Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1875 — Should Batter Be Washed? [ARTICLE]

Should Batter Be Washed?

We have known excellent butter-mak-ers wash their butter thoroughly, and we have seen others who were accustomed to make butter of a prime article refrain from washing it. The keeping qualities of butter depend principally upon two things—first, the buttermilk must all be got out; and second, the grain of the butter should be kept as perfect as possible. It is an excellent practice, as soon as the butter has fairly come, to stop churning, then drain the buttermilk from the chum through a hair sieve into a tub, after first wetting the sieve in hot water and then in cold, and then the butter will not stick to it. Let the butter remain in the chum after the buttermilk is drained out, then wash it by pouring the water upoD it from a sufficient height and stream of sufficient size to force its way through the butter. Keep moving the stream about upon the butter as it keeps rising upon the water. Pour in water enough to dilute what little buttermilk there is in it to that extent that it will not be necessary to change the water, and the result will be that you will have rinsed the buttermilk all out of the butter without injuring or mashing a single grain. In working in the salt the ladle, or worker, whatever it is, should never be allowed to slip on the butter, but to go on at the butter in a pressing or rolling motion. If allowed to slip on the butter it will make it look shiny, destroying the grain ahd injuring its keeping qualities. One ounce to a pound is hardly enough to pack to hold; and then some churnings of butter will work out more salt than others, to which will have to be added more before packing.— H. T. Herald.