SWEET CREAM BUTTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1543, 25 May 1882, Page 3

SWEET CREAM BUTTER.

Tiik butter made iv Denmark is held in high esteem in Europe, on account of its keeping qualities. How it is made is described in a recent number of the Milch Ziitimg, the method given being that followed at one of the largest factories in Denmark, as follows :—: — The special aim at this factory is the production of the finest quality of sweet cream butter, and a good, not too lean cheese ; a large quantity of milk is worked up, 35,000 pounds for instance, in the week ending June 18th. The cream from the first skimming, taken off after the milk has stood nine or ten hours, is used for sweet cream butter, one pound of such butter requiring 35.4 pounds of milk ; from the cream of subsequent skimming a small quantity of souv cream butter, is prepared. Taking both kinds of butter together, 20.2 pounds of milk are required for 1 pount 1 of butter. Never less than 0.5 per cent of fat is left in the skimmed milk, this limit being strictly fixed in order that the cheese shall be fair in quality. To cool the milk as quickly, as possible the tanks in which the milk vessels are to be set are first nearly filled with broken ice and a little "water ; the' milk pails, of oval form and holding about 70 pounds each, are then forced down into this #iick icepap : in forty-five minutes the milk falls from 86 to, 68 degrees, and in .thirty minutes wore to 55 degrees j when

skimmed the temperature of the milk is about 36 degrees. The cream is heated to about 52 degrees preparatory to churning ; in winter it is heated about three degrees higlfer : the same is done if the cows have been fed on old hay, or if there has been an unusually large proportion of beans and vetch in their rations. The churning occupies from twenty-seven to thirty minutes ; no water is added during this opeiation, skimmed milk being used to rinse down the sides of the churn ; the butter comes in small pellets, like pin heads, and the churning is stopped at this point ; the butter is gathered in a strainer, ami kneaded with the hands ; salt is added at the rate of three-eights of an ounce to the pound, and after more working with the hands the butter is made up into five-pound rolls and laid in an ice chest where it remains an hour and a half and cools down to 52 degrees again, when it is finally kneaded with the butter worker. Kneading with the hands is preferred, because, as it is claimed, the buttermilk is more completely worked out. The utmost cleanliness is maintained through the factory, and scrupulously careful attention is requiied to the details of the management of the cream and butter, under the immediate supervision of the skilled dairy-A\ ouian who has the whole in charge. The product of the factory is in nearly all cases ranked as first- cla&s by the Copenhagen exporters, whose judgment in the matter is held in extiaordinaiy le&pect.