Home › How To Cut And Cure Meats › Hints On Butter-Making (No sloven can make good butter)

Hints On Butter-Making (No sloven can make good butter)

No sloven can make good butter. The one thing to be kept in mind, morning, noon, and night, is neatness, neatness, neatness. The milking should be done in the cleanest place that can be found, and the cows should be kept as clean as possible. Wash the teats and udders thoroughly with plenty of cold water, and wipe with a cloth or towel. Never wash with the hand moistened with milk from the cow. The least impurity taints the cream, and takes from the sweetness of the butter. Milk perfectly clean (as the last quart is twice as rich in butter as the first), and the quicker the milking is done the more milk is obtained. The milk-room should be clean and sweet, its air pure, and temperature about 62 degrees. As soon as a pail is filled, take to the milk-room and strain the milk through a fine wire-cloth strainer, kept for the purpose, and not attached to the pail (the simple strainer being more easily kept clean). Never allow milk to stand in the stable and cool, as it absorbs the foul odors of the place. The pans (flat stone crocks with flaring sides are better than tin pans. In winter hot water should be poured into them while milking is being done, and poured out just before straining the milk into them) should be set on slats, rather than shelves, as it is important to have the milk cooled from the animal heat as soon as possible. Skim each day, or at longest within twenty-four hours. Souring does not injure the quality of the cream, but the milk should not be allowed to become watery. Do not use a perforated skimmer, but remove a little of the milk with the cream, as this does not injure the quality or lessen the quantity of butter, and gives more well-flavored buttermilk, which is a favorite and wholesome drink. If there is cream enough each day, it should, of course, be churned, and this plan makes the best butter, although it takes longer to churn it. If not, the cream should be set aside in a cool place, covered, and stirred thoroughly whenever more is added. It ought not to stand more than two days, and must not be allowed to become bitter and flaky. The best plan is to churn as soon as it becomes slightly acid. Scald the churn and dash thoroughly, and put in the cream at a temperature of 58 degrees. The motion of the churn will soon bring it up to about 60 degrees. When the butter comes put a quart or two of cold, soft water (or ice is better) into the churn to harden the butter, and make it easier to gather up. After gathering it as well as possible with the dash, it should be removed to the table or bowl, and thoroughly worked with a flat wooden paddle, (never with the hand, as the insensible perspiration will more or less taint the butter), using an abundance of cold soft water to wash out the buttermilk and harden the butter. By this process the buttermilk is removed quickly, and there is no need of excessive working, which injures the grain of the butter. This is especially true of that which is to be (438)