To make Butter.
BUTTER is an article more frequently used in the art of
Cookery than any other whatever; but to be wholesome it must
be very fresh, and free from rancidity, otherwise it will hurt
digestion, render it difficult and painful, and introduce much
acrimony into the blood. Some persons have such delicate
stomachs, that they are even affected with those inconveniences
by fresh butter, and milk.
When you have churned your butter, open the churn, and
with both hands gather it well together, take it out of the but-
ter milk, and lay it into a very clean bowl, or earthen pan, and
if the butter is designed to be used fresh, fill the pan with clean
water, and work the butter in it to and fro, till it is brought
to a firm consistence of itself, without any moisture. When
you have done this, scotch and slice it over with the point of a
knife, every way as thick as possible, in order to draw out the
finest hair, bit of rag, splinter, or any thing that may have
happened to fall into it. Then spread it thin in a bowl, and
work it well together with such a quantity of salt as you think
fit, and then make it into forms agreeable to your own fancy.
If sometimes happens, that a cow's teats may have been
scratched or wounded, which will occasion the milk to be foul
and corrupt. When this is the case, you should by no means
mix it with the sweet milk, but give it to the pigs; and that
which is taken to the dairy-house should remain in the pail till
it is nearly cold before it is strained; that is, if the weather be
warm; but in frosty weather it should be immediately strained,
and a small quantity of boiling water may be mixed with it,
which will cause it to produce cream in abundance, and the
more so if the pans have a large surface.
In the hot summer months the cream should be skimmed from
the milk before the dairy gets warm from the sun; nor should
the milk at that season stand longer in the pans than twenty-
four hours, nor be skimmed in the evening till after sun-set. In
winter milk may remain unskimmed for thirty-six and forty-
eight hours. The cream should be deposited in a deep pan,
which should be kept, during the summer, in the coolest part
of the dairy; or in a cool cellar, where free air is admitted,
which is much better. If you have not an opportunity of
churning every day, shift the cream daily into clean pans, which
will keep it cool. But you should never fail to churn at least
twice in the week in hot weather; and this work should be
done in a morning very early, taking care to fix the churn
where there is a free draught of air. If a pump-churn is used,
it may be plunged a foot deep into a tub of cold water, and
should remain there during the whole time of churning, which
will very much harden the butter.
But it will require more working in winter, than in summer;
but if it is to be remarked, and with great justice, that no person
whose hand is warm by nature can make good butter.
Butter-milk (the milk which remains after the butter is com-
ing by churning) is esteemed an excellent food, in the spring
especially; and is particularly recommended in hectic fevers.
Some make curds of butter-milk, by pouring into it a quantity
of new milk hot.