Ch. XXXVII.] ON BUTTER. 413 



must, indeed, depend so mucliupon tlie weather, that no fixed rule regarding 

 it could ever be strictly followed. In fact, " so little nicety is observed in 

 this respect by practical farmers, even those who have a high reputation for 

 making good butter, that few of them ever think of observing any precise 

 rule with regard to the dilVerent portions of their cream, seeing they in 

 general make into butter all they have collected since the former churning; 

 the time which should intervene between one churning and another being 

 usually determined by local or accidental circumstances." Dr. Anderson, 

 who makes this remark, is, however, of opinion, " that if the cream be 

 carefully kept, and no serous matter allowed to lodge about it, a very great 

 latitude may be safely admitted in this respect. It is, indeed, certain, that 

 cream which has been kept three or four days in summer is in excellent 

 condition for being made into butter ; and that from three days to seven may 

 be found in general to be the best time for keeping cream before churn- 

 ing*." The cream from every milking should, however, be kept apart 

 until it is become sour, and not be mixed up v/ith sweet cream ; at least not 

 until the moment of churning ; for the mixture occasions fermentation, which, 

 though partly prevented by the stirring, is liable to render the cream putrid. 

 When, however, the herbage is coarse, or the cows are fed on root?, or arti- 

 ficial grasses, the sooner the cream is churned the better will be the butterf ." 

 In Cheshire they allow the milk to stand until the cream becomes clotted, 

 or, as they term it, " carved," to a proper degree of acidity, which generally 

 takes place, in warm weather, within a day or two ; and in winter it is 

 placed near the fire, in order to forward that process. In Mid-Lothian 

 the " Corstorphine Crcam^' is obtained by putting the milk into vessels 

 immersed in warm water, which occasions the whole of the creamy sub- 

 stance to rise. The whey is then drawn off by a hole in the lower part of 

 the vessel, and what remains is for a short time agitated in the plunge 

 churn. The mode of procuring the clotted or " clouted cream,'" so 

 celebrated throughout our Western Counties, which the dairy-maids there 

 say produces one-fourth more cream than by the common way, is de- 

 scribed in the note at foot %. 



* '' On the Makinji; and Curing of Butter." — Bath Papers, vol. v., art. vi. 



t " Complete Grazier," sixth edition, pp. 136 and 138. 



X It is simply thus : " The milk while warm from the cow is strained into either large 

 shallow brass pans, well tinned, or earthen ones, holding from two to five gallons, in 

 which should be a small quantity of cold water. This is thought to prevent the milk 

 from burning, and to cause the cream to be more completely separated and thrown to 

 the top, 



" The morning meal of milk stands till about the middle of tlie day; the evening: 

 meal until the next morning. Tlie pans are now steadily carried to, and placed over a 

 clear slow five ; if of charcoal, or over a stove, the cream is not so apt to get an earthy or 

 smoky taste as when the milk is scalded over a turf or wood fire. The heat should be so 

 managed as not to suffer the milk to boil, or, as they provincially term it, * to iieave ;' 

 as that would_ injure the cream. The criterion of its being sufficiently scalde<l is a very 

 nice point ; the earthen pan, having its bottom much smaller than the top, allows this 

 point to be more easily ascertained; because when the milk is sufficiently scalded, the 

 pan throws up the form of its bottom on tlie surface of the cream. 



" The brass pan, if almost as big at the bottom as at the top, gives no criterion to 

 judge by, but the appearance and texture of the surface of the cream, the wrinkles upon 

 which become smaller and the texture somewhat leathery. In summer, it must be ob- 

 served, the process of scalding ought to be quicker than in the winter, as in very liot 

 weather, if the milk should be kept over too slow a fire, it would be apt to run or curdle. 



"This process being finished, the pans are carefully returned to the dairy ; and should 

 it be the summer season, they are placed in the coolest situation ; if on stone floors or 

 slate benches, the better ; but should it be the winter season, the heat should rather be 

 retained, by {)utting a slight covering over the pans, as cooling too suddenly causes the 

 cream to be thin, aud consequently yield less butter : the mode of making which is this : 



