The housewife's referee

To make butter the cream must never be left to stand too long, and a dairy thermometer should be kept, for it is most necessary that the cream be brought to the right temperature before it is put in the churn. If the cream is too cold, when churning time comes add a little warm water, if too warm, add cold water. When the butter is about the size of wheat grains, stop churning and draw off the butter-milk and pour into the churn some clear, cold water. Turn the churn slowly several times to free the granules of butter from the butter-milk. Be careful not to overdo this, and gather the butter together in lumps, then squeeze the butter in a cloth and return it to the churn. Put in more cold water and churn for a few minutes to wash the butter, then lift the butter with the " hands " on to a wooden bowl to be salted. To salt the butter, take some table salt — see there are no lumps in it — rinse the hands well and spread out the butter. Sprinkle a little salt over the butter and work it well in (about one ounce of salt to a pound of butter). This must be continued till the butter is salted according to taste. If the butter is to be made into rolls or prints, it should be allowed to get cold enough to stay in shape when reworked ; but it should be remembered that butter is injured in quality every time it is reworked. The grain becomes broken and soft, when it is apt to adhere to the beaters of the churn owing to being churned at too high a temperature. Unless the weather is exceedingly cold, cream should never be churned at a higher temperature than 60° Fahr., and at this temperature butter should be brought in the course of an hour or an hour and a quarter. When butter is very white it is due to the over-heated cream. To make butter pats, pour boiling water over the grooved side of the wooden hands ; sprinkle with coarse salt and rub together, so that the ridges clean the grooves ; rinse and place in water for five minutes. Cut off a piece of butter firm into flat cakes and balls ; or beat out to a thin, flat piece, and then curl up. By scooping out butter with large and small spoons, roses may be represented ; baskets or nests may be made by rolling out the butter in three long thin rolls and plaiting them together, then forming them into a round, filling them with little egg-shaped balls of butter, and stretching a long thin roll over for a handle. To represent a nest, press the butter through a dairy strainer and it will come out in feathery portions ; remove them very carefully, lay them round the edge of the basket, and fill in with butter eggs, but no handle. Chemical preservatives are much used for keeping the butter sweet ; but borax or frigiline are the only kinds I can recommend. Abroad, or even in one or two of the English counties, heat is the only preservative used. The milk is put into air-tight bottles, and warmed to a certain point under 212° Fahr., then re-heated to boiling point, THE housewife's REFEREE and kept boiling for ten minutes, cooled off, and not opened till required for use.