Milk jug

“ We can never, therefore, be served with a large comfortable pot of anything, but are confronted instead with a caravan of silver jugs, china jugs, bowls of hard and soft sugar, hot milk, cold milk, hot water, and cream, while each in her secret heart wishes that the other two were less exigeante in the matter of diet and beverages. ”

“ Milk absorbs odors very quickly, therefore should never be left in a refrigerator with stale cheese, ham, vegetables, etc., unless in an air-tight jar. It should never be left exposed in a sick room or near waste pipes. Absolute cleanliness is necessary for the preservation of milk; vessels in which it is to be kept must be thoroughly scalded with boiling water, not merely washed out with warm water. ”

“ It is then ready to strain through two thicknesses of cheese-cloth and care must be taken to squeeze well so as to obtain as much of the whey as possible, which is very important. Add one tablespoonful of sugar to sweeten. Pour into nursing bottles, the amount being according to the age of the baby. A sufficient number of bottles are prepared for 24 hours’ feeding. Care should be taken to keep the milk in a cool place as it will sour the same as fresh milk. Every time the baby is fed the milk must be warmed by placing the bottle in a pan of water and heating to the right temperature. ”

“ It is a matter of great importance that the dairy should not be situated near a pig-stye, sewer, or water-closet, the effluvia from which would be likely to taint the milk. It is surprising how small a quantity of putrescent matter is sufficient to taint a whole churn of milk; and as it has been demonstrated that the almost inappreciable emanations from a cesspool are capable of conferring a bad flavor on milk, it is in the highest degree important to remove from the churn and milk-pail every trace of the sour milk. ”

“ In the hospital or in the home it serves as a substitute for milk when a mild diet of easily digested food is temporarily required for a weak stomach. For such purposes it must not be allowed to become acid as in cheesemaking, but should be prepared as the chief product from sweet new milk or freshly separated skim milk. The sweet milk is set with rennet—one Junket Tablet, dissolved in cold water, to a quart of milk—at a temperature of 90° to 100° F. As soon as a firm curd is formed it is carefully broken up and transferred to a strainer of cheese-cloth. ”

“ In Devonshire, celebrated for its dairy system, the milk is always scalded. The milk-pans, which are of tin, and contain from 10 to 12 quarts, after standing 10 or 12 hours, are placed on a hot plate of iron, over a stove, until the cream has formed on the surface, which is indicated by the air-bubbles rising through the milk, and producing blisters on the surface-coating of cream. ”

“ If you have no cellar that can be kept warm and free from the smell of vegetables, set your milk on a shelf, in a warm closet, where, of course, you will keep no vegetables or meats, as nothing is so easily impregnated with odors of all kinds as milk. Cover the pans or bowls with a fine net, to exclude dust or motes of any kind.
Thirty-six hours is as long as milk should remain unskimmed, summer or winter. Every hour longer, even though the milk may taste sweet, is insuring bitter butter. As you skim off the cream, stir it well each time. ”

“ The common custom of setting milk in pans is objectionable, not only because of the dust and germs always liable to fall into the milk, but also from the difficulty of keeping milk thus set at the proper temperature for cream-rising. Every family using milk in any quantity ought to have a set of creameries of large or small capacity according to circumstances, in which the milk supply can be kept in a pure, wholesome condition, and so arranged as to facilitate the full rising of the cream if desired. ”

“ In case a refrigerator is not available, it will be necessary to resort to other means of keeping milk cool. A cool cellar or basement is an excellent substitute, but if milk is kept in either of these places, it must be tightly covered. Then, too, the spring house with its stream of running water is fully as good as a refrigerator And is used extensively in farming districts. But even though a housewife has none of these at her disposal, she need not be deprived of fresh milk, for there are still other ways of keeping milk cool and consequently fresh. ”

