GUIUNG 15UTTEU IN THIS COUNTUV AND ABROAD. 209 



of fresli butter is so ob\dously like the description given to salt 

 tliat little need l)e said in regard to it. Tlic cnimiM^ii way is to 

 make i'resli butter up in rolls of poiuuLs or liali' pcjunds each ; 

 but it is also often made up in prints and fancy pieces of every 

 conceivaljle shape, and giving evidence in some instances of 

 considerable artistic skill. Shells, frosted leaves, and many 

 other designs, arc^, faithfully portrayed ; and a description may 

 be given of how it can very simply Ijc formed into minute 

 cylinders. The instrument used is of tin ; a hollow cylinder 

 open at one end to receive the butter, at the other there are only 

 small perforations through wluch the l)utter must escape on 

 l)eing pressed with a wooden plug or roller fitting closely to the 

 inside. Thus escaping as tiny cylinders, it resembles macaroni, 

 and has rather a tasteful appearance on the table. 



Tlic Packing of Butter. 



To preserve butter, or to put it in a convenient form for trans- 

 port, it is necessary that it do not come in contact with the air, 

 that it is not readil}' affected by alterations of temperature, that 

 there is no damage or loss on account of leakage, and that from 

 tlie vessel itself it receive no impure taste or jBavour. In all 

 metallic vessels there is the difficulty of their being ready con- 

 ductors of heat, and a still greater difhcidty in their liability to 

 corrosion Ijy the salt and lactic acid. Wooden vessels, if properly 

 made and seasoned, have not, for cheapness and efficiency, been 

 superseded, and are much more extensively used than any other. 

 Made of oak, ash, or similar wood, and having the original sap 

 removed b}' boiling water or super-heated steam, there is little 

 damage of any abnormal taste or flavour being — through the 

 vessel in which it is packed — imparted to the Ijutter. But to 

 prevent any danger, the vessel should be soaked in strong brine 

 — made from pure salt — for at least forty-eight hours ; when this 

 is emptied out, it should 1)0 again filled with boiling hot brine, 

 and when it is thoroughly cooled the vessel is then fit for use. 

 The heads require the same treatment, as they, too, come into 

 contact with the butter. The grain of the wood is, by this treat- 

 ment, so filled with salt as to prevent air getting in. No flavour 

 or taste can exude from the cask, and the butter next the wood 

 will be as good as that furthest away from it, which would not 

 be the case if soaked only in water or cold brine. 



In packing, the first process is to spread half an inch deep of 

 salt on the bottom, after which the butter is filled in perfectly 

 solid, and with each succeeding layer the finger is run round the 

 edge to smooth it into the cask, so that the air cannot enter 

 between. Wlien there is only room for a sindlar layer of salt 

 between the butter and the lid, a piece of muslin of the same 



o 



