Butter milk

“ Butter milk is one which meets with the greatest approval. The true butter milk from cream that has been soured by the desirable acid-forming bacteria has a mild agreeable acid taste, wholly free from any sharpness that is often noted in butter milk made from cream in which considerable numbers of the undesirable acid-forming bacteria have grown. Butter milk made from pasteurized cream soured with pure cultures will have good keeping qualities and is a most healthful drink for all classes of people, even for young children. ”

“ For every pound of butter made there are 15 to 20 ℔ of skim-milk and about 3 ℔ of butter-milk, and for every pound of cheese nearly 9 ℔ of whey. Up to 1889 or 1890 enormous quantities of skim-milk and butter-milk from the creameries and of whey from the cheese factories were entirely wasted. At farm dairies these by-products are generally used to advantage in feeding animals, but at the factories—especially at the seasons of greatest milk supply—this most desirable method of utilization is to a great extent impracticable. ”

“ A great deal depends on the butter being well worked. Persons that have large dairies should always have a machine to work it. A large churning may be more effectually cleared of the butter-milk in a few minutes, than in the old way in an hour. By doing it quickly, it does not get soft and oily in hot weather.
A Pickle for Butter.
To three gallons of water, add four and a half pounds of good brown sugar, one and a half ounces of saltpetre, one ounce of salaeratus; put them into an iron pot, and let them come to a boil; take off the scum; when cold it is ready for use ”

“ Muslin spread under and over the layer of salt, between the layers of butter is a good plan, as it saves the butter.
It is said that butter will be preserved sweet a long time for journeys, or voyages, by working into it very thoroughly a mixture composed of one-fourth salt, one-fourth saltpetre, and two-fourths white sugar.
In large dairies, the milk is churned soon after it is taken from the cow.
The quality of butter depends very much upon the kind of cows. Those who give a great deal of milk, are usually small and thin. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is not possible by mechanical means to remove the whole of the water and curd of the milk from the butter; indeed ``overworking'' the butter with the object of removing the water as completely as possible ruins the structure to such an extent as to make the product unmerchantable. In well-made butter there are contained about 85% of pure milk-fat, from 12 to 13% of water, and 2 or 3% of curd and albumen, milk-sugar or its product of transformation—lactic acid,—and phosphates and other milk-salts. In some kinds of butter, Russian for instance, the percentage of water is rather less. ”

“ By violent agitation, as in the process of churning, the fatty globules unite together, forming butter; whilst the liquid portion, consisting of caseum, serum, and a little butter, constituting the residuum, is called butter-milk. This separation is effected the most readily when the cream has become partially sour and coagulated by being kept a few days, a change which occurs in consequence of the conversion of some of the sugar of the serum into lactic acid, which precipitates the caseous matter contained in the small portion of the milk with which the517 cream is mixed. ”

“ Tin is better than wood, only on account of its being more easily kept clean. No one can ever make good butter without keeping everything about the dairy perfectly clean and sweet. Milk should never stand more than three inches deep in the pans, to raise the best and most cream. It should be set in an airy room, containing nothing else. Butter and milk will collect and retain the flavor of any other substance near them, more readily than anything else; hence, milk set in a cellar containing onions, or in a room with new cheese, makes butter highly flavored with those articles. ”

“ In short, they are the most prepotent and uniform of all, give a good-sized mess of very rich milk, are easy to keep, hardy and active, and fill a sphere which it would be difficult to fill without them. We do not know how their milk appears under the microscope, but we judge from the characteristics of these animals that the butter globules are above the average size and very uniform. Hence the cream rises readily, is easily churned, and makes a rich-colored, fine-flavored butter. It is a little remarkable that the breeders of these cattle have not succeeded in getting up a "boom;" ”

“ Aliments rich in fat and sugar favor the production of butter, and augment the supply of milk. Locust-beans, malt, and molasses are good milk-producing foods; but the chief condition in the production of milk rich in butter is simply that the animals which yield it must be fed with abundance of nutritious food. Nor must it be supposed that the richness of milk is due to the smallness of the yield, for whenever the quality of the secretion is inferior, it is almost certain to be deficient in quantity. ”

“ It is just as easy to make good butter as poor. It is simply want of neatness or deficiency of judgment that fills our markets with a miserable preparation that is only fit for soap-grease or the pigs.
First, take care that your cows are not allowed food that will affect the taste of the milk,—such as turnips, cabbage, or onions; then the cows’ bags and the milkers’ hands must be washed perfectly clean before beginning to milk; any dirt or bad flavor from the cow’s bag or the hands, that may find its way into the milk-pail, will taint the milk and injure the flavor of the butter ”

“ Before putting the milk into the churn it should be stirred thoroughly, as during the twelve hours occupied in ripening, the butter-fat, being the lightest, has come to the top and unless again thoroughly mixed, one churn will contain most of the fat and the others will contain comparatively little, and as each churning of milk going into the mixer constitutes a separate run, the quality of the butterine manufactured will be uneven. ”

“ Scald milk, add sugar, then add the well-beaten eggs. Cook until thick, remove from fire and cool. Be careful not to cook too long or it will curdle. Then add the cream and vanilla and freeze.
69 BUTTER As everybody knows, butter is one of the oldest and most important products of the dairy industry and since the middle of the nineteenth century, when science was first applied to it, the art of buttermaking has gradually been developed to a high degree of perfection, while the taste for fine butter has grown apace with its manufacture. ”

