ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 499 



well stirred as often as new is added. It 

 should not be kept too long before churn- 

 ing, never more than a week — four or 

 five days is better. 



Churning. — The cream should be 

 churned at a temperature of 62 or 63 °. 

 A great deal of experience may enable 

 one to guess at this temperature with 

 tolerable cleverness, but it is better to use 

 a thermometer and be sure. This tem- 

 perature will be increased during the 

 process of churning to 68° or thereabouts, 

 when the butter will come. If it should 

 be hard and granular, refusing to come 

 together well, throw in a litde warm 

 water, churning all the while, and the 

 butter will soon be gathered and ready to 

 take up. 



Sweet cream should never be mixed 

 with sour cream just before churning, as 

 sweet cream is much longer coming, and 

 hence likely to lose itself in the butter- 

 milk. To salt the cows once a week is 

 generally believed to facilitate the pro- 

 cess of churning. In case they have not 

 been thus salted, some put a little salt 

 into the cream before churning; but we 

 think that in most instances where butter 

 is very long coming, it is owing to the 

 temperature of the cream. It may be so 

 cold as to require churning all day to 

 bring the butter; a tax upon one's pa- 

 tience and strength, if performed by hand, 

 equal to the cost of a dozen thermome- 

 ters. 



Coloring. — As a rule, it is absolutely es- 

 sential in the winter to color butter, in 

 order to make it marketable, or at all at- 

 tractive as an article of table use at home. 

 There may be a possible exception to this 

 rule in cases where cows are fed largely 

 upon yellow corn meal, pumpkins, carrots, 

 etc., but this does not lessen the impor- 

 tance of the rule. Of the various sub- 

 tances used in coloring butter, we think 

 that carrots (of the deep yellow variety) 

 give the most natural color and the most 

 agreeable flavor. Annotto, however, is 

 principally used, and with most satisfac 

 tory results. Some of the most celebrated 

 butter makers in the country color their 

 butter with pure annotto, giving it a rich, 

 deep orange color. They do not aim to 

 produce the color which is natural to a 

 summer butter, but one considerably 

 richer; coloring it both summer and 

 winter. If carrots are used, they should 



be grated, the juice expressed through a 

 thin cloth, and put into the cream just 

 before churning. A small quantity of 

 annotto, dissolved in warm water or milk, 

 may be used in the same way, and with 

 similar results; but a richer tint is pro- 

 duced with annotto by coloring the butter 

 directly. To prepare the annotto for this 

 purpose, steep it in butter for some hours 

 over a slow fire, then strain through 

 a fine cloth into a jar and keep in a cool 

 place. When ready to work the butter, 

 melt a small quantity of this mixture and 

 work it in carefully. A small proportion 

 of turmeric is sometimes mixed with an- 

 notto and prepared in the same way. 

 With this method of coloring an inexperi- 

 enced hand is in danger of working the 

 butter too much, in the effort to produce 

 the same shade of color through the en- 

 tire mass, which is, indeed, a difficult 

 attainment for a novice. Coloring in the 

 cream obviates this difficulty entirely, the 

 butter being a uniform color when taken 

 from the churn. 



Salting and Working. — While salt is 

 not to be undervalued as a preserving 

 agent, it must be remembered that too 

 much of it destroys or overpowers the fine 

 flavor and delicate aroma of the best but- 

 ter. Be careful to preserve all the sweet- 

 ness of the fresh butter, salting just enough 

 to remove its insipidity. It is important 

 to use the best salt. "Ashton's factory 

 filled " has great fame, and is extensively 

 used. But any one can test the purity of 

 salt, and perhaps other brands of Liver- 

 pool salt may be found equal to Ashton's. 

 Pure salt is perfectly white and destitute 

 of odor, if will dissolve in cold water 

 without leaving any sediment or throwing 

 any scum to the surface, and the brine 

 will be as clear as pure water and entirely 

 free from any bitter taste. Prof. Johnson 

 says, in the American Agricultural An- 

 nual y 1868, that the " Onondaga factory 

 filled must take rank second to none, 

 provided the ingenious processes of Dr. 

 Goessman, which were employed in 

 Syracuse a few years since, are still in 

 use." The buttermilk should be nearly 

 all worked out and the butter well washed 

 before salting. Washing may abstract 

 somewhat from the flavor of the butter, 

 but it is, nevertheless, a necessity if the 

 butter is expected to keep long, as it com- 

 pletely removes the cream and caseine of 