“ The milk, as fast as drawn, should be removed from the place of milking, lest it absorb odors from the droppings, the breath, or the exhalations from the cow's body—or even from the sweat and grime of the person and clothes of the milker—for milk is extremely sensitive to these influences. It is much more so than is popularly supposed, and should be put in a sweet atmosphere as soon as possible when drawn. Fine fancy goods, with the most delicious and delicate flavor, cannot be made from milk that has been exposed to the influence of a foul atmosphere. ”

“ However, the whole-grain and liquid-milk method works well only when the birds are on a good, green range and is practical to use only when milk products are cheap. Some loss from pendulous crops is to be expected when liquid milk is consumed liberally and this is one of the chief objections to its use. The milk receptacles should be set on a wire screen and covered to protect them from the weather and from contamination with droppings. Sanitation is especially important when milk is used. ”

“ The milk is cooled and bottled immediately after milking, and kept at a low temperature until it reaches the consumer, to prevent the entrance of dirt of any kind or the development of the few bacteria that must gain entrance before it is bottled. To produce such milk requires much expensive apparatus and much more labor than to produce ordinary milk, and as a result it sells for a much higher price, both to distributor and consumer, so that the market for it is rather limited. ”

“ The first and simplest suggestion is to set the can in a tub of cold water—cold spring or well-water, or iced water—and to give the milk frequent agitation with a dipper or other convenient article, care being taken to stir it from the bottom, as the cold milk naturally settles, and of course the hot milk lies on the top. Gentle agitation secures the advantage, also, of preventing the cream from rising. ”

“ Cream contains about 40 per cent. of fat and 55 per cent. of water; SKIMMED MILK is water, with sugar and caseine. Whey is merely a solution of milk sugar with a little albumen. Milk is best and most plentiful in spring, and richer but less abundant in dry seasons. The last milk drawn from the cow contains most cream. Koumiss, the use of which is rapidly increasing, is well skimmed milk, treated with a lactic ferment for 30 or 40 hours. It is very easy of digestion. Condensed milk is ordinary milk evaporated so that three pints are reduced to one. It soon spoils unless the air is excluded. ”

“ A tumbler and a half of warm milk (of a temperature of about 90° Fahr.) , in which half an ounce of cane, still better milk, sugar has been dissolved, and a bottle of skimmed cow’s milk, are then added.
“The addition of the sugar is made for the purpose of remedying the small amount of lactine in cow’s milk; the water is added to make the milk, which is rich in casein, thinner, and thus to facilitate its agitation and emulsion. Skim milk is used because it contains less fat, an excess of which interferes with fermentation. ”

“ The night's milk is scummed in the morning at daybreak, when the cows are milked again, and the new milk mixed with the old. In three hours, the whole mass is scummed a second time, the milk remaining in a kettle for cheese, and the cream being put into a cylindrical churn, shaped like a grind-stone, eighteen inches radius, and fourteen inches thick. ”

“ By diluting with water to reduce the protein and salts, and adding sugar and a little cream, the proportions of these different substances may be made to approximate those in mother's milk. In both the sugar is the same—lactose, or milk-sugar; the fats are also much alike in each; but the albuminous matter of cow's milk differs somewhat from that of human milk, particularly in the way in which it coagulates in the presence of acids. Human milk forms into small, light, feathery curds; cow's milk into large, compact, not so easily digested masses. ”

“ It is desirable that the milk should, as soon as possible after the cooling takes place, be delivered to the consumers, and be kept under cool conditions, either in bottles or in a closed vessel covered over with muslin, so as to keep out specks of germ-laden dust. ”

“ In a warm atmosphere the milk or cream should be made scalding hot by setting it in a vessel of boiling water, and stirring it the while. Boiling deprives it of the cream and other nutritive properties. There should be no more warmed than is to be used up. The warming should be by putting the milk in the bottle, then placing the latter in hot water a few minutes. In this way the quality and temperature of the drink remains uniform. The capacity of the bottle selected should be about one ounce. The material of which the black elastic nipple is composed, is not supposed to injure the mouth. ”