“ The washing of butter is intended to free it from the casein and unaltered cream, and the more perfectly it is freed from those impurities the better will be its flavor, and the longer it will remain without becoming rancid. Some people believe that too much water injures the quality and lessens the quantity of butter. It cannot do the former, because the essential constituents of butter are totally insoluble in water; it may do the latter, but, if it do, so much the better, because the loss of weight represents the amount of impurities—milk, sugar of milk, &c.—removed. ”

“ Unless the cows have been allowed to feed where there are bitter weeds or garlic, the milk cannot naturally have any disagreeable taste, and therefore the fault of the butter must be the fault of the maker. Of course, the cream is much richer where the pasture is fine and luxuriant; and in winter, when the cows have only dry food, the butter must be consequently whiter and more insipid than in the grazing season. Still, if properly made, even winter butter cannot taste badly.
Many economical housekeepers always buy for cooking, butter of inferior quality. ”

“ In large butter factories, with every facility for preserving uniform temperature, it is not easy to accept any excuse for poor butter, summer or winter; but when butter is only made in small quantities, simply for family consumption, and at a time when the cows are giving much less milk than in the summer and fall, there is a necessity for more care and labor in securing good butter than when we can furnish green pastures and fresh food for the cows. ”

“ Artificial Butter.—At the request of the victualling department of the French Navy for some wholesome substitute for butter that would keep well, Mege Mouriez, after a long course of experiments, has succeeded in producing an excellent substitute for genuine butter, that does not become rancid with time, and is otherwise highly recommended. Experiments made with cows, submitted to a very severe and scanty diet, led to the discovery that they continue to give milk, though in greatly diminished quantity, and that this milk always contains butter ”

“ As butter absorbs any strong odor present in the refrigerator and is perhaps cut and weighed in a most unsanitary manner, the good becomes contaminated with the bad. While butter of this kind is perhaps a few cents cheaper than that which is handled in a more sanitary way, it is less desirable, and if possible should be avoided by the housewife. In case butter is obtained from a certain farm, the conditions on that farm should be looked into for the same reason that the conditions in a dairy are investigated. ”

“ They are really as good, and the public in any case will hardly give you credit for having used butter. A quart of separated milk, containing 2 ounces of sweet lard or neutral fat, will make nearly as good bread as fresh milk. Do not get the idea that it will be thinner, and therefore use more fat than is necessary. One gallon of separated milk and 7 ounces of fat equals one gallon of fresh milk. Lard and neutral fats only affect the texture and shortness, and even butter added as a fat does not give that mild flavor imparted when the full cream is used. ”

“ Evenness of texture and cleverness of loaf make a better crumb color, the effect most noticeable with added milk, being due to the percentage of fat present. As a comparison, take 1 ounce of butter with 10 pounds of flour, as against 1 quart of milk. The butter or fat gives a very fine texture and thin crust, whilst the milk results in a better bloom, owing to the unfermentable sugar of milk. Of all milks, fresh full cream is best, and ought to be used with water in equal proportions, as half milk and half water give excellent results. ”

“ The more general practice is to "skim" just as the milk gives unmistakable signs of acidity, or thickens a very little on the bottom of the pan or can. A few prefer to skim the cream sweet, and still another few let the milk lopper. This wide divergence of opinion and practice shows how very imperfectly is the real philosophy of butter making understood; but, notwithstanding this, each one is usually very tenacious in his belief as to the superiority of his own practice. A few fancy butter makers say that the finest butter is made from sweet cream, raised in cold air by shallow setting. ”

“ If overheated, the butter will be white and frothy, and the milk thin and sour. Churn as soon as the milk is turned. In summer try to churn early in the morning, as fewer flies are swarming then, and the butter can be made much firmer. ”

“ 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 the average figures are approximately these:—12 qt. of milk should give 1 qt. of cream, and 1 qt. of cream should afford 14 oz. of butter. Morning milk is richer than evening milk, and the last portion drawn from the cow at each milking, is richer than the first. Autumn milk is best for butter, summer milk for cheese.
Milk to be sold fresh as such should be cooled immediately it is drawn from the cow, because while warm and exposed to the air, the sugar present undergoes oxidation with consequent liberation of lactic acid, which is indicated by the milk turning sour. ”

“ The amount of butter, however, which a given quantity of milk will produce, is not the only criterion of the value of the milk, except for this purpose alone. Some cows will yield more butter, others will produce more cheese; while for consumption, another may partially compensate, in the increased quantity of milk-sugar, and the saline matters, for a deficiency of both the other ingredients. But for dairy purposes, butter and cheese are the only measure of the value of milk; and a cow is esteemed good or indifferent, as she gives one or the other in the greatest abundance. ”

“ Have a kettle half full of boiling water over the fire; strain the milk into a clean pail, and set it into the boiling water until it gets scalding hot, but not boiling. Be sure and remove it before it rises in wrinkles on top. If too hot, the butter will have a disagreeable taste. The butter is never quite as good, but the cream rises more rapidly, before the milk has time to change,—a very important gain, and one to be considered in case of a small cellar. ”