Read Ebook: ABC Butter Making: A Hand-Book for the Beginner by Burch Frederick S

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I shall not attempt to enter into the chemistry of the milk. It would be out of place in this A B C treatise. One peculiar thing I wish to draw your attention to is the "animal heat." When the milk first comes from the cow you cannot help noticing that it has a sort of feverish smell, which soon passes off after exposure to the air. This "cowey" smell should, of course, be allowed to pass off, but not in the stable, where the milk would be likely to take on a worse and more lasting odor.

Milk is a great absorbent, and quickly takes on any and all odors which it comes in contact with, and when once taken on, they can never be got rid of. Therefore, the moment we are through milking a cow, we should either take the milk out of the stable and into another room, or pour it at once into a can or some vessel with a tight-fitting cover, that it may not absorb stable odors before we are through with the milking of all the cows. I think the best plan is to strain the milk at once into an ordinary deep setting can and put the cover on tight. Remove the can, as soon as it is filled, to the milk-room.

THE MILK-ROOM.

It would be well to say a word about the milk-room before passing on to the management of cream. It is absolutely necessary that we have a good milk-room in which to not only set the milk, but to ripen the cream, do the churning, and work the butter.

Have the milk-room well ventilated, and build it so that you can control the temperature at the proper point all the year 'round. A good airy place, with plenty of elbow-room is essential. I see too many small, "stuffy" crowded rooms, where there is scarcely a place for half the utensils. Now, see that the air in your room is always pure, and do not pollute it by going directly into it from the cow stable, with all the odors clinging to your clothes and manure on your boots. Also have the room situated as far from the barnyard and hog-pen as possible.

MANAGEMENT OF CREAM.

Skim the milk before the cream becomes too thick and tough on top. I never allow the cream to remain on the milk a moment after I think it is all up or separated from the milk. If you use the deep setting cans you will find the little conical skimmer, with ten or twelve inch handle, the easiest to skim with.

If you put the cream in a can, or other vessel containing cream that was skimmed some hours previous, be sure to stir it all well together, so that it may be of the same consistency. Keep the cream at a temperature of 62 to 68 degrees until it becomes slightly sour, when it is ready for churning. I have churned very sweet cream and very sour cream, but have never been able to get butter of good flavor from anything but slightly soured cream. I am also of the opinion that butter made from cream only slightly sour will keep much longer than when made from a very sweet or sour cream. I am often asked if I think that straining the cream is an advantage, and I will answer by saying that I do think it aids somewhat in helping the butter to come more evenly. In the winter it may be found necessary to place the cream near the stove, where it can be gradually warmed up to 68 or even 70 degrees, in order to have it sufficiently sour.

BUTTER COLOR.

We all prefer to have our butter of a rich orange color. White butter looks too much like lard. Then, too, butter of a pale white hue never sells for as much in the market as the rich colored article. Years ago people colored butter with the juice of carrots; later on the seeds of the Annato plant were crushed and the juice mixed with potash and water. We now have many specially prepared compounds in the market, put up in liquid form and ready for immediate use. Almost all of these commercial colors are good, but should be used sparingly. Nearly all the beginners use too much the first time. There is no general rule to follow in using color, and you will only be able to tell how much to use by practice, as the butter of some cows is naturally of a richer color than others; this is especially true of the Jersey cows, the butter from which needs but little artificial coloring. Always put the coloring into the cream before beginning to churn.

CHURNING.

WORKING THE BUTTER.

Never work the butter when it is too warm. I find that 56 degrees is about right. The main point in working butter is to get the buttermilk all out, and also to get it in good solid compact form. More depends upon proper working than one would naturally suppose. You often see butter with great drops of buttermilk standing all over it; such butter was only half worked, and will generally contain thirty to forty per cent. of water, and will keep sweet but a very short time. The other extreme is overworking, and this produces a dry crumbly mass, with no flavor. If the churning is done as described in the foregoing chapter very little working is necessary, as the buttermilk is very nearly all out of the butter before it leaves the churn. Take the butter out of the churn with your butter spade, and heap it up on the worker. If too warm for working at once, throw a cloth wet in cold water over it, and leave to drain and cool for thirty minutes. Before using the lever of your worker always dip it in cold water. Now take the lever and gently press the butter out over the full surface of the worker, and sprinkle on some salt; begin at the sides, and roll the butter back into the centre, being careful not to do any rubbing or you will have greasy butter. Now press out the whole mass again, and give it another salting, and repeat the working two or three times until you have incorporated the salt throughout the whole mass evenly. The general rule for salting is to use one ounce of salt to a pound of butter, but as some people like "salty" butter and some "fresh" butter, you must salt according to the wants of your patrons. I always use a fine sieve, and sift the salt over the butter on the worker, just as the baker sifts his flour over the dough when making it. Much depends upon the quality of the salt used in butter-making, and if you desire to make good butter use only good salt, which is put up in sacks, and branded "Dairy Salt," by nearly all the large salt makers in the country. If you have a large dairy do not trust to guesswork, but buy a scale and use it. An illustration of a scale which is made especially for salting butter is given above. These scales weigh from one-half ounce up to 250 pounds, and as they can be used for ordinary weighing without regard to the butter-salting attachment, every dairyman should have one. They cost about six dollars.