“ The Jersey cow gives too rich milk, and it must be greatly diluted. Children who digest milk with difficulty should take it diluted about four parts milk, one part water, a little salt or bicarbonate of soda should be added. Do not give milk at meals when fruits, especially if they are sour, are allowed. ”

“ In his mode of manufacture, the evening’s and morning’s milk is commonly used to make one cheese. The evening’s is [244] strained into a tub or pans, and cooled to prevent souring. The proper mode of cooling is to strain the milk into the tin tub set in a wooden vat, described in the dairy-house, and cool by filling the wooden vat with ice-water from the ice-house, or ice in small lumps, and water from the pump. The little cream that rises over night is taken off in the morning, and kept till the morning and evening milk are put together, and the cream is warmed to receive the rennet. ”

“ Half a pound of sugar is then dissolved in the milk, and a tea-spoonful of rennet is introduced, which is sufficient to “turn” a gallon. In an hour, or in some cases two, the milk is curded, and is ready for use. The street-sale is confined to stalls; the stall, which is the ordinary stand, being covered with a white cloth, or in some cases an oil-cloth, and on this the curds, in a bright tin kettle or pan, are deposited. There are six mugs on the board, and a spoon in each, but those who affect a more modern style have glasses. ”

“ One good recipe for modifying cows' milk is: One part milk, two parts cream, two parts lime-water, three parts sugar water, the sugar water being made by putting two even teaspoonfuls of sugar of milk in a pint of water.
Condensed milk, which is often used as a substitute for cows' milk, is not nearly so good, since it has lost in the process of condensation one of the most important elements, that which forms bone tissue. ”

“ The milk is therefore heated as soon as it is withdrawn from the animal; and, when warm, it is poured into a large skin bottle, with which the poorest hut is furnished, and in which there is always a remnant of sour milk sufficient to sour the new milk, after it has been stirred with a stick kept for the purpose. Those bottles are never washed or cleaned: they are therefore always incrusted with cheese and dirt, and the smell admitted by them is sufficient to show what they contain. But it is precisely in this that the secret for making the milk undergo the vinous fermentation consists. ”

“ A larder or store-room should never be used for the storage of milk, as the conditions required are somewhat different, and also because, more than almost any other substance, milk absorbs and is spoilt by any strong smell such as many stores yield to the air about them. The milk-room should be cool, only moderately light, well ventilated and somewhat dry, and should, if possible, face the east or north. There must be no possibility of gas from drain or manure heap coming into contact with the milk at any stage, either in milking-yard or dairy. ”

“ A very simple way in which to keep milk cool is to weight down the bottles in a vessel that is deeper than they are and then pour cold water into the vessel until it reaches the top of the bottles, replacing the water occasionally as it becomes warm. ”

“ Ripened with a pure culture of lactic acid bacteria, it makes a healthful, refreshing drink, like buttermilk. Only when it is allowed to sour without proper care or control does skim milk, as whole milk does, become unfit for food or drink. On a cold winter morning when men are going to work (or perhaps are looking for work which they cannot find) , and children are on their way to school, often underfed, a street-corner wagon or stand where boiling hot, fresh, sweet skim milk might be distributed at a cent or two a glass would be a blessing in any city. ”

“ Pasteurizers, bottling machines, bottle-washing 44machines, conveyors, etc., are wonders of ingenuity, and one needs only to see one of these modern plants to understand that in a large city milk can only be handled to advantage in expensive establishments. ”

“ Among our dairymen the thing of special sanctity was milk. A man in our neighborhood might almost better be accused of forgery or bigamy outright, than to fall under the dreadful suspicion of putting water into his cans.
Whether it was mere stupid prejudice or malignant invention I know not—who started the story was never to be learned—but of a sudden everybody seemed to have heard that Abner Beech's milk had been refused at the cheese-factory. ”