Frederick S. Burch

“ Cream rises best in a falling temperature.
Never churn fresh unripened cream with ripened cream.
After cream becomes sour, the more ripening the more it depreciates.
The best time for churning is just before the acidity becomes apparent.
Never let your butter get warm; when once warmed through it will lose its flavor.
Excessive working makes crumbly butter, spoils the grain and injures the flavor.
Never mix night's with morning's milk, as the warmth of the new and the coldness of the old, hastens change and decomposition.
All kinds of disagreeable odors are easily absorbed by salt. ”

“ If you expect to make good butter never set the milk in the pantry or cellar, as the odors which it will absorb there are just as numerous, if not quite so bad, as those in the cow stable. There is but one way, and dairymen are pretty generally agreed upon it, and that is to set the milk in deep cans in cold water, and the colder the water the quicker the separation of the cream from the milk. ”

“ Such customers, as a rule, are very exacting; they expect much, and paying a high price, have a perfect right to do so. These private customers (unless acquainted with the butter maker) seldom prove agreeable people to deal with. ”

“ Generally the proper temperature at which to have the cream before beginning to churn is 60 degrees, but sometimes this must be varied a few degrees, according to circumstances. In winter we find 65 or 68 degrees will be necessary in order to have the butter come within forty minutes. When cows are fresh the butter comes much more quickly than it will after they have been fresh for a long period. Always start the churn with a slow movement, gradually increasing until you have reached the proper speed, which is 40 to 50 strokes per minute. ”

“ Milking tubes, made of silver, are not only great conveniences, but now that they can be bought so cheaply, are an absolute necessity, and all farmers should keep a few on hand for use in case of an emergency. The silver tubes are the best, and can be purchased for half a dollar each of almost any dealer in dairy goods. I have mailed thousands of them during the past few years to dairymen in all parts of the country, and have received hundreds of letters stating that valuable cows have been saved that would otherwise have been ruined for milking, but for the use of these tubes. ”

“ The best butter has the least competition to contend against, while the worst dairy products [Pg 55] have the most. The better anything is, the more rare is it and the greater its value.
A butter maker that uses his fingers instead of a thermometer, to find out the temperature of milk or cream will never make a success. ”

“ I always use a fine sieve, and sift the salt over the butter on [Pg 41] the worker, just as the baker sifts his flour over the dough when making it. Much depends upon the quality of the salt used in butter-making, and if you desire to make good butter use only good salt, which is put up in sacks, and branded "Dairy Salt," by nearly all the large salt makers in the country. If you have a large dairy do not trust to guesswork, but buy a scale and use it. ”

“ You now have your butter in the best possible condition for working. When you purchase your churn be sure [Pg 36] and get one large enough; it is much better to have it too large than not large enough. If you think you have not sufficient cream for a churning and the cream is ripe, do not wait for another skimming, but add sufficient milk to have the churn filled to about one-fourth its capacity. Do not use milk that is very sour, as it is likely to contain so much casein that your butter will not be of good flavor. ”

“ To make good butter we must cool our milk rapidly. The sooner we cool it down to 47 degrees after it leaves the cow the better the butter will be. The old-fashioned way of setting the milk in shallow pans or crocks in the milk cupboard, which in summer was placed in the cellar and in the pantry in winter, is still kept up by a good many farmers, and this no doubt accounts for the steady production [Pg 24] of ten-cent store butter with which our markets are always overstocked. ”

“ Few persons know how to churn properly. No matter how rich or nice the cream, if the churning is not done at a proper temperature and in a proper manner you cannot make good butter. Avoid the "lightning" patent churn, which the agent will claim to bring butter in five minutes. Cream that is churned too quickly always makes butter of a cheesey flavor, and quick to get rancid. ”

“ A good thermometer can be purchased for from fifty cents to a dollar, and at these prices is certainly within the reach of every dairyman. Too much depends upon the temperature of the water in which we cool our milk, the room we ripen our cream in, do our churning in, and the temperature of the milk, cream, and the butter itself, to attempt any guess work. ”

“ By using ice or very cold spring or well water you get all, or nearly all, the cream to rise in from twelve to twenty hours, and as I said before, and I want to firmly impress it upon your minds, the quicker you get the cream to rise the better butter you can make. Never allow the milk to set more than thirty hours, as it becomes acid or too thick, and loses much in flavor. ”

“ Nearly all the beginners use too much the first time. There is no general rule to follow in using color, and you will only be able to tell how much to use by practice, as the butter of some cows is naturally of a richer color than others; this is especially true of the Jersey cows, the butter from which needs but little artificial coloring. Always put the coloring into the cream before beginning to churn. ”

“ When possible a cow should always be milked by the same person, as the milker soon learns any little peculiarity of the animal, and knows exactly how to handle her, as well as readily detecting any unusual occurrence, such as shortage of milk, sore or caked teats, etc. Milk as rapidly as possible, without jerking, and avoid hurting the teats with sharp and long finger nails by keeping them well pared. ”

“ Take the butter out of the churn with your butter spade, and heap it up [Pg 40] on the worker. If too warm for working at once, throw a cloth wet in cold water over it, and leave to drain and cool for thirty minutes. Before using the lever of your worker always dip it in cold water. Now take the lever and gently press the butter out over the full surface of the worker, and sprinkle on some salt; begin at the sides, and roll the butter back into the centre, being careful not to do any rubbing or you will have greasy butter. ”

“ The blocks for these patent printing machines are sometimes artistically carved, so that the blocks of butter show sheaves of wheat, acorns, etc., and sometimes with the maker's initials or monogram. For home use the old fashioned round mould holding from a quarter of a pound to two pounds is still extensively used, and when properly soaked in cold water before moulding, makes a very nice print of butter. These patent printers and moulds save much time and are a great convenience over the old way of forming the butter into rolls. ”

“ The very slow milker, as well as the quick, jerky milker, who never strips the cow thoroughly, are helping to make a large number of our cows unprofitable. Six o'clock in the morning and six o'clock in the evening are by far the best hours to do the milking. ”

“ We use about an ounce of salt to a pound, but some of it works out. After it has stood a few hours, it is worked with a lever in an old fashioned butter worker, just enough to get the salt in evenly, and then it is ready to print. We always try to injure the grain as little as possible. ”

“ If you cannot afford to buy the patent deep setting cans like the Cooley, the Haney, the Jersey, or the Wilhelm, by all means get the common deep setting "shot-gun" can, with or without the glass gauges in the sides. ”