An illustration of a home-made butter worker, which is used largely by the Danes, is herewith given. Any man that is handy with tools, can make one. Cuts of three other good workers are shown; they are well made, and cost but a small amount.

MARKETING BUTTER.

One seldom hears of the markets being overstocked with "gilt edge" butter; on the other hand, the market is nearly always loaded down with "low grades" and grease.

The best plan for marketing butter is to endeavor to find customers at home, and sell as soon as possible. People that pack their butter and wait for a rise, are sometimes disappointed, and no butter can be as good four or six months after it is made as when fresh. It is far better, as a rule, to sell as soon as possible, at the best price you can get, than to wait for a rise that sometimes fails to come.

I receive many letters during the year from people asking me to find them city customers. Such customers, as a rule, are very exacting; they expect much, and paying a high price, have a perfect right to do so. These private customers seldom prove agreeable people to deal with. It is better to sell for a few cents less at home, and leave no chance for dissatisfaction, or if you cannot possibly sell all you make at home, better ship it to some reliable commission merchant, and leave him to fight out the battle with the customers. A good plan is to make up a sample pail or tub, and ship to the commission merchant with a request that he "judge" and report on it, with any suggestions he has to offer. Such a request will be sure to bring you a prompt report from any good dealer.

PACKING AND SHIPPING.

The size, shape and style of package for butter makers to use, must depend largely upon the demands of the market to which the butter is shipped. A few years ago large quantities of roll butter were marketed in Chicago during the colder months; now you may travel from one end of the market to the other and not see a hundred rolls. It is but a short time ago that earthen crocks and jars were extensively used; now you scarcely ever see them. The cause for this is, that earthen vessels, of any kind, are not only liable to break, but are also more difficult to handle in large quantities, and weigh much more than wooden packages. The great bulk of butter that comes to Chicago now, is packed in white ash tubs and bale boxes. Occasionally we see a tin package with wood veneer, but they have never come into general use for the reason that the acid gets under the tin and causes rust. Wooden packages are just now most popular, and as the manufacturers have reduced the cost of manufacturing them to a point where earthenware and tin cannot compete in price, we may look to see them in use for years to come. The ordinary white ash tubs can be had of every dairy supply dealer and nearly all of the general stores; they may be had in 20 lb., 25 lb., 30 lb., 40 lb. and 60 lb. sizes. An illustration of the nine-pound bale boxes in crate is also given. During the last two years these bale boxes have become very popular. They can be shipped in crates of six and are convenient to handle; they can be had for about twelve cents apiece.

In packing it is always better to pack each churning in a separate tub or box, as the tub that contains different churnings will not be of uniform solidity or color throughout, and will therefore not sell for as much as a tub perfectly uniform.

Remember to soak the covers of the packages, and before fastening them on sprinkle salt to a depth of a quarter of an inch over the top of the butter cloth or paper. Never leave the cover off the packages for any length of time, for the reason that it will not only cause the top of the butter to become discolored, but it will also admit the air and spoil the top of the butter for several inches.

The moment you have packed your butter get it into a cool place--the cooler the better--and thereafter keep it as cool as possible, until you have disposed of it.

THERMOMETERS IN THE DAIRY.

Frederic Sumner says "There is no more use in trying to run a dairy without a good tested thermometer than there would be to attempt sailing a vessel without a rudder," and I heartily agree with him. A good thermometer can be purchased for from fifty cents to a dollar, and at these prices is certainly within the reach of every dairyman. Too much depends upon the temperature of the water in which we cool our milk, the room we ripen our cream in, do our churning in, and the temperature of the milk, cream, and the butter itself, to attempt any guess work. Our grandmothers used thumb and finger to ascertain the temperature of milk and cream, but in these days of fifty cents, seventy-five cents, and a dollar a pound butter we find "thumb-rule" will not work. An illustration of a thermometer made expressly for dairy use, is given; they are made of glass and float upright in the milk or cream. The churning and cheese points are marked for the convenience of new beginners; they retail at about fifty cents, and can be purchased from any dealer in dairy goods.

