Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1855-09-21
THE FARM:
The Garsicn..-T;ie Orchard.
Making Butter.

/ give some general facts which those who
are desirous of learning may turn to ac-
count 1t has already been stated that
cream is a mixture of oil, or butter (for,
With the exception of a little salt, it is the
same thing and curd. The butter, in
small globules, is wrapped up in little
sacks, or bags, Of eurd.
Now the thing to be done, in order to
make butter, is, to break open these sacks
and let the butter out. When this is done,
we say, "The butter comes )" and sure
enough it does come-comes out Of the
sacks. Those globules which were before
kept apart by the sacks, come together,
thousands of them, to form particle large
enough to be seen BY the unaided eye.
And now does the reader say the more vi
olcutly the churning is done, the sooner
will the sacks be broken? Not SO. You
cannot break them by mechanical force it
is chemical process. Put them in right
circumstances, and they viii break open
themselves. Pounding will not break
them. They viii slip away from under
the blows unbrolien,just as 4 foot ball will
leave your foot when you give it a hard
kick, but will leage it whole. Pressure
will not break them, Nothing will break
them till you put them into the right cir
cumStaaces, as to temperature aud cEp0-
sure TO air.
At 40' Fahrenheit, you might churn
from January to March, or at l00' you
might churn from June to September, ,and
no butter would come. Or if you were to
exclude the air entirely from the inside Of
the churn, you might roll that churn, with
the cream in it, from Cape Horn to Lab
rador, and the butter would not come.
All the processes of nature have their
conditions. The separation of butter from
curd is one of these processes. The con-
diions mast be complied rih. We will
suppose that the cream is from cows that
give good milk The farmer is unwise
who keeps any other Some cows milk
will not give much butter, for there is not
much butter in it. We will suppose also
that the milk has been kept at tempera-
ture about medium between freezing and
summer heat; that the cream has been
taken of' while the milk was yet sweet, and
I has been kept in cool place till it was a
little sour, or was very near the point of
souring; that it is now put into clean
churn, and brought up to temperature of
about CO. Fahrenheit, gradually and with
/ cut much stirring and that we now begin
to lift the dasher, or turn the crank as the
case may be, either forcing air into the
cream by some patent contrivance, or ct
/ least letting air have free access to its sur
face, and now lot US see what happens.
! by stirring the cream VIC change the
surface often, and thus bring all parts Of
it succcss;yely into contact with the air.
The oxygen of the air combines with the
curd, and renders these little sacks, into
vhieh it is formed, brittle, SO that they
crack open, and let out the enclosed glob-
ulcs of butter. These come together form
ing larger masses, until, if the churning
be continued long enough to gather tie
/ Lr!ter, rs it is sometimes called, nearly the
whole will be found in one mass. The
curd i nov nearly separated. Its float
ing now near the bu!tcrmili. The sugar
Of mill; is dii'used through beth the but
termillI and the butter, giving peculiar
sweetness to the butter aad also TO the
buttcrmill, if the cream had not become
too sour before eilrrniur. This j an i'm
po-taut consideration for It is tic sugar
of milk that performs thc double Office of
giving to tic butter luscious favor, and
/ of causing it to keep we'll.
| Washed butter may have toleratle
favor at lrst, for It vii! retain 4 part Of
( tie sugar Of milk in spite of bad manage
mcrt. But it will have given up to the
water too much Of it. sngar Of milk to al
low Of is keeping for any considerable
time. Put down irkin of butter that
has been washed, ald another precisely
Ike it in every other respect, but which
has seen 40 water, let them be from the
same churning, be put upin similar Grkins,
and kept in the same place, and the un-
washed will keep best for 81 absolute GER
tainty. No more absurd practice ever
came into vogue than that of washing but
ter in foods of water There Is some ad-
vantage in washing very rancid butter,tor
some of its bad properties may be washed
out. 1t may be rado tolcrablc. But if
We wash fresh butter, We wash away that
Fart that is essential 10 its richest favor
and to its preservation. No water should
be put into the churn, and none used in
the process Of working.
The butter should be taken from the
churn with wooden ladle; should be
worked with the same when nearly all