Butter-making

“ Used thus in butter-making, an excellent product results, provided cleanliness be scrupulously maintained. The culture repeats itself in the buttermilk, which in turn may be used again with marked success. Much fine butter, indeed, was made long before the bearing of bacteriological science upon the practice of dairying was recognized—made by using acid buttermilk from a previous churning.
In Denmark, which is, for its size, the greatest butter-producing country in the world, most of the butter is made with the aid of “starters,” or artificial cultures which are employed in ripening the cream. ”

“ The accessory operations of the company's business, such as butter-making, are conducted with similar exactness, the latter being churned daily by machinery over ice and with the use of French pressure-mills, which completely free it from extraneous buttermilk and water, of which the excess spoils the quality of a large proportion of even pure English butter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Great as has been the growth of the factory system of butter-making, and fast as creameries are multiplying, especially in the newer and growing agricultural States, such as Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota, there is still much more butter made on farms in the United States than in creameries. Creamery butter controls all the large markets, the dairy product258 making comparatively little impression on the trade. But home consumption and the supply of small customers and local markets make an immense aggregate, being fully two thirds of all. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ The other sort of butter, which is eaten by the common people, and which in fact is made throughout the whole of Lower Normandy, (the very butter, in short, in which the huge alose was floating in the pot of the lively cuisiniere at Duclair151) is also chiefly made at Isigny; but instead of a delicate tint, and a fine flavour, it is very much the contrary: and the mode of making and transporting it accords with its qualities. It is salted, and packed in large pots, and even barrels, for the sake of exportation; and not less than 50,000 lb. weight is made each week. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If, therefore, you devote your attention to the making of butter to sell fresh in the market, and desire to obtain a reputation which shall aid and secure the quickest sale and the highest price, you will use cream that rises first, and that does not stand too long on the milk. You will churn it properly and patiently, and not with too great haste. You will work it so thoroughly and completely with the butter-worker, and the sponge and cloth, as to remove every particle of butter-milk, never allowing your own or any other hands to touch 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. ”

“ The ultimate end in the making of farm butter is to supply a delicate food for the family and to obtain a profit from the surplus. To do this, it is necessary to create a demand by giving satisfaction to your customers. This can be done by putting up butter superior in quality and attractive in appearance.
[Pg 104] BUTTER WORKER
A very useful appliance, and easily operated, making the butter into a close-grained mass without injuring the texture of it. ”

“ Like the best butter of France and England, it is sweet and pure, like solidified cream, and as different as can be from the hard, salty mass which most generally passes 237 for butter among us. The buttermilk of a daily churning is also sweet and rich, a delicious nourishing drink, and an excellent adjuvant in the making of various cakes and other household delicacies. ”

“ Although the adulterations of this staple article of food are numerous, the main cause of the quantities of bad butter with which the community is burdened, is ignorance of the true methods, and slovenliness in the preparation of this staple article, for which no reasonable excuse can be urged. In the making of good butter, no process is more simple or easily accomplished. ”

“ We have heard the opinion expressed that it matters not whether the curd is well separated after salting, or left in coarse chunks with the salt adhering to their surfaces when put to press, as salt is very penetrating and the pressing drives the salt whey all through the cheese. But the common practice is not based on such a conclusion, and we think it well that it is not. Even salting we consider as essential in cheese-making as in butter-making. ”

“ Now, what has the cheese-maker got on his hands, some sweltering morning, during the season when it is "too hot to make butter," and people kindly draw their dairy liquids to the cheese-factory? Why, on rising in the morning and rubbing open his eyes, he breaks the cream on his milk. The under surface has a sickish, sour smell, which tells him very plainly that it cannot be worked up too soon. ”

“ In some of the modern cookery books equal quantities of butter and flour, in addition to the yolks of two eggs, are recommended for rich puff paste; and it is directed that the greater part of the butter should be made into a ball, and the buttermilk having been squeezed out of it, it should be put into the crust and covered with it, like an apple in making an apple-dumpling. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 drawn a long distance, it is pretty well churned, in addition, and thus a separation of the butter takes place which no ingenuity of the cheese-maker can remedy; but when the result is seen in the cream rising on the whey-vat, anathemas are heaped on his head. Where the milk stands quiet on the platform, the cream rises and forms an air-tight covering over the top of the milk, which soon taints next to the cream. And whether standing still or riding in a tight can, exposed to the sun's rays, without the animal heat having been expelled, it is scarcely possible to avoid taint. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When cooled sufficiently to begin to thicken somewhat, a little salt sprinkled on the surface and thoroughly stirred in, as the farmers' wives sometimes salt their lard, will help prevent it from getting rancid [Pg 97] and stinking. Set it in a cool place, and keep it covered tightly. Near the close of the fall's operations, a nice tub of whey butter should be thus prepared and set by for use the next spring—for, in the cold spring weather, when cheese-making first commences, very little cream will rise on the whey-vat, and it will take some time before a batch can be procured. ”

“ Our grandmothers used thumb and finger to ascertain the temperature of milk and cream, but in these days of fifty cents, seventy-five cents, and a dollar a pound butter we find "thumb-rule" will not work. An illustration [Pg 53] of a thermometer made expressly for dairy use, is given; they are made of glass and float upright in the milk or cream. The churning and cheese points are marked for the convenience of new beginners; they retail at about fifty cents, and can be purchased from any dealer in dairy goods. ”

“ The water being the heaviest ingredient, settles to the bottom, and is the first milked; the cream, which is the lightest, rises, and is the last milked. That is to say, a partial separation takes place in the udder, sufficient to make the "strippings" some ten or twelve times as rich in butter as the first milk drawn. We would, therefore, infer that the first third contains the most water, the second third the most cheese, and the last third the most butter. There is said to be a difference in the milk drawn from the compartments of the udder of the same cow, or from different teats. ”

“ MILKING. Before we can make butter we must have milk, and a few suggestions on this important question will not be out of place here. In order that no dirt or hairs may find their way into the milk-pail, a careful dairyman will always brush off the teats and udder of his cow before he begins to milk, yet, I am sorry to say, thousands of men who profess to be careful dairymen do not know this, and are sometimes guilty of that most uncleanly habit of softening up the teats by squeezing out a little milk on their hands. A large number of cows are utterly ruined every year by improper milking ”

“ It is sour, and nothing but cooking will save it, if anything will. The whey must and will come out. If you do not expel it from the particles of curd in the vat, you will not be able to press it out sufficiently to keep it from working and leaking out while the cheese stands on the ranges.
If anything will prevent sour milk from making leaky cheese, it is thorough cooking. This process you should hurry up as much as possible—always having an eye to keeping the heat even, and preventing waste of butter. The acid, acting on the butter globules, makes their coatings tender. ”