Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-09-03
agricultural department,
THE GRAIN OF BUTTER.

THE GRAIN OF BUTTER.
We often hear experts speak OF the grain
of butter, and yet, if you ask them to define
what is the grain, they will find it exceeding
ly difficult to answer the question. They
may tell you that butter with proper grain
has waxy appearance but that, if the grain
has been injured, it looks and cuts greasy
when sliced.
Those who are experts easily judge by look
ing at the sample, whether it has been over
worked. If such sample of butter is closely
examined, it will be found to have lost the
crisp look it has when firm. 1t is sticky when
soft, and, when hard, if cut into and then
broken, the fracture will be different from
properly-worked butter. This can only be
learned by having these differences pointed
out by an expert, or by destroying the grain
by working when soft, or over-working when
hard and then examining the two samples,
the one having had the buttermilk simply
pressed out, the other having been washed
and squeezed with drawing pressure of the
ladle or butter-worker. The perfect sample
will be waxy and firm and crisp, the over
worked sample greasy, sticky and disgusting.
While the grain of butter will inevitably
be injured or completely spoiled by such a
system of working, or by over-working in any
manner, it will inevitably become rancid and
ruined by not being worked enoug II ; so that,
while we reiterate the sentiment of an old
friend made years ago, who exclaimed,
BLESSINGS on the woman who works butter
too much" we are inclined to supplement it
with the addition, "But may all butter-ma-
kers work it just enough"
How to do this IS difficult to describe. 1t
must be learned by observation and expert
ence. One great fault is, that butter is often
worked when too soft. We hold that women
should never work butter at all, unless they
have particularly strong wrists, for to proper
ly work butter requires considerable strength
Even then the buttermilk should be all abb
sorbed as much as possible with soft, clean
sponge
Many butter-makers work it with the hands
by squeezing and kneading. This has un-
doubtedly arisen from the physical inability
of the average women to properly work 1t
with the ladle by the old plan. If the hands
were perfectly clean, and if the skin could
be kept at temperature of fifty-fve to sixty
degrees, the proper temperature for working
butter, this plan of separation would not be
perfect, since squeezing and kneading is not
good way to separate the buttermilk. For
this reason, machines have generally failed
They rub and mash the butter, pressing the
particles together, over and upon each other
fit were mortar or putty that was being
made, this would be we'll enough, but butter,
and mortar, and putty, are three different
compounds intended for vastly different uses.
When butter is worked with the ladle, after
having BEEN properly washed, it should be
gathered into an egg-shaped mass, and with
a wooden ladle, gashed and scored longitude
nally, so that the moisture may pass freely
away, and as much Of the remaining moisture
collected as possible by means of the sponge; !;
then pressing the mass together, but not with
a sliding motion, to force out the remainder.
When tolerably we'll pressed, it should be set
away for the final working, for it is not prac-
ticable to free it entirely at one working.
If this be done, being careful to observe
carefully the best manner of thus freeing it,
and with only the proper amount of salt to
make it palatable, the best means to this end
will soon be learned. Thus you will find that
you have an article entirely different and al
together superior to anything you have ever
before made; and which, if kept cool and
carefully packed as heretofore directed, that
is, in perfectly new or sweet, clean and bright
packages; and if delivered to the merchant
or other customers in such condition, you will
not only have acquired first rate reputation
as su perior butter-maker, but you will find
no trouble in. getting in market the price of
gilt-edged butter.- Western RuraI
A VALUABLE REcE1pT.-The Journal Of
Chemistry, publishes recipe for the destruc-
ton of insects, which, if it be one-half as eff.
cacious as it is claimed to be, will prove in
valuable
Hot alum water is a recent suggestion as an
insecticide. 1t will destroy red and black
ants, cockroaches, spiders, chintz bugs, and
all the crawling pests which infest our houses.
Take two pounds of alum and dissolve it in
three or four quarts of boiling water; let it
stand on the fire till the alum disappears;
then apply it with brush, while nearly boil
ing hot, to every joint and crevice in your
chests, bedsteads, pantry shelves and the like.
Brush the crevices in the floor of the skirting
or mop boards, if you suspect that they har-
Dor vermin. If, in whitewashing a ceiling,
plenty of alum is added to the lime, it will
also serve to keep insects at a distance. Cock
reaches will flee the paint which has been
washed in cool alum water. Sugar barrels
and boxes can be freed from ants by drawing
a chalk mark just around the edge of the top
of them. The mark must be unbroken, or
they will creep over it; but a continuous
chalk mark half an inch in width will set
their depredations at naught Powdered alum
or borax will keep the chintz bugs at re-
spectacle distance, and travellers should al
ways carry package in their handbags, to
scatter under and over their pillows in places
where they may have reason to suspect the
presence of such bed-fellows.
RAISING CALVES FOR MILKERs.-The rails.
ing of calves, as farmers are in the habit of
doing, is not always wise or best. They select
a calf to be raised simply because he is hand
some. Now beauty is we'll, and we admire it
whenever we see it; but we want goodness
with it. In order to be sure, or nearly sure,
that the calf will make good COW, it must be
from thoroughbred stock, and not from what