The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-20
BUTTER MAKING ON THE FARM
A Prize Essay.

A Prize Essay.
OF the 135 essays submitted in COM
petition for the decorated dinner-set
offered by the Ohio Farm News for the
best paper on Butter-making on the
Farm" the following essay, by Mrs. B.
p Ruggles. of Vermont, was awarded
the first prize. BY courtesy of the
Farm News we reproduce the article
for the interest of our readers;
This essay is for the farmers wife
who has the milk of a few soWs from
Which to make butter for her family
and possibly a surplus for a customer
or two
1 will assume that the COWS are good
butter cows and have good feed in the
pasture. good water to drink. are never
run nor hurried have salt in the yard
to eat when they choose. are well fed
and cared for in winter. kept clean,
MIXED regularly as to time, with dry
hands. and the milk brought in imme-
diately when the milking is done.
1 recommend the setting of milk in
open shallow pans as the least eXpen-
sive in outfit. and by which may be
made 4 better quality Of butter. that
viii keep longer than that made by
any other system of setting: freely ad-
hitting it requires more care and labor
than some other systems, where men
often do much more of the work.
Strain the milk through two thickness
os of strainer cloth into shallow tin
mans set on two or three narrow Stats
in a clean. well ventilated milk-room.
preferably in the northeast corner of
the house or building. If the milk
room. cannot be warmed in winter,
milk may be set in a spacious pantry
on shelves. not high ones, that are
kept closely curtained.
Skim the milk in tWenty-four CT
thirty-six hours. or in summer as soon
as it begins to thicken at the bottom
of the pans. if it is in ten or twelve
hours.
Keep cream in three-gallon tin can
where milk is set in cool or cold
weather. and in the cellar in summer.
The cellar must be clean, deep. cool.
well ventilated by window at each Of
two sides. and absolutely free from all
odors and rats and mice. Keep a wood
en- paddle in the can and stir the cream
as often as more is put in and keep
the can covered with a. clean cloth.
Cream may be kent in a refrigerator.
but butter should be kept only in such
a cellar as described.
Churn once in two or three days in
summer and once in three or four days
in winter Use any good churn that is
easily washed. in winter warm the
cream before churning to 65 degrees by
setting the can Of cream in deep dish
pan Of hot water mot boiling, stirring
the cream with the paddle: secure the
right temperature by holding a dairy
thermometer in the cream. Color the
butter in winter if it needs it, by nut
ting carrot Juice in the cream at time
Of churning. Cotton-seed oil and an
alto butter coloring is more convenient
but customers are liable 10 detect a.
flavor in butter so colored that does
not belong to pure butter which they
win not do when carrots are used.
Churn early in the morning and
churn until the butter is in a mass,
then draw off the buttermilk, using q
wire cloth strainer to save all particles
of butter. and put in cold water in
summer, or slightly warmed water in
winter and churn more, then draw off
the water and put in more and wash
the butter a second time in summer,
but one washing will do in winter.
Salt the butter with good clean salt.
such as will all dissolve in clear water,
by working in. in the butter tray with
the butter ladle. one and half ounces
of salt to a pound Of butter. Leave the
tray of sailed butter in the cellar in
ssuramer or in q warmed room in WIN
ter. with a cloth over it.
The next morning, in summer,
or the same day, near even
ing. in winter. re-work the but
ter In 6 butter-worker. which re-
uuires the help of a man. This will re-
S5uce the weight of the butter eight
or ten per cent. by working out but
fernillk that could not be washed out
end water that was washed in, also
the surplus salt, as brine, that the but
ter in its purest and most concentrat-
ed state and in the best possible con-
5ition for eating or keeping.
Make the butter in half pound prints,
which may need the help of a man,
and after leaving them on suitable
boards in the cellar twenty-four hours
TO harden, pack them in stone jars and
pi,t the covers on. Do not keep but
ter in this shape more than week or
ten days before you eat it or let some
one else eat it.
If VOC would keep butter for use at
a time when you are not making any.
pack it solidly down in stone jars, put
a cloth on top and one-third inch OF
salt. keep an inch depth Of water over
all and the cover on the jar, and all in
the butter cellar. ] have kept butter
in this way perfectly sweet and good
from October until June.
The pans. pals and all appliances
about butter making must be kept
clean by scalding in boiling water
after being washed in water with soap
in il as often as they are emptied
from use.
After making butter in the capacity
outlined above for nearly twenty-five
years. am sure if the directions
given are strictly adhered to, one need
having it for use throughout the year.