People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1896 — The Setting of Milk. [ARTICLE]

The Setting of Milk.

A very large share of the milk skimmed for private butter making in Indiana, is set in cans or crocks and the cream skimmed from the surface. Milk may be set for cream in various kinds of vessels and under different conditions. The poorest method is to set shallow tin pans or crocks on pantry shelves or in a cellar. Milk thus set is exposed to a greater air contact than when set otherwise, and so is more liable to be affected by injurious odor, by diseases transmitted through the atmosphere, and by heat and cold. Milk so set will oftentimes rapidly sour, or in very cold weather may freeze. If it sours badly in summer, when skimmed, curds wll be likley to get in the cream remain more or less in the butter, after churning forming white spots, thereby seriously-injuring the quality of the butter. Or, if the milk or cream freezes, an inferior grade of butter will be made from it. If cream is to be secured by setting milk, the best plan will be to set the milk in round tin cans, about 18 inches deep and 8 inches in diameter. If the can is placed in ice water cojd spring water, to the height of the milk in the can, the conditions for cream separation will be greatly improved, especially if inside a refrigerator or creamer. This method helps keep milk the at a uniform temperature and enables the cream to rise to best advantage. Such cans as these, open at the top, are commonly known as “shot gun” cans, and may be

bought of dairy supply houses or can be made by any good tinner. These deep cans are skimmed in one of two ways—either by a conical skimmer from the surface or by means of a faucet or valve at the bottom of the can, where the skimmilk is drawn off. In experiments at the Indiana station, in comparing these two methods of skimming where the milk was skimmed from above, there was an average loss about twice as great as in that skimmed by drawing off from below. During 15 days in February the average loss from sur face skinaming was 0.34 percent while that skimmed from below showed a loss of but 0.17 per cent. It is important that milk should be set only in tin vessels of good quality. The cheap tin sold on five and ten cent counters, is so thin a wash, that it is readily corroded to the under metal, which gives a ruinous flavor to the milk if it sours in the vessel at all. Whore used for holding milk, the tin should be of XXX grade. This is more durable, stiffer and less affected by the acid in sour milk. In general, persons striving to make a fine quality of butter, should have a cabinet creamer. In this the milk may be kept to best advantage and properly protected from objectionable odors and dirt. —C. S. Plumb, Director, Purdue University A-gricltural Experiment Station.