On making Butter in Brittany* i()3 



to chum ; but it is urgent to churn it as soon as it is 

 sour, and not to wait its fermentation. 



It must have curdled and soured of itself without fire. 

 In the winter season, however, it is proper to pour a httle 

 sour milk into it to make it coagulate. 



Though the cream is the elementary part of the b>itter, 

 and neither the whey nor the cheese part contain any of it, 

 yet it is necessary to throw into the churn the three parts 

 of the milk, and to churn them all together. The reason 

 of it is evident. The churning, which must be always 

 uniform and continual, communicates a slight degree of 

 heat, which would give a disagreeable taste to the butter, 

 if the cream were churned alone ; while churning the 

 whole together, the acidity of the whey tempers the heat- 

 ing effects of the churning, the cheese part helps the se- 

 paration, and the butter comes fresh out of the chum. It 

 is to preserve that fresh taste, that in summer our butter 

 women, as soon as they perceive the small globules of 

 butter beginning to form, do not fail to throw into the 

 churn (by the hole of the churn-staff, and without stop- 

 ping the churning) some pints of spring water every ten 

 minutes, that is, a pint to every fifty or sixty pints of 

 milk : in winter, on the contrary, they add warm water, 

 which they pour in as soon as they begin to churn, in 

 order to accelerate the slight degree of heat necessary for 

 the formation of butter ; but when they perceive the first 

 butter-globules forming round the churn staff, then they 

 cease pouring warm water, and the temperature warns 

 them from putting any more cool water. Thus, to make 

 butter, it is required — 



1st. That milk must have been curdled and soured, 

 but not fermented. 



2d. That milk must have been naturally soured, with- 

 out any help but a small quantity of sour milk, and espe- 

 cially without warming it. 



