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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



LARD VERSUS BUTTER. 



BY ALEXANDER FORSYTH. 



Biography differs from history in this, that the items 

 of biography arc made up during the life-time of the 

 party, whereas in liistory tliey relate to the fwte or 

 fortunes of the departed. Now it is quite after this 

 faaliion with butter from the cow, and pig's butter. 



The cow may look over the hedge and see living boys 

 actually eating her butter ; but it is far otherwise with 

 the pig and her butter (lard), for that article of luxury 

 is a legacy left to mankind by the long-headed porker, 

 whose life of ease and gluttony was past and gone before 

 his lard had come to tabhiin the form of butter. I may 

 as well state here, that the word " butter" is not by any 

 means confined to the one article of butter made from 

 milk: the article " cocoa-nut butter" is an example of a 

 very important article of commerce, and is as like lard 

 in appearance as can be. 



Of all the articles used to adulterate milk, butter-lard 

 is perhaps the least reprehensible ; but let no one 

 imagine for a moment that I wish to encourage the 

 dishonest practice of adulteration of any article, still less 

 in this case of an article of such importance to the 

 welfare of the whole community as butt(-r : on the 

 contrary, I wish to point out to poor men the importance 

 and economy of an article equal to the best butter, when 

 properly used, and for some purposes actually preferable 

 to butter, and that for about half the price. 



But before I go any farther, I am sorry to be com- 

 pelled to state, that whilst butter is adulterated with 

 lard, lard also is adulterated, frequently with gummy or 

 farinaceous substances — so much so, that in samples 

 which I iiave tried, in a test tube, there was 20 per cent. 

 of foreign matter. 



When the Devonshire housewife finds that her fresh 

 butter sells at Is. 6d. per lb., and her hog's lard at 8d., 

 she is tempted to lard the bottom of the tin milk-pan 

 before the new milk is sieved in, and in this way during 

 the process of scalding the milk, after the Devonshire 

 fashion of making butter, the dead pig's lard is raised 

 by degrees to the dignity of living cow's butter, for as 

 the temperature rises, the lard melts and rises along 

 with the cream ; the clotted cream is then turned a little 

 in a shallow tub with the hand, and the result is fresh 

 butter frequently worth Is. Gd. per lb., making the net 

 gain upon the lard so sold lOd., or even Is. per lb. ; or 

 in commercial figures — lard at GO?, per cwt., sold as 

 butter at lC8s., with a margin for profitof 108s. per cwt. 



When cheese is made from new milk (as it ought to 

 be), there is a portion of the fatty matter life in the 

 whey ; and when this is churned, there is manufactured 

 the basest article that bears the name of butter. This 

 whey-butter abounds in the northern counties where the 

 best cheese is made, and its marbled appearance to the 

 eye bespeaks its tainted character, and tells clearly of 

 its contact with the decomjiosing assent, viz , the rennet 

 that clotted the casein curd, and liberated the whey. 



To such parties as are in the habit of buying and 



eating whey butter (and their name is legion), it will be 

 no small boon to get beautifully-refined American lard 

 at half the price of their bad butter. 



The colliers in the northern counties seem to have 

 been the first in this movement of using lard with their 

 bread instead of butter ; not, however, by spreading it 

 on like bread-and-butter, but by having the lard baked 

 with the bread. 



Corn of itself contains very little fatty matter, 

 still it does contain a little, and to that little beginning 

 of fatness must be traced the store of greasy matter 

 found in animals whose principal food has been meal or 

 corn-flour. To increase the value of bread as an article 

 of food it has to be greased or buttered with fat of some 

 kind, and whether the confection be in the form of 

 wheaten-brcad cut in slices and coated with fresh 

 butter, or in the form of oatmeal-porridge or " ban- 

 nocks of barley-meal" eaten with lard or dripping, the 

 substantial virtues, viz., the feeding properties, are the 

 same. The collier finds the bread-and-butter an awk- 

 ward article under ground ; and it is for this reason 

 that he has his bread baked with lard, and in this dry 

 state his grease is not affected by the atmosphere of the 

 pit. Taken by itself this example would go for very 

 little ; but when it is coupled with the fact that the very 

 highest order of pastry is made with lard, and when the 

 highly-ornamented leafy-crust of an apple tart is served 

 up at a nobleman's table apart from the confectioner's 

 skill in ornamentation, the principal ingredients of the 

 nobleman's paste and the collier's bread are llourand lard. 



The art of cooking pig's butter is unfortunately very 

 little understood among the class of men most interested 

 in it, and the disgusting samples of lard frequently to 

 be seen in shops forbids a fair trial. Refined lard should 

 be firm as the finest butter and white as the snow, and 

 may be seasoned with salt or other seasoning, but of 

 itself should taste sweet like new milk. Tf I have 

 shown the poor man how to fatten his homely fare with 

 a pure butter at half the price he is in the habit of pay- 

 ing for bad butter, I shall rest satisfied that I have not 

 taken this trouble in vain. But it is scarcely to be 

 credited that in England the manufacture of butter is 

 so various. One party churns all the new milk, and 

 gets good butter and oceans of butter-milk to sell about 

 the streets ; another skims off the cream, and sours it 

 before churning ; whilst a third party scalds the milk, 

 and never churns at all, and yet gets butter. These, 

 with the fellow (for he deserves no better name) that 

 churns the whey, are all butter-makers ; and it may 

 truly be said that at least half the butter made in this 

 kingdom is of very inferior quality, although, generally 

 speaking, made from good milk ; and it is only when 

 this state of things is t"kfn into consideratioii, that we 

 see th ; importance of getting an article al.vnys the ^ame 

 in quality and ut less than half the price of butter. 

 Manchester, Oct. 22. 



