Milch Cows and Dairy Farming / Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management

by Charles Louis Flint

Working and Treatment of Butter.

—When the churning is finished, the dairy-woman takes out the butter with a wooden scoop, [Fig. 111], and puts it into a tub for further working. The tub, [Fig. 112], is a broad, shallow vessel, open at the top, and having an opening at the bottom which is stopped by a bung. The scoop is pierced with holes, through which the butter-milk drains. The butter put into the tub is now rinsed, salted, and formed.

Fig. 111.

Fig. 112.

Fig. 113.

The tub is put upon a low, firm table, and the butter is worked by the hands, or by a shallow, rather wide and strong wooden ladle, until the butter is united into one firm and entire mass. Many dairy-women are accustomed to work the butter out from the middle towards all sides before bringing the whole mass together in the tub. Then very clear and pure fresh cold water is poured upon the butter, and worked through it till all the milky particles are entirely removed. After this is done in several workings, the bung is removed from the bottom of the tub, and the watery matter runs down through a little strainer, as in [Fig. 113]. As a general rule, butter is washed with water and worked over eleven or twelve times; yet the operator must judge whether the butter contains any particles of milk, and must work with water till, as it runs off, it is no longer whitish, but perfectly clear. Butter sometimes becomes too soft from too much working, if it is all done at once; it is then worked over two or three times, and allowed to stand in cold water after each working, which preserves its hardness and texture. This whole operation is called the washing of the butter.

Fig. 114.

When the washing is finished, the butter is cut with a blunt, saw-toothed knife, [Fig. 114], in every direction, in order to remove all hairs, or fibres of any kind, which by any possibility have got into it during the day. It is then sprinkled over with white, finely-powdered salt, the quantity of which is regulated by the taste; and this is perfectly worked in, so that the whole is uniformly salted. Most dairy-women determine the quantity of salt by the eye and the taste, and acquire such facility by continued practice that they always get the proper quantity; but less experienced ones take the salt by weight. The salting is not all done at once, but is continued three or four days, twelve hours intervening between each application, until all the salt has dissolved, and not a crystal is to be found. If the butter has a speckled and variegated appearance, it is a sign that the salt is not completely worked in, and the neglect must be remedied by working it over still more in the most thorough manner. When the salt is all dissolved, the butter is brought into single balls and got ready for the next market-day, or the whole mass is put into a particular keg, in order to be taken to market at some subsequent time as firkin-butter.