The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-02-11
Making Butter in Winter.

Any body can make good butter in the
summer. So they say; but we don find
it true saying. The other part is true,
though: 1T is the winter that tells the
tale. Not one dairy-woman in five hum
dred can make really good butter in cold
weather; that is, butter that will remain
good Il week after it is made. The diff
culties are numerous thus: The cows
have not the best butter making feed; they
have little, if any, coloring matter in their
feed; the temperature at which the milk is
kept is very unequal; the danger of mix
ing in the liavors of the kitchen with the
milk, the cream or the butter, is very great;
and the butter is too apt to be allowed to
become too warm or too cold before it is
finally worked into shape.
Over the matter of feeding we can have
only a limited control. Nothing that we
can devise is SO good as the natural green
forage of summer Our chief attention
should be given, then, to temperature
pure air, and artificial coloring, without
relaxing, of course, the always indiSpensa-
bic care with regard to perfect cleanliness
and perfect working.
The milkroom had better be entirely by
itsclf-where it cannot be pervaded by the
odor of boiled cabbage and fried onion-and
it must be kept warm. A kitchen closet
is the worst place to set milk in; sitting
room closet is better, but not so safe as an
isolated room with stove in it that can be
made 10 keep its fire all night. After frost
sets i'll regularly in November, the milk
should be scaldCd as soon as it is brought
from the stable. This is done by standing
the vessel containing it (after straining) in
larger one on the fire, in which water is
boiling, stirring the milk occasionally, and
removing when its surface begins to ''crin-
kle and throw off a little cloud of vapor,
or when it ''begins to smoke" To allow
it to become warmer than this will do harm.
In this condition it may be poured into
the pans-to a much greater depth than is
usual in Summer-in a closet or room in
which the thermometer nerer goes below
90, rarely below Coz, and never remains
long above Co. This milk can safely
stand twenty four hours, and by that time
all the cream should have risen. The
cream should be kept in a jar, in the same
room, not too far from the stove, nor vet
too near it, and should be Moroughly STIR
red to the very bottom, every time q fresh
Swimming is added; that is, twice day
The churning, which should be as often as
once (and better twice. a week, should be
done either in the milkroom or some place
not much colder The butter should be
worked III the warm milkroom, and it
should be kept there while "soaking up
the salt" between the two WORKINGS
After it is moulded or packed away, it may
be kept in a cooler place, but it would be
better never to let it become so cold as to
get very hard-not colder than it would
become i'll a snug cellar.
About coloring, we have given frequent
directions. Carrot juice OF a decoction of
annotto may lie put i'll the churn with the
cream, or an extract of annotto in melted
butter may be worked through the lump
after it is taken out of the churn. Unless
the cows are fed very largely on rowen hay
or on carrots, some artificial coloring is
important
1t should be borne in mind that these
directions are only supplementary to those
50 often given on the general management
of the dairy. They by no means supersede
them; they only refer to conditions which
are necessary, to make winter batter from
hay fed cows as nearly like that of the sum-
mcr as winter butter can be.