718 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ON MAKING BUTTER. 



mm for afrood many daj saRerchurninc^; and the 

 butter manufactared in that manner will be Ibund 

 to be every way as good as that made from cream 

 alone, or in any other way whatever. If the 

 cream lias been several days in collecting, and 

 been allowed to throw off' its serum, or stand long 

 exposed to the atmosphere, belore it is churned, 

 the butter lirom it, however oily, will not have 

 such a fine taste as that made li"om the whole 

 milk managed in the way herein pointed out. 



Milk pre|)ared in this manner is churned in up- 

 right or plunge churns, of a size to suit the mag- 

 nitude of the ilairy. Where only a few cows are 

 kept, tjie churns will contain about fifty Scots 

 pints (100 quart.^,) but, in larger dairies, they ge- 

 nerally contain from 100 to 120 Scots pints, and 

 some still larger. These large churns are, on 

 some farms, moved by machinery, of various con- 

 struction; but, in the greatest number of dairy 

 farms, churns of 100 pints, or more, are wrought 

 by hand labor only, and frequently by the female 

 servants. After the clotted milk has been put into 

 the churn, and agitated tor a few minutes, merely 

 to break the coagulum ot' the milk, as much hot 

 water is poured among the milk as to raise it from 

 50° or 55°, the temperature of the milk-house, to 

 70° or 75° of Fahrenheit''s scale; one person agi- 

 tating the milk, wliile another throws in the -wa- 

 ter. The tcmp.eraturc of milk must be raised to 

 or above 70°, before the butter can be separated 

 from the milk; and the temperature of milk can- 

 not be so well raised in any other way as by 

 pourmg in boiling water nmong it, when it is be- 

 gun to be churned. And in this and nmny other 

 operations ol' the dairy, every thing regarding 

 temperature should be carefully regulated by the 

 thermometer. This valuable instrument, how- 

 ever, is seldom used in the Scotch dairies, the de- 

 gree of heat being guessed at from the appear- 

 ance of the milk. If the milk is too cold when 

 churning, it swells, has a pale white color, throws 

 up to the surface many air-bubbles, and emits a 

 rattling noise. But when the milk is in proper 

 heat, it does not swell, it has a slra^v or cream co- 

 lor, has a soft-er sound when agitated, and does 

 not throw up bubbles very plentifully. These ap- 

 pearances no doubt assist the experienced dairy 

 people in regulating the heat of milk under the 

 operation of churning; but surely the thermome- 

 ter would be a much better guide: for, when milk 

 is either overheated at the time it is churned, or 

 when that operation is too hastily performed, the 

 butter is soft, and of a white color. When the 

 heat of the milk is at the proper height, from 2^: 

 to 2| hours is the proper time for churning. When 

 milk is of ordinary quality, eight Scots pints (or 

 24 pints imjierial) yield 24 ounces of butter; and, 

 from the water necessarily thrown in at the tim^e of 

 churning, the quantity of butter-milk is equal to 

 the milk churned. 



The late Arthur Young has said, that butter- 

 milk is only fit to be consumed by swine; and Dr. 

 Dickson seems inclined to devote skim-milk, but- 

 ter-milk, and whey, to the feeding of pigs; but 

 the laboring people in Scotland and Ireland use 

 vast quantities of these as food to themselves and 

 their children, and are happy to get them at a 

 penny per Scotch pint, or two quarts. 



Another method of making butter, and one 

 most frequently ibHow-ed, is to separate the cream 

 from the milk and serum, as completely as possi- 



ble, and to churn the cream by itself When this 

 method is li-)!lowed, the milk, when drawn from 

 the cow, is placed about three inches deep in cool- 

 ers of wood, or of iron tinned in the inside, or of 

 stoneware; and it ie allowed to stand in the milk- 

 house, at a temperature of 50° or 55'^, till liie 

 cream rises to the surlace. In the dairies where 

 the milk is formed into butter and skim-milk 

 cheese, the milk is generally allowed to remain ia 

 the coolers from 36 to 48 hours, in order to obtain 

 the whole cream. In Holland, the milk is not al- 

 lowed to stand in the coolers more than from 16 to 

 24 hours, which is one of the reasons of the 

 Dutch butter being of superior quality to ours. 

 The first cream that rises to the surface is always 

 richer, and yields better butter than that which is 

 longer in coming to the surtiice. On this account, 

 some who want butter of the first quality, take off 

 the cream at six hours' standmg, and skim the 

 milk a second time for butter of inti^rior quality. If 

 the milk stand in the coolers fi-om 24 to 30 hours, 

 the butter will be better than when it stands 48 

 hours; because the cream that rises alter 24 hours, 

 is of inli^rior quality, and the milk and cream, 

 when too long exposed to the air, are greatly in- 

 jured. 



The cream is taken off the Jtiilk, either with a 

 skim-dish, or by pouring it carellilly over the lip of 

 the stand-vats or coolers. And it is placed in a 

 vat til! as much is collected as may be convenient 

 to churn together. The cream in that state soon 

 acidifies, and the oily matter, with some portion of 

 the milk in the cream, are formed into a clotted 

 state over the serum; if it remains long unchurned 

 fermentation commences, mouidiness soon covers 

 the surface, and the whole mnss acquires a rancid 

 taste. To prevent these evils, the cream ought 

 to be well stirred twice every twenty-four hours, 

 with a stick, from the time it is skimmed off the 

 milk till it is churned. 



Cream thus separated from milk, is an oily sub- 

 stance. When taken ofi' the milk, it contains a 

 portion of milk, which is separated by percussion 

 or churning. When new, cream forms a rich and 

 delicate ibod, either by itself or under various 

 modes of cookery; but its most common use is in 

 the shape of butter. 



Cream is churned in vessels of various forms 

 and dimensions:, as upstanding ])lunge-churns, 

 barrel-churns turned round with a handle, and pa- 

 tent box-churns. But whatever their form be, or 

 the power by which they are worked, the effect is 

 to break and shake the cream, till the oily part of 

 the mass be separated fi'om the milk, and formed 

 into butter. The cream must be raised to 70° or 

 75°. 



Churning of cream should be neither too hur- 

 riedly nor too slowly performed. Two hours is 

 the shortest period in which it can be done with 

 safety, but it need not be protracted longer than 

 two hours and a half; and the operation should be 

 carried on steadily, fi'om its commencement to its 

 termination. VVhen the churning is carried on 

 rashl}^, or the cream too much heated, either by 

 churning or the admixture of hot water, the butter 

 is too soft and of a white color. If the cream 

 have become rancid, that disagreeable taste and 

 (favor will not be rehioved by churning, but will 

 extend to the butter and butter-milk. 



Whenever the butter is made in the churn, it is 

 removed from the butter-milk, and \vell Avashed, 



