260 Transactions of the American Institute. 



butter-making. 

 Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — Batter is not that ring-streaked, speckled, 

 spotted and grizzled material that is transported to the New York 

 butter markets in vessels that resemble an elegant swill pail more 

 than a neat butter-tub, but it consists of the frag-rance of ffreen 

 grass, the aroma of the mellifluous clover fields, the exquisite nectar 

 of new-mown hay, collected in glowing globules, like sparkling 

 dew di'ops on the petals of May roses, by fairy hands that are never 

 soiled by dirt and offensive odors; and the delicious essence is 

 impailed in an atmosphere as sweet and pure as ether, and wrapped 

 in a napkin as clear as the unsullied snow-drift. Dirt, foul odors, 

 infected air, pestilential earth and butter are pefect antagonisms. 

 Soap grease, shoe grease, wagon-wheel grease, which we see in such 

 vast quantities in the markets in butter-firkins, approximate about 

 as nearly to butter as old Mother Countryman's pie-crust shortening, 

 which was extracted from the suet of skunks. This is the negative 

 and afl5rmative of butter. Now, then, the next consideration is 

 what to do, and what not to do, to make delicious butter. Nega- 

 tively, do not allow Pat, nor Dick, nor any one else, to do the milk- 

 ing after grooming the horses, dusting the piggery, or kneading the 

 compost heap, without first giving his hands a thorough ablution 

 in soap suds. Then set the milk in an apartment as neat and sweet 

 as a bee-hive; and, if possible, let the cooling breezes from the 

 green hills pass in one window, over the milk, and out at another 

 window. As soon as a thick cream has risen, remove it, with as 

 little milk as practicable; and the sooner the cream is churned the 

 better the butter will be. Never allow the cream to rise in tempe- 

 rature above sixty-four degrees Fahrenheit. If it can be kept at 

 sixty degrees, the butter will be all the better for it. After churn- 

 ing, instead of throwing the golden-colored globules into a dirty 

 wash-tub with the fire shovel, and allowing Bridget to mount on it 

 with her pattering trotters to tread out the buttermilk as a donkey 

 tempers clay at a brick-kiln, remove the butter with a clean ladle 

 into a clean butter-tray or worker, never touching it with the bare 

 hiinds. Then, with the sharp edge of the ladle, make deep gashes 

 all through the butter, and the buttermilk will flow into the gashes 

 thus made; and when the gorge is thus closed, the liquid will flow 

 away. After buttermilk has once been liberated by gashing the 

 butter, it is not practicable to confine either water or buttermilk 

 again in the butter. Neatness and the proper temperature are 

 fundamental requisites in making a choice quality of butter. 



