The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-04-09
Packing Butter.

This is a nice operation, and demands
more attention than it receives. Very
much of our butter is deteriorated if not
spoiled by bad packing and improper
storage. The popular form of package
is bad one for keeping butter We
are aware that the National Butter,
Cheese and Egg Association expresses
its preference for the fifty and sixty
pound ash Welsh tub. This is q conve-
nient form of package to handle and
does very well if the butter is immedi-
ately consumed. But few families can
use up one of these tubs before it will
seriously deteriorate. 1t does not suf-
fciently exclude the air. and does not
permit of covering the butter with brine,
thus sealing it from the air, which we
consider very essential to the perfect
keeping of butter. If you cover one of
these tubs with brine, the first you know
you find the brine at the bottom and
the butter floating up against the cover
of the top to spoil. The butter shrinks
away from the wood and lets the brine
60 down. Or if you have not put brine
on it the shrinkage lets in the air to
spoil the outer surface of the butter and
works its way slowly but surely to the
centre. We have seen whole diaries
spoiled in this way, the different de-
grees of rancidity indicating the COM
parative age of the tubs of butter. The
best that can be done with these Welsh
tubs is to soak them and scald them
until all woody taste is removed--as
should be done with every form of
wooden package-saturate it with brine,
and rub the interior surface, while
moist, with fine dairy salt, letting all
adhere that will. This will prevent the
wood from drawing the salt from the
butter in immediate contact with it.
Then pack carefully, in all cases begin
ming the pressure in the centre, when
mass of butter is put in, and carefully
working outward, perfectly expelling
the air. If you begin the packing
at the edge, working toward
the centre, you will very likely
leave a quantity of air at the centre,
or near it, to corrode and deteriorate
the butter. When the tub is full, spread
over it piece of fine cotton cloth, care
fully tuck in the edges and cover the
whole with fine salt, wet enough to
make it into rather soft paste. This
will dry and harden and afford consid-
cradle protection from the action of the
atmosphere. Then store the tub in a
cool, clean, sweet and rather damp cell
lar, but set it on clean stone, or on
shelf removed from contact with earth,
so the package will not absorb an earthly
odor. The cellar should also be
dark. In this way, you have the tub in
the best condition to keep. But, as we
have before said, this form of packing
is by no means the best for keeping but
ter. We much prefer the old-fashioned
oak firkin, soaked, saturated and pre-
pared as we indicated for the tub.
When we have got this full, we can
loosen the hoops, cover the butter with
brine poured in through hole made in
the head, cork the hole and set the tub
in such cellar as we have described
In this condition, with little attention
occasionally to keep the butter covered
with brine, we know our butter will
come out at the end of six months as
good as it went in. 1t will not float up
as in the tub, to injure. The bulge will
prevent. In the slang of the boys, 1--WE
have got the bulge on it." But to pre-
vent it from rising, we can let the plug
in the head extend far enough through
to prevent it. We are thus particular
because so much butter is spoiled by
packing and storing. 1t is not only put
in imperfect ash-tubs, which cannot be
covered ar-tight, but stored in a dry
place, where the slaves shrink and leave
open cracks for the entrance of air and
odors, or in cellar reeking with foul
odors from decayed vegetables and per-
haps other filth Few common cellars
are fit to store butter in. No place is
too clean or SWEET. d. CARTS, in
Northern Christian Adeocate.
When the deluge came Noah saved
his bacon by taking Ham. into the Ark.