Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1879 — Rules for Butter-Making. [ARTICLE]

Rules for Butter-Making.

The Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society of England has prepared a little work on butter-making in which the following rules are laid down: 1. Clean tdl dairy utensils by rinsing them with clean cold water, and afterward scrubbing them with boiling water; after which repeat the cold rinsing. 2. Cool the milk directly it is brought into the dairy by placing the cans in a running stream, or by any other available method. This, we may be permitted to observe, while most desirable, is often not easily attainable. The Americans, in selecting the site for the dairy always prefer the base of a hill, so as to secure two very important factors —shelter from the sun and a cool spring of water. If running water cannot be obtained, that from a deep well may be used. 3. Set the milk at a temperature of not exceeding fifty-five degrees in glazed earthenware or in tin pans. The question of whether these shall be shallow or deep will depend on our facilities for reducing the temperature. If we have running water or ice, there is no doubt that toe deep cans thus surrounded offer a greater surface of milk to the cooling influence, and this rapid and regular cooling causes the cream to rise freely and quickly; but if we have not these facilities, then shallow pans are preferable. 4. Skim after twelve hours with a perforated tin saucer, and take care that nothing but cream is removed. Twelve hours after skim a second time; but this should not be mixed with the first skimmed cream at all, if our object is to make the finest class of butter; but otherwise it must be mixed with the first cream just before churning. Of course by following this plan wedo not obtain the maximum produce, but we have the best quality. If the cream is too thick, a little pure water may be added, but the addition of milk should be avoided.

5. Keep the cream, until the time for changing, in the coldest place available, in covered earthenware or tin vessels. 6. Chum the cream at a temperature of fifty-seven degrees to sixty degrees, and obtain this Dy gradually raising or lowering the temperature by placing the vessel in a bath of warm or cold water. Use an ordinary revolving barrel, or a midfeather chum, fitted with a spigot. The more simple the chum, and the less mechanism, the more easily it is churned. Stop the churning at once when the butter comes, however small the globules may be. Remove the buttermilk by allowing it to run through a hair sieve, and return any butter globules to the chum. 7. Work the butter slowly with cold water by filling the chum, giving it three or four turns, and then withdrawing the water. Repeat the working until the water comes out clear; this is of great importance. Remove the butter by a pair of wooden patters, and press out the water by passing it under a kneading-board, or on a larger scale, by using a revolving butter worker. Avoid using the hand. 8. Make up the butter as is most salable, and pack it in small packages, lined first with white paper, and then with new and clean muslin previously well rinsed in boiling water and again cooled, etc. “ Bless me, Emily, you don’t look as well as usual —indeed, I do not think I ever saw you looking as old as you look to-day.” “My dear, I never was as old as I am to-day.”