Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1879 — Winter Butter. [ARTICLE]

Winter Butter.

The most serious difficulties of the dairy begin with the cold weather- In the winter season cows have usually passed their period of freshness by several months, the food is dry, and the temperature is very low; all these circumstances tend to change the condition of the milk and cream, and affect the character of the butter, so that with the advent of winter the complaints of trouble with the churning become constant, and the dairy people become disgusted and despairing. The butter refuses to come in many cases, and after many hours of patient churning.there is a foamy mess of sour cream without any sign of butter in it Or the butter, after hours of churning, comes in shape like grains of sand, without any coherence, and white, and of disagreeable flavor. The least disagreeable result is the appearance of white curdy specks, which disfigure the butter and render it unsatisfactory alike to the exacting customer and the ambitious producer. The happy dairyman is he who has all his plans laid for winter business. His cows are fresh; he has a stock of beets, mangels or carrots on hand; his hay is green and odorous, having been out in June, and cured while it was yet young, with all its juices sweet and “abundant; hja.Jjatn.-w-wrann;Tils -ywdrAW well sheltered; his dairy is warmed to ajsUmmer temperature, and his product is of even quality, and comes from the churn without trouble or disappointment) He enjoys the knowledge that his butter is selling at double the rates of the summer markets, and he is never disturbed by-the souring of his milk or the softness or early spoiling of his product. It is E‘ the winter dairyman, who comins of the difficulties which have n referred to, because by his method of business they Cannot possibly occuj;. But for many of those who are not so fortunate, and who are compelled by circumstances to make butter in the winter season, there is hope and comfort in the knowledge that by good management their troubles may be •i>lier prkverited or greatly eased. In some eases it will be impossible to remove or'prevent the difficulties* met with, as, for instance, when there is one cow only, And she is either oonsti- , tuttonally a poor butter cow, or is in ! such a condition that good butter cannot be expected from her.

The most frequent difficulty experienced at thiseeaapn is the impossibility of procuring nuttef after long-oontin-ued churning. This may be caused by the condition of the cow, constitutionally or otherwise. When it is constitutional there is no remedy» obviously; otherwise, the cow may have been milking for a long-continued period, and the quality of the milk may haye become changed. In all cqses it will be foupd Hat the mixtore of the milk of s’ 7 fresh loow with the other milk( will rempve the difficulty; so that where several cows are Aept,-i» should be so arranged that some of the cows should oome in early in the winter. This trouble may also be caused by keeping to before churning, o£ by churning trie cream at too low a temperature. In the formed cise t to mil Ein ay himi undergone the| first pt’ocesbdf'deoothposition, which is the production of alcohol from the fermentation pf Pfllk sjjgan and this forms an emulsion with the fat-globnlet, which foams in the chum,, aqd from which butter never can be made. In the latter case the fat-globules are too solid and hard to adhere together, and they either do not gather into butter or they form a loose sand ar gravel-like mass, which is difficult to work together. The remedies for the,former difficulty are to prevent decomposition of the milk by scalding it before it is set for cream and by adding to the milk a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda for every four gallons, <no to stir a teaspoonful of salt into the cream for each gallon as it may be added to the store in the cream-jar; and for to latter difficulty, to add warm wator to <to cream, or otherwise to bring it up to a temperature of 70 deg. at the churning. The prevalent white color, of winter butter may be changed into a fine summer color by the audition of a harmless and agreeable coloring matter formed of preparations of annatto. Some butter-coloring is made and sold ready for use by dealers in dairy supplies, and ample directions are given by the dealers for their use. A simple and excellent coloring may be made by dissolving a piece Of annatto paste, to be procured at the drug-stores, as large as a pea, for four gallons of cream, in a teacupful of hot water. The solution is poured into the churn with the cream, and will give a rich yellow color to the butter without any streakiness or patchiness. Too much color will give a reddish and unnatural tint, which will be prejudicial to the character of the butter, because the addition will be too apparent, it being not the artificial character of the color, but the overdoing of it that Is objectionable to the purchasers. The white curdy specks are the most troublesome to deal with. These may occur from a natural defect of the cow, and if so, they cannot be. prevented. Thgy may also result from the too long keeping of the cream, and the consequent curdling of the milk that is mixed with it, by the repeated stirrings in the cream-jar. It may also occur from the use of impure salt, any particle of lime or free soda in the salt forming a soap by combination with the butter, ana causing a white speck wherever the particle of alkali may have been. The latter cause may be prevented by the use of pure salt only, and there are several brands both of native and imported dairy salt which are entirely free from particles of lime or other salts of soda than the pure chloride. But what cannot be prevented in this way may be cured by the use of the coloring matter, as already directed; and on the whole, considering the ever-present danger of “spookiness” in winter butter and the frequent want of color, it will be advisable to make a practice of using artificial' coloring in the winter season. The frequent objections made to this practice are not worth considering; they are either captious or made without knowledge. If it is wrong to color butter, it is equally wrong to color chqese; to use caramel in confectiqpeiy or to use the yelks of eggs or other coloring matter in cooking. The eye may justly be pleased as well as the palate, and if the coloring is innocent, as is annatto, it is unobjectionable— N. Y. Times.