The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1916-11-09
IMPROVING FARM BUTTER

IMPROVING FARM BUTTER
The adoption of more careful meth
DDS of handling milk and cream and
improved practices in the making OF
farm butter will reduce rather than in
crease the trouble incident to home
production of this food, say dairy spe'
cialists of the department, and will
result in superior product which can
be sold more easily and for a better
price than the average farm butter
Last year about 3O,OO0,000 pounds of
butter, much of which originated on
the farm, was washed or renovated
because it was of such poor quality
that it could not be prottably offered
on the regular butter markets.
Cream alone should be churned. 1t
may be skinned as soon as 1t rises o
may be separated by a mechanical
separator. The latter plan is the more
efficient, and though requiring a con-
siderable initial outlay often will be
profitable. The cream should be set
aside in clean place by separate
milkings. A temperature of so degrees
F. or lower should be maintained until
from IL to 10 hours before churning
time, when the various patches should
be stirred together we'll and brought
to a temperature of about 70 degrees
F. by placing the container in bucket
of warm water. One of the first acts
of the farm housewife who decides to
adopt improved methods should be to
purchase a dairy thermometer. Tenn
peratures play an important part in
the development of flavOrs in butter,
and always should be determined with
fair accuracy. After the cream is mix
ed it should be kept at approximately
70 degrees z. until just before churn-
ing time, when it should be reduced to
about SO degrees F., where this is pos
sible Cor to such temperature not
above IS degrees F. as to complete the
operation of churning within rs or 80
minutes).
The barrel type has been found by
dairy specialists to be one OF the most
satisfactory churn. The dasher or
plunger type requires a somewhat
greater expenditure of labor. Earth
enware churns are especially undesir-
able unless perfectly glazed, since if
pores are exposed they absorb milk
and cream which later decay. Churns
with mechanical devices inside them
are difficult to clean and sometimes in
jure the body of the butter.
The churn should be scalded pre-
paratory to churning, but should be
cooled with water before the cream is
placed inside The cream should be
poured in through a coarse strainer.
Every few minutes during the early
part of the churning gas should be al
lowed to escape from the churn. II
the temperature is right the churnlng
should reqire about 25 or 80 minutes.
The process is completed when the
granules of butter are about the size
of large wheat kernels. The butter
milk should then be drained off and
the butter granules repeatedly washed
with cold water while still in the
churn. The washings should be con-
tinued until all milk is removed. Un-
der no circumstances should working
be depended on to remove surplus
milk.
When the butter is free from all
milk it should be taken from the
churn with a paddle and placed on a
worker. The hands should never
touch the butter, both on account OF
sanitary reasons and because the body
warmth may melt the fat. The work
ing should be done carefully to avoid
making the butter greasy Before the
butter is worked, fine salt should be
added at the rate of about an ounce
per pound of fat.
The butter should be prepared for
market in q rectangular mold, since,
when in this shape, the product is
more easily wrapped and handled and
is more pleasing to customers. Regu-
lar parchment butter-wrapping paper
should be used around the prints, as
ordinary waxed paper tears easily and
sticks to the butter. The placing of
the wrapped prints in pasteboard
boxes is a desirable final step, as it
protects the package, gives it q better
appearance, and permits the use of the
vertisement.
After the butter-making operations
are completed the churn should be
rinsed carefully with warm water. 1t
should then be scrubbed with hot wat
er, cleansing powder, and a fiber
brush, and finally should be scalded
and set in clean, sunny place to
drain and dry.
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