BUTTER.

Patea Mail, 21 May 1881, Page 4

BUTTER.

At a meeting of the New York State Dairymen’s Association, Mr S. E. Lewis, manager of a creamery in that State, makes the following suggestions to be studied and observed by butterdairy farmers. In the manufacture of butter, the first point is good cows, and then good feed, and the next the sotting of the milk. Milk is almost as sensitive to atmospheric changes as mercury itself. It is a question among many as to what depth milk should be set to get the most cream. It does not make so much difference as to the depth, as it does to the protection of the milk. As soon as the acid strikes the milk, the cream censes to rise. Many have seen milk sour and whey off in 12 hours’ time, with little or no cream on it. The reason of this is that the acid commences to develop itself in the milk before the animal heat leaves it, hence there is no cream.

With a clear, dry atmosphere, the cream will rise clean in the milk ; bnt in that condition that readily sours the milk, the cream will not rise clean, but seems to hang in the milk, and this even when the milk is protected from the acid by being set in water. The benefits of setting milk in cold water are, that the water protects the milk from the acid until the cream has time to rise. For cream to rise readily on milk set in cold water the atmosphere in the room should be warmer than the water. There will ns much cream rise on milk set in cold water in one hour as there will on milk not set in water in twenty-four hours. In skimming the cream off from milk there should always be milk enough skimmed in with the cream to give the butter, when churned, a bright clean look. Butter churned from clear cream itself will have an oily or slimy look when it comes in the churn. Cream skimmed from different milkings, if churned at the same time in one churn? should be rinsed eight or ten hours before churning, then the cream will all come alike.

White specks in cream are caused by too much acid in the cream. It is in one sense cheese-curd, for butter packed with white specks in it will after a time have a cheesy smell. White specks occur in butter in the spring. One kind is found with cream still sweetspecks like hard curd. Strain them out, else your butter will have a cheesy taste. The second kind is caused by acidity, which progresses by keeping, and in cream acts like rennet, converting cream into curd.. Churn before acid develops and you avoid white specks. The third cause is an advanced state of the second. Cream should never stand in a room where the milk is set, but should be put in a cool place if you would avoid specks. The keeping qualities of butter depend principally upon two things. First, the buttermilk, must be all got out; and second, the grain of the butter should be kept as perfect as possible. Butter should not be churned after it has fairly come, and should not be gathered compact in the churn, to take out, but the buttermilk should be drained from the butter in the churn through a hair sieve, letting the butter remain in the churn. Then take the water and turn it upon the butter with sufficient force to pass through the butter, and in sufficient quantity to rinse the buttermilk all out of the butter. With this process of washing the butter the grain is not injured or mashed, and in thus far kept perfect. And in working-in salt, the butter-worker, or whatever is used for the purpose, should not be allowed to slip on the butter, as it will destroy the grain, but it should go upon the butter in a pressing or rolling motion. Butter should never be hurried in the packing, but should have time to cure and time for the salt to dissolve, for the chemical action of the salt will after a time separate the buttermilk from the butter. Some use a sprinkler for washing the butter. The butter—about 25lbs or so —is laid on the “worker,” and water

applied from a pot with a rose-nozle, so as to distribute the water over the mass in small streams, the pot being held up with the left hand, and the right hand at the “worker,” a few movements of which entirely expels every trace of buttermilk.