26 



Clotted or Clouted Cream. — Gas Tar. 



Vol. IX. 



Clotted or Clouted Cream. 



Under the head of Butter, the process 

 of making this preparation is described; but 

 as the subject is one of particular interest 

 to the American dairy, the following more 

 detailed account is inserted, taken from the 

 Library of Useful Knowledge, 2nd vol. o/l 

 British Husbandry. The dairymaids of the 

 western counties of England, think that 

 clouted cream furnishes one-fourth more 

 cream from the same quantity of milk than 

 can be obtained in any other way. Th 

 process is simply this: "The milk while 

 warm from the cow, is strained into either 

 large shallow brass pans, well tinned, or 

 earthen ones, holding from two to five ga 

 Ions, in which should be a small quantity of 

 cold water. This is thought to prevent the 

 milk from burning, and to cause tlie cream 

 to be more completely separated and thrown 

 to the top. 



" The morning meal of milk stands till 

 about the middle of the day; the evening 

 meal until the next morning. Tlie pans are 

 now steadily carried to, and placed over a 

 clear, slow fire; if of charcoal, or over a 

 .stove, the cream is not so apt to get an 

 earthy or smoky taste as when the milk is 

 scalded over a turf or wood fire. The heat 

 should be so managed as not to suffer the 

 milk to boil, or, as they provincially term it, 

 'to heave;' as that would injure the cream. 

 The criterion of its being sufficiently scalded 

 !» a very nice point; the earthen pan, having 

 its bottom much sNnaller than the top, allows 

 this point to be more easily ascertained; be 

 cause when the milk is sufficiently scalded, 

 the pan throws up the form of its bottom on 

 the surface of the cream. 



"The brass pan, if almost as big at the 

 bottom as at the top, gives no criterion to 

 judge by, but the appearance and texture of 

 the surface of the cream, the wrinkles upon 

 which become smaller and the texture some- 

 what leathery. In summer, it must be ob- 

 served, the process of scalding ought to be 

 quicker than in the winter, as in very hot 

 weather, if the milk should be kept over 

 too slow a fire, it would be apt to run or 

 curdle. 



" This process being finished, the pans 

 are carefully returned to the dairy; and 

 should it be the summer season, they are 

 placed in, the coolest situation ; if on .stone 

 floors or slate benches, the better; but should 

 it be the winter season, the heat should 

 rather be retained, by putting a slight cover- 

 ing over the pans, as cooling too suddenly 

 causes the cream to be thin, and conse- 

 quently to yield less butter: the mode of 

 making which, is this: the cream should, in 



hot weather, be made into butter the next 

 day; but in winter it is thought better to 

 let the cream remain one day longer on the 

 milk. The cream, being collected from the 

 pans, is put into wooden bowls, which should 

 be first rinsed with scalding, then with cold 

 water. It is now briskly stirred round one 

 way, with a nicely cleaned hand, which 

 must have also been washed in hot and then 

 in cold water, for these alternate v^arm ^nd 

 cold ablutions of bowl and hand, are notonly 

 for the sake of cleanliness, but to prevent 

 the butter from sticking to either. 



" The cream being thus agitated, quickly 

 assumes the consistence of butter, the milky 

 part now readily separates, and being poured 

 off, the butter is washed and pressed in se- 

 veral cold waters; a little salt is added to 

 season it ; and then it is well beaten on a 

 wooden trencher until the milky and watery 

 pai ts are separated, when it is finally formed 

 into prints for the markets." 



" If the quantity of cream be considera- 

 ble, the cream will be an inch or more thick 

 upon the surface, and it is then divided into 

 squares and taken off. The remaining milk, 

 however, contains little besides the watery 

 particles in its original composition." — 

 Farmer''s EnfyclopcEdia. 



Gas Tar. — It will be recollected that a 

 writer of some celebrity recommended the 

 very free use of this ingredient, to keep off 

 vermin ; sowing it with seed, daubing it 

 on trees, and various other applications. A 

 doleful account of losses occasioned by it, 

 appears in the same paper. A person dressed 

 the trees in his orchard, three or four feet 

 up from the ground with it. Apple trees 

 began to fail, and died altogether, the bark 

 of others rotted, and many suffered severely. 

 This ought to be a caution never to try ex- 

 periments, so often founded on theory alone, 

 except on a very small scale. The Gas Tar 

 kept away vermin, but it killed the trees. 

 Theory said that it would keep off a plague; 

 but the trial wiiich proved its efficacy in that 

 particular, sacrificed an orchard. — Gardener 

 and Practical Florist. 



Every farmer should supply his table with 

 fresh meat from his poultry-yard, instead of 

 the butcher's shambles. A butcher's bill 

 presented once or twice a year, to be paid 

 in cash, is a very annoying affair. With 

 proper care it may be avoided as above. 

 Some farmers dispose of their calves and 

 lambs to the neighbouring butcher, and thus 

 square off his bill ; but this is not a good 

 plan — they need the cash for this part of 

 their stock, to pay the storekeeper's bill, &c. 



