The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1901-04-03
AGRICULTURAL.
RipenlDg Cream,

The educated housekeeper knows
very well that good bread cannot be
made without the use of yeast to cause
the sponge to get light-to rise, as we
say, says writer to the Practical
Farmer. This she does by adding
yeast to the sponge, and the effect of
this yeast is due to the existence in it
of vast number of minute organisms
which inoculate the sponge, and these,
growing in the sponge, produce gas
in it, by which the sponge is filled with
vast number of little cavities or cells,
in which the yeast has produced the
gas by which the sponge is swollen and,
as she says, is raised. Then the bread
goes into the oven, and the heat kills
these germs of yeast and stops the pro-
duction of more gas, and the bread,
when baked, is filed with open cells
by which it is made light and spongy.
Now we can by similar incubation
of the cream ripen it for the churn by
means of the growth in it of count
less number of minute germs, which,
as it were, fill the cream with exceed
ingly small spaces, so that when it
is stirred it has shiny appearance,
as we say, like satin; and when in this
condition the churning is done, the
small particles of butter separate and
by cohesion gather together and form
little pellets of butter, and these, ad-
herring together by the dashing togeth-
er of them in the churning, increase in
size until Jumps of butter form. But
it is most convenient 70 stop the churn-
ing when these pellets are Of the size
of buckshot or sweet peas, and this TO
the reason that when the butter is in
this form the buttermilk is more easily
washed from it and the butter may be
gathered in a pure state. This we call
the philosophy of butter making. 1t is
the wisdom, in fact--for this is the
meaning of the word philosophical
churning. 1t saves labor and it leaves
the butter in the best condition for
gathering and washing it free from the
buttermilk, which otherwise would
quickly cause decomposition of it, and
this would produce the strong, dis
agreeable odor and flavor of rancidity
in it. All this is included in this term
ripening or perfecting the cream for
the churning. And this condition is
most easily produced in this way: We
take the cream when it is still sweet
and mix in it by stirring gently for
each gallon of it teaspoonful of the
buttermilk of the previous churning,
just as the baker mixes some of the
last made dough in the bread sponge
as a starter-as we may say-of fer
mentation in the cream by which the
needed ripeness or fitness is produced
And just as he baker sets the sponge
in warm place to rise, 30 the cream
is set in warm place to ripen for q
space of - hours. The right time is
easily known by the shining, satiny
appearance of the cream when it is
stirred in the jar. Of course all this is
to be done with the same care with
which the good housekeeper manages
her bread sponge, and when on stirring
the cream it is seen to be thick and
shines and glistens in the light and has
a pleasant, mild sourness, then the
cream is ready to be churned. Then il
may be churned in the shortest timt
just as the ripened bread sponge is,ant
as this is, too, so the butter is pre-
duced in the same time always, every
day in the year. In fact, both these
operations are subject to the sam,
rules, and if the same care is taker
with the cream as is taken with tn,
bread, there will always be the sam
certainly in the making of butter. Their
is no witchery about this; it is plain
simple effect of certain causes.