Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1891 — THE DAIRY. [ARTICLE]

THE DAIRY.

Churnlncr ami Sailing flutter. To the question, “What makes butter cone?” the United Staten Dairyman thus replies: “It is not known whether concussion or friction, or both, cause the separation of the butter from the buttermilk in churning. But we suspect that concussion is the real agent that produces the separation, as we have really seen no churn that did not in some way produce more or less concussion. All the churns wo have soon used appeared to produce good results, and wo find every dairyman is satisfied with the work of the churn he uses, whatever the kind, stylo, or patent. We cannot, therefore, recommend any stylo of churn as superior to another, but we prefer the simple and less expensive forms, as not only costing less but being easier to keep clean. Tlio churning should be steady and not violent. A too rapid or sudden separation of the butter from buttermilk is not desirable. It is no recommendation for a churn that it churns quick. Such a churn is apt to injure the socalled grain of the buttur, and make it salvy and greasy. The least churning that will separate the butter from the buttermilk is the best. When to stop churning—the improved model method now in practice by the best butter-makers is to stop the churn as soon as the butter is collected in particles the size of a wheat kornal. Just beforo this, when the first signs of the separation of the butter is soon, the sides of the churn are washed down with cold water —usually below (30 degrees,- or about 55 degrees—to not only prevent waste, but to harden the butter and make it easier to handle. When the granules aro the size of wheat kernels the butter is drawn off, or the butter taken out of the buttermilk, as the case may be. If the butter is left in the churn water Is poured in to float the butter, which Is then gently agitated for a moment and the water drawn off. This operation is repeated until the water runs clear. Sometimes one of the washings is in brine, which coagulates the caselno into a soluble form and prepares It to bo washed out afterward. In this way it is believed that purer, longer-keeping butter can be made. In some cases, however, butter makers have customers who want a buttermilk flavor in the butter. They, therefore, do not wash the butter, or wash it very little. Such butter must be consumed atonce, as It will not keep. By this method of retaining the butter In a granulated form only sufficient working Is required to ovenlv work in the salt. The loss working the better. The salt, after the butter is properly drained, can bo carefully mixed with the butter by stirring. When thoroughly incorporated, barely pressing the butter together in a solid mass is all that Is needed. If one does not want butter very salty to the taste, it can be evenly and nicely salted by completely wetting It with saturated brine, then carefully pressing the granulated butter together and leaving In it as much of the strong brine as will remain. We have seen butter salted in this way, and It was very evenly and completely salted, having in It no undissolved grains of salt, but it was not as salt to the taste as some like. About an ounce to the pound is good salting, but more or less salt must be used to suit the taste of customers. None but refined salt should be put Into the butter. The principal office of the salt in butter is to impart an agreeable flavor in connection with the natural aroma of flue butter,but it is a fact that too much salt injures good flavor, and It may, to some extent, be used to cover up or neutralize the flavors. We do not recommend its use for this latter purpose, preferring that the natural flavor of butter from pure cream should be preserved.