726 HOW TO MAKE THE FAEM PAY, 



causes fermentation. It also requires intelligence. Tlie cream 

 must be removed at just such a period of the fermentation of the 

 milk. If taken too soon, before the milk has clabbered, it has a 

 bitter taste ; if allowed to stand until spots form upon it, it loses 

 its sweet flavor ; if left until it wheys, it is nearly worthless. So 

 it requires a practised eye to skim it at the exact moment, to re- 

 tain all its sweetness and flavor. A dairy containing three cows 

 ^hould have its milk skimmed morning, noon, and night. 



A stone pot is the best receptacle for the cream, as tin is not 

 easily kept sweet. Every time fresh cream is added, stir the 

 whole contents from the bottom. Put a large tablespoonful of salt 

 into the first cream that goes into the pot, and mixing it daily 

 tends to keep it all from moulding. If possible churn twice a 

 week. Churn early in the morning before the kitchen fire is 

 lighted, or, if this is inconvenient, churn down cellar, so that the 

 cream will not become too warm. Cream should be at a tempera- 

 ture below sixty degrees when put into the churn, as beating it 

 always increases its temperature. In the end much time and 

 labor is saved by purchasing a small thermometer, on purpose to 

 test 3^our cream : fifty-six or fift^'-eight degrees to commence Avith 

 will bring your butter in fifteen minutes. 



Butter making in our family' is a most easy process. Three 

 cows are kept. The butter never fails to come in fifteen, often in 

 ten minutes. Churn, cream jar, and pans are all washed before 

 breakfast ; and the butter worked over and salted. There is a 

 great dispute with good butter makers upon the question of wash- 

 ing butter in water. I think that water washes out the sugar of 

 milk, which supplies all the sweetness of the butter; without it 

 the butter is tasteless. So I use large lumps of ice which do not 

 melt easily. As soon as the butter is thoroughly separated from 

 the buttermilk, reverse the crank, and draw on all the milk, turn- 

 ing the crank slowl}' ; work it in this way twenty minutes, and 

 the labor of working out the buttermilk is much expedited. Then 

 put in small pieces of ice, which quickly hardens the butter, so it 

 is easil}^ removed from the churn. Have large pieces of ice in the 

 butter-l)0wl, lay the butter on them, and allow it to remain until 

 cold enough to work without sticking to the hands. Scald the 

 butter-paddle, then put it on the ice for a while, and work the but- 

 ter thoroughly with it. "Work the butter until the little water 

 melted from the ice runs clear ; then add salt to suit the taste. A 

 tablespoonful heaping full of salt to each pound is a good rule ; 

 but tastes differ. 



For keeping butter one j^ear sweet and good, take two pounds 

 best Ashton dairy salt, one pound of white granulated sugar, one 

 pound of saltpetre finely powdered, sifted through a muslin sieve. 

 Mix all these well together, keep in a jar, and put one and a half 

 large tablespoonfuls to one pound of butter; mix this well with 

 the butter, and it will keep perfectly. There is nothing deleter!- 



