To Make Butter

Ingredients

• one ounce of salt
• one pound of butter

Method

1. 1

   Cool milk immediately after straining and let it stand for 24 hours.

2. 2

   Skim only the cream and churn until butter forms.

3. 3

   Salt at the rate of 1 ounce per pound, pack in jars, and cover with salt and paper to preserve.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Virginia Cookery-book (1884) by Mary Stuart Smith, page 134. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

To Make Butter.— Brine for Keeping Butter.— To Cure Butter. — Mrs. Colston's Recipe for Putting up Butter to Keep. — Cottage Cheese. — Bonny - clabber. — Slip. — Curds and Cream, No. 1.— Curds and Cream, No. 2. — Cheese. — Cream-cheese, No. 1. — Cream- cheese, No. 2.— To Make Slip-coat Cheese. To Make Butter. We cool the milk as soon as possible after it is strained; a small portion of ice around the pans cools it very soon. The milk is allowed to stand about twenty-four hours be- fore it is skimmed ; and if properly cooled when first milked it will not thicken or sour in that time, in scarcely any weather, in a well-ventilated dairy. We use care in skimming to take only the cream ; the less milk with the cream the better. The cream is kept in good stone jars, and churned as soon as it begins to sour. We use the barrel-chum and pan, fifty to sixty revolutions per min- ute, with a steady, even stroke. It takes from thirty-five to forty-five minutes to make the butter come. As soon as granules begin to form, if they are soft or of a whitish, creamy appearance (as they will be if the cream is too warm), we cool down with less, until they acquire a proper consistency. As soon as the churning is finished we draw off the buttermilk, and press the whey all out of the but- ter with the paddle ; it is then salted, at the rate of one ounce to one pound of butter, which is well worked in the butter ; it is then set aside for six or eight hours, for the salt to dissolve and the batter to cool, when it is thor- VIRQINLA. COOKERY-BOOK. 387 oughly worked and pressed to get the whey all out of it, and packed down at once in stone jars, using the paddle and packer all the time, and never touching it* with the hand. An ounce of salt is none too much, as a large por- tion of it is carried off with the whey in the last working of the butter. When the jar is filled, a thick coat of salt is put over the top of it; then a piece of paper, greased by dipping it in a cup of melted butter ; another layer of salt is placed over this, and then another fold of paper, and all secured by tying a thick cotton cloth over the mouth of the jar. Butter managed in this way will keep from May until the next spring perfectly sweet. The giver of the above recipe. Dr. J. A. Beid, took the first premium for butter at a Yirgina State Fair, and his instructions may be relied upon in every particular. Brine fob Keeping Butteb. Make a brine strong enough to bear an e^gy then put in two handf uls of salt to each gallon of water ; add half a pound of white sugar and two teaspoonf uls of saltpetre ; boil well, and skim until perfectly clear ; then strain six or eight times. Always keep a bag of salt in the brine with the butter ; let the butter be weighted down, the rolls tied separately in cotton cloths, and it will pre- serve its sweet, fresh taste for a year or two. To Cube Butteb. In the fall of the year is the best season for putting away butter, so that it will keep to use during the spring months, when it is usually so scarce and high in price. Half a pound of salt, a quarter of a pound of saltpetre, a quarter of a pound of white sugar ; pound these ingredi- ents together, and put one ounce to evei*y pound of butter as you take it from the churn, sprinkling and working it 288 VIRGINIA COOKERT-BOOK. just as with salt alone. Pack it down in a jar as tightly as possible, adding from week to week until it is full ; then cover with an inch of salt, tie a thick cloth over the mouth, invert the jar, and it will be better after six months' keeping than at first. Mbs. Colston's^ Recipe fob Putting up Butter to Keep. Pulverize together in a mortar two quarts of best com- mon salt, one ounce of salt

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