4. Fresh butter, 18 lbs.; salt, 1 lb.; saltpetre, 11⁄2 oz.; honey or fine brown sugar, 2 oz. Superior to No. 3.
Concl. Remarks. It may be useful to know that rancid butter may be restored, or, in all cases, greatly improved, by melting it in a water bath with some fresh-burnt and coarsely powdered animal charcoal (which has been thoroughly freed from dust by sifting), and straining it through clean flannel. A better and less troublesome method is to well wash the butter first with some good new milk, and next with cold spring water. Butyric acid, on the presence of which rancidity depends, is freely soluble in fresh milk.
The turnip-flavour arising from the cows being fed on turnips or cabbages is said to be removed by one or other of the following methods:—1. When the milk is strained into the pans put to every 6 galls. 1 gal. of boiling water.—2. Dissolve 1 oz. of nitre in a pint of spring water, and put a 1⁄4 pint of the solution to every 15 galls. of milk.—3. Keep back a 1⁄4 pint of the sour cream when you churn, and put it into a well-scalded pot, into which you are to gather the next cream; stir that well, and do so with every fresh addition. Each of these methods come on good authority, but we are bound to say that our own experience does not confirm their constant success. We have found that the addition of a handful of salt to the water used to wash the butter is as good a plan as any.
Butter, Ancho′vy. From anchovies (boned and beaten to a paste), 1 part; butter, 2 parts; spice, q. s.
Butter-colouring (from Paris). A mixture of 40 per cent. of chrome yellow with some fat coloured with annatto. (Flückiger and Weil.)
Butter, Clar′ified. Fresh butter melted in a water bath, allowed to settle, and the clear portion poured into an earthenware basin or pot, set in cold water, so as to cool it as quickly as possible, without allowing it to crystallise. It keeps a long time without becoming rank. See Butter, No. 1 (antè).
Butter, Hon′ey. Fine Narbonne honey, 2 to 4 oz.; mixed with good butter, 1 lb. Used as a delicacy for children, and by the sick and aged.
Butter, Lem′on. See Butter, Orange.
Butter, Melt′ed. This well-known sauce may be prepared of excellent quality as follows:—Beat up about 1 oz. of fine flour with 4 oz. of butter, in the cold, until they are evenly and thoroughly mixed, then add 4 or 5 table-spoonfuls of hot milk, put the whole into a small saucepan, and continue shaking it, all in one direction, until it simmers very gently; lastly, remove it from the fire, and pour it into the butter-boats for use. These last should be filled with hot water, and then emptied and wiped dry, before putting the melted butter into them. See Sauces.
Butter, Or′ange. Prep. 1. From 6 eggs, 2 oz. of powdered sugar, and 4 oz. of butter, well beaten together with a little orange-flower water. Sometimes 1 or 2 oz. of blanched almonds, or of almond-paste, is added.