For A B C Butter Makers.

Test your cows.

Never fill the churn over half full.

Never touch the butter with your hands.

Cream rises best in a falling temperature.

Never churn fresh unripened cream with ripened cream.

After cream becomes sour, the more ripening the more it depreciates.

The best time for churning is just before the acidity becomes apparent.

Never let your butter get warm; when once warmed through it will lose its flavor.

Excessive working makes crumbly butter, spoils the grain and injures the flavor.

Never mix night's with morning's milk, as the warmth of the new and the coldness of the old, hastens change and decomposition.

All kinds of disagreeable odors are easily absorbed by salt. Keep it, therefore, in a clean, dry place, in linen sacks, if it is to be used for butter making.

The best butter has the least competition to contend against, while the worst dairy products have the most. The better anything is, the more rare is it and the greater its value.

A butter maker that uses his fingers instead of a thermometer, to find out the temperature of milk or cream will never make a success.

Cleanliness should be the Alpha and Omega of butter making. Absolute cleanliness as regards person, stable, utensils and package.

Faults--The quickest way to find out the faulty points in your butter, is to send a sample of it to some reliable butter buyer and ask him to score it.

The difference between the dairyman who makes .00 a year, per cow, and one who makes .00, is that the first works intelligently, the second mechanically.

Details--The price of success in butter making, as in all other classes of business, is strict attention to the little details; it's the sum of all these little things that determines whether your butter is to be sold for ten cents a pound or as a high priced luxury.

The disadvantages of the system of setting milk in shallow pans or crocks, for raising cream, are that a long period elapses before the skimming is completed, too much space is required, and in Summer the milk becomes sour before the whole of the cream is raised.

Labor saving appliances are intended, as the name implies, to save labor, but they do not render care, thought and diligence the less necessary. To understand the principles that underlie the business of butter making, is as imperative as to use the most improved utensils.

If you keep your cows in a healthy condition, milk regularly; set the milk in air tight cans with good cold water ; skim every twenty-four hours; ripen the cream properly; churn in a barrel churn or some other good churn on the same principle; wash the butter well while still in the churn in granular state; you will never be troubled with white specks in your butter.

HOW TO MAKE GOOD BUTTER.

--BY N. BIGALOW, STOWE, VERMONT.--

We try to keep the milk entirely clean. If it is necessary we wash the cows' bags, before milking. The milk is strained into large, open pans, and as soon as the animal heat is out of it, the pans are covered over with thin cotton cloth. The covers are made by sewing the edges of the cloth to some strips of basswood, about three-fourths of an inch square and a little longer than the pans. They cost but a trifle, and after using them ten years we would hardly make butter without them. The butter is not quite so yellow, at first, for raising the cream under the covers, but will be after it has stood a few hours.

When we first tried our large pans, we used to run water around them, but the coolers have got to leaking, and we do not think it would pay to get new ones.

Our rule is to skim the milk soon after it sours, as the cream will come off easily. We keep the cream in a cellar, when it is necessary, but prefer to keep it in the milk room, when it is not too warm. Our dairy is small, and we have churned only twice a week, this year. We use the Stoddard churn, and would not use a float churn. I have never seen the acme churn yet, and hardly think it has been made. 58 degrees is the right temperature at which to churn the cream, in warm weather: 62 in cold, and 60 in spring and fall. We put in from three to six quarts of water to thin the cream, and if the cream is too warm we use cold water , and in extreme warm weather use a little ice. If the cream is too cold we warm the water sometimes up to 120 degrees. If that will not answer, the cream must be warmed beforehand. The buttermilk is drawn off as soon as it can be done, and leave most of the butter in the churn. Any butter that runs out is put back with a skimmer. We use cold water enough to keep the butter in the grain, and wash it until the water runs clear. I suppose brine would be better, but have not used it much. After the butter has drained, the salt is strained in with a paddle; and then it is taken out with the paddle and pressed into the butter bowl. We use about an ounce of salt to a pound, but some of it works out. After it has stood a few hours, it is worked with a lever in an old fashioned butter worker, just enough to get the salt in evenly, and then it is ready to print. We always try to injure the grain as little as possible.

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