BUTTER. 
white, insipid butter, which has the singular pro- 
perty of again mixing very readily with the but- 
ter-milk, and of being again separated from it by 
agitating the containing vessel under cold water. 
When butter is kept for a certain time, it ac- 
quires a peculiarly disagreeable smell and taste, 
known by the name of rancidity. This has been 
thought to arise from the development of a pe- 
culiar acid, similar to, if not the same with, the 
sebacic acid; but Deyeux and Parmentier have 
shown, that no acid is present in rancid butter. 
Rancid oils, however, certainly do show acid pro- 
perties. The disposition of butter to become 
rancid, is owing in a good measure to the pre- 
sence of foreign matters adhering to it ; for if the 
butter be carefully washed, so as to separate 
completely the serous and curdy parts, rancidity 
does not take place nearly sosoon. When butter 
is distilled, we obtain a little water and sebacic 
acid: the greatest part of the butter comes over 
in the state of an oil, with a strong, pungent, 
and very disagreeable smell; much carburated 
hydrogen gas is disengaged, and there remains in 
the retort a very small carbonaceous residuum, 
with a little phosphate of lime. 
The processes for making butter have been 
various in different ages, and among different na- 
tions. The operation of churning is well known ; 
and we have only to observe, that though churns 
have been constructed of different forms, they 
may be all reduced to two, the vertical and hori- 
zontal, The vertical, or pump-churn, as it is usu- 
ally named, was probably the first thought of, 
and is nothing more than a tall wooden vessel, 
three or four feet high, narrow in proportion to 
its height, and straiter above than below, having 
a sort of piston or staff, about four feet long, 
adapted to it, with a perforated head, by moving 
which up and down with the hands, the cream 
is agitated, and the butter at length formed. 
The utensil is sufficiently well adapted for making 
butter on a small scale, where the cream to be 
churned is the produce of a few cows only. But 
where dairying is managed ona great scale, 
and the quantity of cream large, the operation 
performed in this way is too tedious and labo- 
rious for general use, and methods have been 
contrived to expedite the process and abridge 
the labour. This is best done by means of the 
horizontal, commonly called the Jbdarrel-churn, 
which is a cylindrical vessel, close at both ends, 
and firmly fixed upon a stand, having a sort of 
rack or trundle adapted to it within, usually with 
four blades, and turned by a winch or handle, 
placed on its axle, passing through the ends of 
the churn. By this machine, as much cream 
may be churned in an hour as could be done in 
ten or twelve by the common upright churn. 
Ingenious machinery for working both species of 
churns, by means of water, and other moving 
powers, have been contrived, and found to answer 
well. The apparatus may be made of wood, iron, 
or sheet-tin; but the first is preferable. The 
587 
cream should not fill above two-thirds of the 
churn. See the article Cuurn. 
. In the northern parts of Africa, in Egypt, and 
Arabia, they churn by putting the cream into a 
goat’s skin, turned inside out, and pressing it to 
and fro, in a uniform manner. Sometimes they 
place it on an inclined plane, permitting it to 
roll to the bottom, and then again replacing it 
to run the same course,—a method which ina 
short time produces butter. Dr. Chandler, while 
travelling in Greece, observed them treading the 
skins thus filled with their feet ; a practice which 
has been thought to illustrate the passage already 
quoted from the book of Job. In Bengal, they 
churn by simply turning a stick in the milk ; and 
that families may have the butter fresh and 
sweet to breakfast, it is made in this way every 
morning. In many parts of the Hast, they make 
butter of the milk of the buffalo; but this is by 
no means esteemed equal in excellence to the 
butter of the cow’s milk. It is deficient in con- 
sistence, colour, and flavour. 
With regard to the good or bad qualities of 
butter, a great deal has been always ascribed to 
the pasturage of different farms or districts. 
Recent observations and experiments, however, 
show that much less depends upon this than has 
been commonly imagined. The mode of manage- 
ment appears to be of much greater consequence. 
‘“‘In every district,” says-Dr. Anderson, “where 
fine butter is made, it is universally attributed 
to the richness of the pastures, though it is a 
well known fact, that take a skilful dairy-maid 
from that district into another, where no good © 
butter is usually made, and where, of course, the 
pastures are deemed very unfavourable, she will 
make butter as good as she used to do; and 
bring one from this last district into the other, 
and she will find that she cannot make better 
butter there than she did before, unless she takes 
lessons from the servants or others whom she 
finds there.” —“ I have frequently,” continues he, 
“known instances of this kind. And the same 
thing takes place in the manufacture of beer and 
many other articles. In matters of this sort, a 
very great diversity is produced by circumstances 
apparently of a most trivial kind.” M. Tessier, 
of the National Institute of France, says, “The | 
particular nature of Bretagne butter, whose col- 
our, flavour, and consistence, are so much prized, | 
depends neither on the pasture nor the particular 
species of cow, but on the mode of making. This 
butter is of a superior quality, because they 
make it of the richest cream, and usually in large 
quantities at a time. As soon as it is made and 
washed, they sprinkle it with sweet milk, spread 
it out in flatted cakes, larger or smaller, but 
rarely containing less than three, or more than 
six pounds; and lay it on a kind of pan, placed 
on hot cinders, and covered with a copper lid, on 
which are put cinders also. It remains there 
some minutes, more or fewer according to the 
bulk of the cake.” ‘This mode of managing but- 
