Butter Making

Ingredients

• a quart of cream
• one-half ounce of salt to the pound of butter
• three-fourths of an ounce of salt for packing
• one pint of salt to a gallon of water
• a level tea-spoon of saltpetre
• a pound of white sugar to each two gallons

Method

1. 1

   Keep the milking area clean and wash the teats thoroughly.

2. 2

   Strain the milk through a fine strainer.

3. 3

   Skim the milk daily and churn the cream at 58 degrees.

4. 4

   Add cold water to harden the butter.

5. 5

   Work the butter with a paddle and wash out the buttermilk.

6. 6

   Salt the butter with the appropriate amount of salt, cover with a cloth soaked in brine, and store in a cool place.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 6 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Buckeye cookery (1892), page 280. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

BUTTER-MAKING. No sloven can make goog butter. The one thing to be kept in mind, morn. ing, 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 cleari as possible. Wash the teats and udders thoroughly with plenty 0 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 héat 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 re- move 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 bitterand 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 tem- perature 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 in- jures the grain of the butter. This is especially true of that which is to be \ (438) | e » ort, ~~ «HINTS ON BUTTER-MAKING. 439 packed, as it keeps longer when well washed. If to be used immediately the washing may be less thorough. Another and better plan is to remove the butter toa marble slab and lay on the top of it a piece of ice. As it settles down by its own weight, work it up around the edges with the paddle, and the water from the melting ice will wash out and carry off the butter- milk. Before or during the churning, the bowl (which should never be used for any thing else) in which the butter is to be salted, should be filled with scalding water, which should remain for ten minutes; pour out and rub both bowl and paddle with hard coarse salt, which prevents butter from sticking. Rinse thoroughly and fill with cold or ice-water to cool. After | washing butter free from milk, remove to this bow], having first poured out — the cold water, and (the butter-bowl and paddle should occasionally be scoured with sand or ashes, washed thoroughly with soap-suds, and rinsed until all smell of soap has disappeared) work in gradually salt which has been pulverized by rolling, and freed from foreign substances. If wanted for use, one-half ounce of salt to the pound of butter is sufficient, but if wanted for packing, use three-fourths of an ounce or even an ounce of salt. Use only the best quality of dairy salt. After salting, cover with cotton cloth soaked in brine, and set away in a temperature of about 60 degrees for twelve hours. Work the second time just enough to get the remaining but- © termilk out. This, however, must be done thoroughly, as otherwise the acid of the buttermilk will make the butter rancid. At the end of the second working it is ready for use, and should be kept ina clean, sweet place, as it soon absorbs bad odors and becomes tainted. The air of a cellar in which are decaying vegetables soon ruins the sweetest butter. In packing for market (ash butter tubs are the neatest and best packages) soak the package for twelve hours in brine strong enough to float an egg, pack the butter in evenly and firmly, having first put in a thin layer of salt. If the tub is not filled by the first packing, set away until next churning, in a cool place, with a cotton cloth wet in brine spread over the butter, and place cover carefully on the tub. When filled lay over the butter a cotton cloth (from which the sizing has been washed) soaked in strong brine, nail up the tub, and set away in a clean, cool place until ready to sell. In packing for family use, work into rolls, lay in large stone crocks, cover with brine strong enough to float an egg (one pint of salt to a gallon of water), in which a level tea-spoon of saltpetre and a pound of white sugar to each two gallons

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.