1854. 



NEW ENGLAND PARMER, 



203 



RANCID BUTTER. 



HV OWEN MASO>f. 



"A French ecientific journal states that it hasbeen 

 ascertained by frequent experiments, that the bad 

 smell and taste of butter may be entirely removed 

 by working it over in water mixed with coloride of 

 lime. The di.scovery was made by a Brussels far- 

 mer, whose practice is to take asuliicient quantity 

 of pure cold water to work it in, and put into it 

 from 25 to 30 drops of chloride of lime tor evei-y 

 10 pounds of butter. AVhen it has been worked 

 until the whole htus been brouglit into contact with 

 the water, it should be worked again in pure wa- 

 ter, when it will be found to be as sweet as when 

 originally made. The experiment can easily be 

 tried, and we commend it to our citizens who are 

 driven to the necessity of buying rancid butter, or 

 of using none. 



Another effectual mode of renovating butter is 

 said to be, to churn it over with milk until the old 

 salt and bad taste are all removed, and then work 

 it over and salt it afx-esh. Wa tind the aliove in 

 the Syracuse S/ar and think it may be worth a 

 trial."' 



The above article has Ijcen extensively copied 

 into agricultural as well as political newspapers. 

 We have tried both of the methods described, ns 

 well as some of our own, and have found them all 

 utterly ineffectual for the renovation of butter that 

 has once become rancid. The best disposition to 

 be made of such butter is to put it into the recep- 

 tacle for soap grease. Anything so offensive, to 

 all but those of the coarsest taste, must be un- 

 wholesome. 



Pure butter, that is salted with pure salt, may 

 be kept for years without becoming rancid ; tliis 

 we know to be a fact, and butter makers would do 

 well to inform themselves of all the causes produc- 

 tive of rancidity, or any other quality tliat inter- 

 feres with its preservation cr injures its flavor and 

 relish. 



In an editorial article of the Journal some weeks 

 since, almost all the poor butter was charged to tlie 

 want of skill or attention on the part of the dairy 

 women. A correspondent, whose communication 

 is rather too long for puI)lication, comes up to the 

 defence of this useful class of tbe community, and 

 attributes nearly all the poor buttej^to the neglect 

 of farmei's in providing suitable places for the 

 keeping of niilk and l)utter. A short essay, Ijy 

 one of the best judges in the State, was pul)lished 

 in the trans;ictions of the Rliode Island Society for 

 Encouragement of Domestic Industry, and in pam- 

 phlets for general distribution, in which the author, 

 while he does not overlook the circumstances influ- 

 encing the quality of butter noticed by tlie Jour- 

 na/and its correspondent, points out several others, 

 and very comprehensively the means of avoiding 

 them. 



That writer consid(!r8 that the use o( impure salt, 

 from Liverpool and Onondaga, is one of the most 

 common caus'»sof that rancidity and ))itterncss tliat 

 characterize, in a greater or less degree, by far the 



freatest portion of the butter brought hither from 

 [ew York. 



That the quality of butter made in New York 

 has constantly d(!t(Tioratcd, from whatever c;iuse, 

 wo think is undeniable. Time was when there was 

 no difficulty in procuring a prime article, and 

 *'(joshen butter" had a reputition equal to the 

 best products of our own dairies ; but of the butter 



for winter use, sold in this market during the past 

 two years, three-tifths would be branded as grease 

 in England, and it deserves no better name any 

 where. 



The exorbitant prices it has commanded for some 

 time past seems to have produced a perfect reck- 

 lessness in regard to its quality, both on the part of 

 tlie makers ot it and tlie large dealers, and the mar- 

 ket has at lengtU become glutttd with the execrablo 

 stuff- We wish no greater punishment to them 

 than that they should be compelled to eat the ar- 

 ticle with which they hoped to grease the throats 

 of tlieir customers at the rate of 30 cents per pound. 

 CJood liutter is Ijoth a necessary and a luxury, and 

 it constitutes a most important item in the dispo- 

 sable products of the farm ; tlie whole community 

 are therefore interested in having all tlie causes 

 investigated and exposed which contribute to the 

 deterioration of its quality, and the authorities of 

 New York are specially interested in ascertaining 

 what portion of the mat« of bad butter, sent from 

 that State, is fairly attributable to tlie employ- 

 ment of impure salt. We have seen many ana- 

 lyses of the New York salt, some purporting to 

 have been made by authority, and all reprcstuiiiing 

 it of the purest khid. That the purest salt may be 

 made from the brine springs of Onondaga there is 

 no doubt, and yet it is difficult to find commercial 

 samples, even of that which is sold under the name 

 of "dairy salt," in which the presence of lime, 

 magnesia, and sulpnuric acid, may not be detected 

 by the appropriate tests, showing contaminations 

 of two or more of the following articles, viz. : Ep- 

 som and glaubers salt, sulphate of lime and the 

 chlorides of calcium and magnesium — precisely 

 such ingredients as a chemist would prescribe with 

 which to make bitter butter. 



Very recently, at our suggestion, a friend has 

 subjected to chemical examination every variety of 

 salt to be found in this market. xVmong the six 

 or eight varieties examined, that from Syracuse, 

 called dairy salt, was the most impure, while the 

 purest variety was that from St. IMartins, as pre- 

 pared and ground by Messrs. Sweet and Angell. 



The term "rock salt," though erroneously ap- 

 plied, is meant, in this i^irinity, to designate the 

 clean, coarsely crystallized article, produced by 

 solar evaporation and imported from the ^Ve8t In- 

 dia Islands. The very liest samples of this saltare 

 alwaj's procured I)y our most skilful butter ma- 

 k(,Ts, by whom it is carefully washed, dried and 

 poun<led or ground very (inc. If carefully selected 

 and thus prepared, it is generally sufficiently puro 

 for the jiurposi!. If any douI)t of its purity exist, 

 it may l)e determined l>y the following process. If 

 istilled water cannot easily be procured, collect 

 some rain water as it falls, in a clean earthen fian, 

 (not from the roof.) and in it dissolve a portion of 

 the salt. Take Iialf a gill of the solution and add 

 to it three or four tea sjioonfulls of a solution of 

 carbonate of soda, and boil in a glass dish or a well 

 tinned vessel a few UKUiu'nts, tiien jioiir into a 

 tumbler. If the solution become milky, and a 

 white sediment form, tiie presence of lime or mag- 

 nesia, or l)oth, is certain. Into a wine glass of 

 another portion of tiic sidution, put drop liy drop, 

 a solution of chloride of harixnn, and if the li(iuid 

 become milky and a wliite precipitate form, the 

 presttnce of sulphuric acid is certain. Salt upon 

 wliich these tests produce tliese effects is unfit for 

 butter-making. If, however, the solutions show 



