The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-10-23
The Private Dairy.

Ii the making OF butter was simply
matter of setting the milk, collecting
the cream and using the churn, there
would be no difficulty in making good
butter on every farm, but the truth is
the making of butter depends upon the
temperature, manner of setting the
milk, food of the COW, her health, her
character as a producer, quality of the
milk and mode of churning. It is the
many qualifications necessary that
makes the matter so important. In a
paper read before the Iowa Butter and
Cheese Association this matter was
very freely discussed, and the matter
of cleanliness was considered the first
desideratum in the private dairy. In
relation to setting the milk, there are
two methods-the deep and the shall
low. With both there is the rapid and
the slow cooling-cream rises princi-
pally while the temperature Of the milk
is falling, and but slowly while it re-
mains at a fixed temperature. Rapid
cooling will rise the cream in the short
est time, but slow cooling gives a
denser cream, containing less cheesey
matter. Quick cooling gives thinner,
frothy cream, full of cheesey matter, re-
Iuiring a greater bulk to make a
pound of butter than that obtained by
the slower method, while the product
will be inferior in quality. Usually shall
low setting and slow cooling and deep
setting and rapid cooling go together.
When the same Temperature, deep
setting will require longer time to OBJ
tain all the cream than shallow. and one
strong claim for shallow setting is that
in order to the development of the gen.
uine butter flavor the cream must be
exposed to the atmosphere for oyygena-
ton. Without such exposure, butter
made from it is fiat and insipid. With
shallow setting, fine favored butter can
be make from perfectly sweet cream,
while cream from deep setting must be
and will still lack the fine flavor of that
from shallow setting, where the cream
absorbed oxygen from the atmosphere
during the whole time it was rising.
A lower temperature than fifty degrees
would injure the keeping quality of the
butter if it did not hurt the flavor,
though some good butter makers run
the temperature much lower. 1t is a
faIlacy to think all the cream can not be
obtained except at low temperatures,
and to make the finest favored
and longest keeping butter the
cream must undergo a ripening pro-
cess by exposure to the oxygen of the
air while it is sweet. This is best done
while it is rising. The ripening is very
tardy when the emperature is low.
After cream becomes sour the more
ripening the more it depreciates. The
sooner then skinned and churned the
better; but it should not be skinned
and churned too new. The best time
for skimming and churning is just be-
fore acidity becomes apparent. Cream
makes better butter to rise in cold air
than to rise in cold water, but will rise
sooner in cold water, and the milk
will keep sweet longer. The deeper
milk is set the less air the cream gets
in rising The depth of setting should
vary with the temperature. The lower
it is the deeper milk may be set. The
higher the shallower it should be.
Milk should never be set shallow in a
low temperature nor deep in high
one. While milk is setting for cream to
rise, the purity of the cream and quality
of the butter will be injured if the sur
face of the cream is exposed freely to
air much warmer than the cream.
When cream is colder than the sur
rounding air, it takes up moisture and
impurities from the air. When the air
is colder than the cream, it takes up
moisture and whatever escapes from
the cream. In one case the cream pu-
rifles the air; in the other the air helps
to purify the cream.
Washing the butter in the granular
form is great improvement over other
methods. By washing in the churn be-
fore the butter is gathered, nearly all
working is obviated. Water should be
poured into the churn, agitated and
drawn off until the water is clear, after
which the butter can be salted, pressed
together and packed for market. Much
working. and especially a second work
ing, is injurious, destroying, as it does.
the natural grain of the butter. giving
it a greasy, salvy consistency. The aim
in packing is to exclude air and light.
Covering with brine is the only sure
method of excluding air: Store in a
sweet, cool place. where an even tenn
perature can be maintained somewhat
below eighty degrees. Field and
FTreside.
Most of the New York hotels rent
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