BUTTER-MAKING. 



123 



ripens if it be kept three or four days at a temperature of 

 58 to 62. After this, it churns sooner and easier, and, as 

 a rule, more of the butter comes out of it. Each meal's or 

 each day's cream may be mixed with that which precedes it, 

 or it may be kept separate. But, if the latter, all of the cream 

 intended for churning on any given day should be mixed 

 together, and occasionally stirred about with a stick during a 

 period of two or three hours. This is done in order that all of 

 it may be equally ripe, equally fit for churning. 



The churn should never become dirty or sour, and it should 

 be prepared for the cream by scalding first and then cooling by 



FIG. 32. LISTER'S DRYER, MOULDER, WEIGHER, AND PRINTER. 



water. If the cream is too fresh, 10 or 15 per cent, of soured 

 buttermilk will be found to improve the butter. In this way 

 acidity is employed when it can do the greatest good and the 

 least harm to the flavour of the butter. But if the cream be 

 allowed to become distinctly sour before it is churned, injury 

 will have been done to the volatile tri-glycerides, to which the 

 delicate flavour of fine butter is due. The process of churning 

 should be regular as to speed, faster in the middle than at the 

 beginning or end, the number of revolutions running up to 

 about 45 per minute. The churn should have a ventilating 

 valve, and a pane of glass through which the changing condition 

 of the cream may be noticed from time to time. When the 



