which
corrects the acidity as soon as it forms. It is a perfectly harmless
addition, and increases the product of the butter, and improves its
quality. But under ordinarily favorable circumstances, from twelve to
eighteen hours will be sufficient to raise all the cream in summer, and
from twenty to thirty hours in winter.
[Illustration: Fig. 80. Butter-worker.]
The butter-worker, Fig. 80, with its marble top, used by the writer of
the statement above, is an important addition to the implements of the
dairy. It effects the complete removal of the butter-milk, without the
necessity of bringing the hands in contact with it. Another form of the
lever butter-worker is seen in Fig. 81.
[Illustration: Fig. 81.]
To keep the cream properly after it is placed away in pots or jars, it
should stand in a cool place, and whenever additions of fresh cream are
made, they should be stirred in. Many keep the cream, as well as the
butter, in the well, in hot weather. This is the practice of Mr.
Horsfall, whose experiments have been alluded to. Finding his butter
inclined to be soft, he lowered a thermometer twenty-eight feet into the
well, and found it indicated 43°, the temperature of the surface being
70°. He then let down the butter, and found it somewhat improved; and
soon after began to lower down the cream, by means of a movable windlass
and a rope, the cream-jar being placed in a basket hung on the rope. The
cream was let down on the evening previous to churning, and drawn up in
the morning and immediately churned. The time of churning the cream at
this temperature would be as long as in winter, and the butter was found
to have the same consistency.
The same object is effected in this country by the use of ice in many
sections; but, if the butter remains too long on ice, or in an
ice-house, it is apt to become bleached, and lose its natural and
delicate straw-color.
The time of churning is by no means an unimportant matter. Various
contrivances have been made to shorten this operation; but the opinions
of the best and most successful dairymen concur that it cannot be too
much hastened without injuring the fine quality and consistency of the
butter. The time required depends much on the temperature of the cream;
and this can be regulated at convenience, as indicated above.
The temperature of the dairy-room should be as uniform as possible. The
practice of the best and most successful dairymen differs in respect to
the degree to which it should be kept; but the range is from 52° to 62°
Fahr., and I am inclined to think from 58° to 60° the best. At 60°, with
a current of fresh, pure air passing over it, the cream will rise very
rapidly and abundantly.
The greatest density of milk is at about 41°, and cream rises with great
difficulty and slowness as the temperature falls below 50° towards that
point.
A practical butter dealer of New York gives the following as the best
mode of packing butter, or putting it up for a distant market. The
greatest care, he says, should be taken to free the butter entirely from
milk, by working it and washing it after churning at a temperature so
low as to prevent it from losing its granular character and becoming
greasy. The character of the product depends in a great measure on the
temperature of churning and working, which should be between sixty and
seventy degrees Fahr. If free from milk, eight ounces of Ashton salt is
sufficient for ten pounds. Western salt should never be used, as it
injures the flavor. While packing, the contents of the firkin should be
kept from the air by being covered with saturated brine. No undissolved
salt should be put in the bottom of the firkin.
Goshen butter is reputed best, though much is put up in imitation of it,
and sold at the same price. Great care should be taken to have the
firkins neat and clean. They should be of white oak, with hickory hoops,
and should hold about eighty pounds. Wood excludes air better than
stone, and consequently keeps butter better. Tubs are better than pots.
Western butter comes in coarse, ugly packages; even flour and pork
barrels are sometimes used. Much of it must be worked over and re-packed
here before it will sell. It generally contains a good deal of milk, and
if not re-worked soon becomes rancid. Improper packing, in kegs too
large and soiled on the outside, makes at least three cents a pound
difference. Whatever the size of the firkin, it must be perfectly tight
and quite full of butter, so that when opened the brine, though present,
will not be found on the top.
Until the middle of May, dairymen should pack in quarter firkins or
tubs, with white oak covers, and send directly to market as fresh
butter. From this time until the fall frost there is but little change
in color and flavor with the same dairy, and it may be packed in whole
firkins, and kept in a cool place. The fall butter should also be packed
separately in tubs.
To prepare new butter-boxes for use in the shortest time, dissolve
common, or bicarbonate of soda in boiling water, as much as the water
will dissolve, and water enough to fill the boxes; about a pound of soda
will be required to be put into a thirty-two pound box, and the water
should be poured upon it. Let it stand over night, and the box may be
safely used next day. This mode is cheap and expeditious, and, if
adopted, would often save great losses. Potash has a like effect.
As already seen, in the statements of practical dairymen, the greatest
care is required in the salting or seasoning. Over-salted butter is not
only less palatable to the taste, but less healthy than fresh, sweet
butter. The same degree of care is needed with respect to the box in
which it is packed. I have often seen the best and richest-flavored
butter spoilt by sending it to the exhibition or to market in new and
improper boxes. A new pine-wood box should always be avoided.
Butter that has been thoroughly worked, and perfectly freed from
butter-milk, is of a firm and waxy consistence, so as scarcely to dim
the polish of the blade of a knife thrust into it, leaving upon it only
a slight dew as it is withdrawn. If it is soft in texture, and leaves
greasy streaks of butter-milk upon the knife that cuts it, or upon the
cut surface after the blade is withdrawn, it shows an imperfect and
defective process of manufacture, and is of poor quality, and will be
liable to become rancid.
An exceedingly delicate and fine-flavored butter may be made by wrapping
the cream in a napkin or clean cloth, and burying it, a foot deep or
more, in the earth, from twelve to twenty hours. This experiment I have
repeatedly tried with complete success, and have never tasted butter
superior to that produced by this method. It requires to be salted to
the taste as much as butter made by any other process. A tenacious
subsoil loam would seem to be best. After putting the cream into a clean
cloth, the whole should be surrounded by a coarse towel. The butter thus
produced is white instead of yellow or straw-color.
Butter has been analyzed by Prof. Way, with the following result:
Pure fat, or oil, 82.70
Caseine, or curd, 2.45
Water, with a little salt, 14.85 = 100
The fat or oil peculiar to butter is in winter more solid than in
summer, and known as margarine fat, while that of summer is known as
liquid or oleine fat. The proportions in which these are found in
ordinary butter have been stated by Prof. Thomson, as follows:
Summer. Winter.
Solid or margarine fat, 40 65
Liquid or oleine fat, 60 35
--- ---
100 100
Winter butter appears to be rich and fine in proportion as the oleine
fat increases. The proportion is undoubtedly dependent on the food.
A more general attention to the details of butter-making, and to the
best modes of preserving its good qualities, would add many thousands of
dollars to the aggregate profits of our American dairies.
In the management of the dairy, an ice-house and a good quantity of ice
for summer use are not only very convenient for regulating the
temperature of the dairy-room, and for keeping butter at the proper
consistence, and preserving it, but are also profitable in other
respects. And now, when ice-houses are so easily constructed, and ice is
so readily procured, no well-ordered dairy should be without a liberal
supply of it. It is housed at a time when other farm-work is not
pressing, and ponds are so distributed over the country that it may be
generally procured without difficulty; but where ponds or streams are at
too great a distance from the dairy-house, an artificial pond can be
easily made, by damming up the outlet of some spring in the
neighborhood. Where this is done, the utmost care should be taken to
keep the water perfectly clean when the ice is forming. The ice-house
should be above ground, and in a dry, airy place. The top of a dry knoll
is better than a low, damp shade. The ice may be packed in tan, sawdust,
shavings, or other non-conductors, and when wanted for use it should be
taken off the top.