The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-12-07
How Philadelphia Butter is Made

How Philadelphia Butter is Made
Mrs. Laura Lyman gives, in the
HedrM and U1D,e, the following account
of visit to the butter makers of Penn
sylvania;
| have been down among those who,
from May TO December, and December
to May, make butter which is yellow as
gold, fragrant as clover bloom and hard
as cheese; yellow, whether the COWS eat
in green pastures or feed on cabbage
leaves and turnips; hard alike when the
dog-star RACES and when the nights are
longest. Perhaps your readers will be
interested to learn somewhat of the
methods which these model dairymen
have found best.
At milking-timc We visited the dairy
establishment, and first plain wooden
structure, the milking-house. Here every
COW knows her place. as well as the ass
did. in Jeremiahs time, and while the
flowing pals are being filed, she licks
her chunk of rock salt and her quart of
dry bran ia sweet content. The place is
fragrant with the breath of kline from
the meadows" and it is impossible for
the milk to absorb any unpleasant odor,
so scrupulously clean is the milking-house
Thence we 90 to the spring-house, SUBJ
stantially built Of stone, 90 feet long by
10 feet wide and 10 feet high. Near the
ceiling are small, square windows, in
which wire netting i. fitted to exclude
flies and admit free ventilation. The
floor of the spring-house is of oak plank,
above which the waiter stands two inche.
and half though in the division were
the cream-pots are kept it is about 10
inches deep. 4 narrow platform, raised
four inches above the floor, permits the
dairymaid to pass round and set or re-
move the milk-pans. These are painted
brown on the outside, and have a bail, so
SO that two pans can be lifted up and set
down with more ease than can one with
out the handle. The crean-pots and
butter-coolers are all painted brown on
the out side, which prevents the water
from rusting them, and makes them more
easy to keep clean. There are standing
in the milk-house three milkings: when
the fourth is brought in, the first is
skinned, and most of goes to fatten the
Chester Whites, that grunt and grow fat
in appropriate clean-looking styes, not
too far way. Into each new pan of
milk is placed about gill of the sour
milk thus removed, which facilitates the
rising of the cream, and helps the butter
come quicker on churning-day. The
temperature of the water in the spring was
So deg. on the hot July day we tested
it, and that of the milk in the pans about
So deg. and thus it remains during
almost the entire heated term SO that we
may safely say that from the time the
milk has stood an hour in the spring
house till the butter is taken to market
the temperture never rises above 20 deg
Once q week the cream is poured in.
to the great churn, which resembles a
young hogshead, to the stayes of which,
inside, the dashers are fastened, and this
is made to revolve by horsepower till the
butter comes. From 80 to l25 pounds
are made at a churning, according to the
number of cows MIXED and the season
7 While with one hand the lever is work ed
up and down through about ten pound,
at a time, with the other hand the butter
is pa,ted with clean towel in which a
sponge is wrapped This is frequently
wrung out in clean water, and the process
continued until all the buttermilk iswork
ed ont. when il is salted, half an ounce
to the pound being allowed. 1t l.
then made into pound balls, beautifully
stamped laid in large, tin pans and set in
the spring-house to cool. At night ,wher
the next milking is brought in, each bal
is wrapped in clean cloth, and lain into
the buttcr-tub 10 he carried to market il
the morning. This butter-tub is so exac
tly fitted to the purpose for which IT wa
designed, that We liucer a moment TO de-
scribe it, Imagine an oblong tub, with
two of the slaves rising above the rest fol
handles. Into this is set perfectly fit
ting tin tub, so made as to leave Il spac,
at each end where ice may be placed ,anC
kulhll CuuluDtI ptluN " lNScNt tuC wa
ter as the ice melts. On the sides Of tn,
tub are little supports, upon which thu
shelves rest, where the golden balls, il
their snowy covering, and stamped will
images Of cornucopie or wheaton sheaves
repose. These tubs will contain from
fifty to one hundred pounds, according t'
size, They have tightly-ftting covers
and stout lever between the handles, b.
which two men can move them with ease
} When they are put Oh the cars they arr
! jacketed with padded earpeting, so thu
heat of summers day never penetrate
the cool interior,
| Every morning fire is kindlsd in th'
= caldron-stove, and the milk vessels thor
: oughly scrubbed with brush and thel
} scalded There are shelves along tn
sides to receive them when not in use
: Nothing is allowed in the spring-house bu