SUMMER BUTTER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2985, 19 January 1881, Page 4

SUMMER BUTTER.

A HINT TO THE NEW ZEALAND FARMER. Many good judges have become convinced that the highest qualities of butter, and that which keeps the best, is made from cream taken from sweet milk and churned while itsolf sweet. The Danish butter, which is the most famous in tho >vorld for its keeping qualities, is made from milk set deep and cold. Skimmed at 12 hours, and the cream churned at once, or within half a day. By this method more milk is required to make a pound of butter—often as minh as 30 pounds —but the higher prices obtained for it more than make up for any loss in quality. Danish butter thus made is quoted in the London market at 15 to 20 per cent, more that the best Dutch, French and Jersey butter, all made from a slightly acid cream ; and extra fine American creamery is still lower. In making butter from sweet cream, the surroundings must be perfect, for it is more sensitive to odours than butter from sour cream. This fact is itself evidence of the more delicate quality of sweet cream butter. Those who believe in some acidity, either to add to the quantity or quality of the butter, should be careful to skim just as soon as the milk turns, and before it becomes at all thick. Then, if the cream is kept to " ripen," more or less whey will be sure to form at the bottom of the jar, and this never ought to go into the churn. It will pay to have a cream can or jar fitted with a faucet at the bottom to draw off this bitter whey. It is not tho butter itself, but the curd, the milk sugar, and the water so apt to be left in it, which cause the first change and spoils all. These substances, belonging to milk, but not to butter, must be got out as completely as possible in the making. The easiest ani best way to do this is by thoroughly washing in the churn with cold water or brine before the butter is gathered, while it still is in the form of little pellets. This is the " granular method" about which much has lately been written, and which has proved very satisfactory to those who have adopted it. There is a new way of putting up butter to keep, not largely practised as yet, but very highly commended by those who have tried it, and, carefully done, it is no doubt the best way of all. The butter should be made by the granular method, well washed in water and at least once in brine, and drained off or dried in a cloth. It is then in firm dry grains about the size of BB shot, adhering but little to one another, and in this form unsalted, it is preserved until wauted for use or to put up for market. Select any suitable vessel in which to keep the butter ;it may be of wood, stoneware, or glass, and of any shape, so it has an opening large enough to admit the hand. In this vessel put enough pure cold brine to float a few pounds of the grains. The butter may be put in immediately after the draining, which follows the washing in brine as above, being within the hour of churning. Make the butter grains lie pretty close without, however, becoming compact, so the brine may penetrate in all directions, and gradually add brine and buttor until tho vessel is filled. If not done at ono time, care should be taken to leave the last butter put in covered with brine, holding it down if necessary with an oak board, a jar-cover, or a large plate, and when the package is full there must be no butter floating exposed to the air. In a stone jar this is easily prevented. Perhaps the best wooden package is an oaken cask with a large bung. Close the latter tightly after the cask has been filled, turn the cask on end, tap the head, force in the brine until it is perfectly full, and then bung up the hole. For putting up small quantities of butter by this method for family use, glass, fruit, or preserve jars are very convenient. Butter packed in this way (if it can be called packing) may be taken from the brine at any time and worked into any form desired as if it had just been made, and will usually need no additional salt. By washing in water it can be made as fresh as when taken from the churn. Neither flavouring nor colour is lost by the process although November butter thus treated may not have in April the "rosiness " of the newly-churned. The latter characteristic of very fresh butter may be obtained by mixing with the summer butter taken from the brine an equal quantity of winter butter just made. If both lota are in the granular form, never gathered, they may be worked together at a low temperature and will perfectly blend ; the resulting mixture has the November colour, the freshness of the churn, and a perfect grain, be it feome months later. A few matters of detail should not be omitted. Before putting butter into any wooden package, wipe the latter clean without wetting it; then, either fill with hot brine or submerge the whole in the brine, holding it under in some way, and let it soak 24 hours. Meanwhile the brine will cool and the package be ready for use when taken out. All brine used about butter or butter packages should be made of the purest salt, a3 strong as possible, boiled, skimmed and thoroughly strained. For packed butter in any form the most important point as to the storeroom where kept, is an even temperature sufficiently low—it may be 40, 50, or 60 degrees, but it should not vary between or exceed these extremes. The air of the apartment must be pure, not mouldy, nor yet too dry. The danger with cellars is in having the air too dense, and often close or loaded with vegetable odours. A room cooled to the proper point with ice or -water, •where the air is always fresh, is far safer.