Butter Making

Ingredients

• an ounce of pulverized salt
• about an ounce of salt to a pound of butter
• about a quarter of an ounce of fine white sugar

Method

1. 1

   When enough cream is ready to make butter, set it away until slightly sour.

2. 2

   Stir in pulverized salt when adding cream to the jar.

3. 3

   Skim with a shallow ladle.

4. 4

   Churn the cream with steady strokes until butter forms.

5. 5

   If soft, add ice or cold water to harden.

6. 6

   Remove butter with a wooden paddle, working out buttermilk without smoothing it.

7. 7

   Sprinkle salt and sugar, work in, and pack tightly in firkins or tubs.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management (1885) by Juliet Corson, page 17. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

ounce of pul- verized salt may be put into the bottom of a two- or three- gallon jar; and, every time cream is put in, it should be thoroughly stirred with that already in the jar. Any drops upon the inside of the jar should be wiped off, and it should be kept covered with a piece of gauze. A shallow ladle is best for skimming, and it need not be perforated. No wind should be permitted to blow over the surface of cream while it is rising, and it should be protected from dust. The most cream seems to rise upon milk cooled by ice. Although cream needs to be a little sour before churning, it must not be allowed to become at all bitter : the churning may be done two or three times a week. Before using the churn, it should be scalded for one min- ute with boiling water, then emptied, and partly filled with very cold water for five minutes : after that, the water may be poured out, and the cream put into the chum. Very thick cream should be thinned with milk before churning. When the cream froths much in the chum, the butter should be used soon after it is made, because there is some condi- tion of the milk or cream which will prevent the keeping of the butter. Chum with a series of steady, even strokes, about sixty to the minute, and stop when the butter comes in small, firm masses. At some seasons it is necessary to put some very cold milk, or a piece of ice, into the churn before the butter will come ; this may be done if it does not begin to appear in about half an hour : butter comes in about half an hour when the cream is at a temperature of about 65° Fah, When the butter comes, if it is very soft, put ice or very cold water into the churn so that it will harden enough to be taken up. Remove the butter from the churn, to a clean 14 PRACTICAL AMERICAN COOKERY. - table or butter-tray, with a wooden paddle, first wetting both in very cold water. Never use the hands in working butter. With the ladle, cut down through the butter, and press it firmly, to work out the buttermilk ; but do not smooth it, because that breaks the grain of the butter. If the weather is warm enough to make the butter soft, put a piece of ice upon it, and trust to the second working to eixtract the water. When the buttermilk is worked out, spread the butter out on the tray or table, sprinkle over it the finest dairy-salt, — about an ounce of salt to a pound of butter, — and then, using the same cutting motion, thoroughly work the salt into the butter. Some butter-makers add about a quarter of an ounce of fine white sugar

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