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

In some sections the milk is churned soon after milking; in others, the night’s and morning’s milk are mixed together, and churned at noon; in others, the cream is allowed to rise, when the milk is curdled, and cream, curd, and whey, are all churned together.

A successful instance of churning only the cream is found in the statement of Mr. Lincoln, who received the first dairy premium of the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. He says: “The cream, as it is skimmed, is poured into stone pots, which in warm weather are kept in a refrigerator, and during the winter stand in the milk-room. The times of churning depend upon the quantity of cream.

“The time usually occupied in churning is from fifty minutes upwards. This is deemed a matter of importance. We consider it much better to bring the cream to the degree of temperature necessary to the formation of butter by a steady, moderate agitation, than to use artificial heat to take it to that point before commencing to churn. By such moderate, long-continued agitations, we think the butter has a firmer, more waxy consistence than it can have by more rapid churning. The churn used is ‘Galt’s.’ Numerous trials have been made with many of the other kinds of churns in comparison with this, and the result has been uniformly favorable to this patent.

“When the butter has come, the butter-milk is drawn off, and the butter, after being thoroughly worked, is salted with from one half to three fourths ounces of salt to the pound. It is now set away for twenty-four hours, when it is again worked over thoroughly, and made into pound lumps with wooden ‘spatters.’ After standing another twenty-four hours, it is sent into market. In ‘working’ butter we use a table over which a fluted roller is made to pass ([Fig. 80]), rolling out the butter into a thin sheet, and completely and entirely depriving it of butter-milk.

“From many years’ experience, the observation is warranted, that by no other process of manufacture can the butter-milk be so completely extracted. I am aware of the truth of the objection made that the shrinkage occasioned by its use is too great; yet there is, in fact, a difference in the worth of the butter made upon it, over that manufactured in the ordinary way, quite equal to the loss in weight occasioned by it.”

The high reputation of Philadelphia butter being so well known, I was desirous of ascertaining the opinions of practical men as to what this was due,—whether to any peculiar richness of the pasturage, or to the careful mode of manufacture. In reply to my inquiries, I have received satisfactory statements from several sources, and among them the following communication from one of the most successful of the butter-makers who supply that market. “The high reputation of Philadelphia butter,” he says, “is owing to the manner of its manufacture, though I would not say that the sweet-scented vernal and other natural grasses do not add to the fine quality of well-made butter.

“In proof of what I say, I would refer to the experience of my brother, who is the owner of two farms. His tenant, an excellent butter-maker, lived on one farm, and made a very fine article, which brought the highest prices. He moved to the other farm, where the former tenant had never made good butter, and had ascribed his want of success to the spring-house. On this farm he succeeded in establishing a higher reputation than he ever had before. The tenant who followed him on the first farm never succeeded in gaining a reputation for good butter, his inability arising from his ignorance of the proper mode of manufacture, and his unwillingness to improve by the experience of others.

“Only a part of the information as to the best mode of manufacture can be given, so much depends on the judgment and experience of the operator. The first thing required is to provide a suitable place. This should be, for the summer months, a well-ventilated house, over a good spring of water. The second requisite will be proper vessels to hold the milk and cream, and for churning. A table is needed which shall not be used for any other purpose than for working and printing the butter on. I have always used a lever in connection with the table ([Fig. 80]). A large sponge, with a linen cloth to cover it, with which the milk can be removed from the butter, is another important article; and then a skimmer, either of wood or tin, or both, as may be necessary in the different states of the milk; a thermometer, and a boiler convenient for heating water for cleansing the vessels. No person can expect to make good butter without the greatest attention to the cleanliness of the vessels used for the milk and cream, and care in exposing them to the sun and air.

“After the milk has been brought from the yard or stable, strain it immediately into the pans, in which has been put a little sour milk from which the cream has been removed, the quantity varying from a tablespoonful to half a common teacupful, according to the state of the weather. In very warm weather the smaller quantity is sufficient. But the rule for warm weather will not always hold good; for, from the electrical state of the atmosphere, the milk may sour either too slow or too fast.

“The pans containing the milk should then be set into the water, if the weather be hot: and here is a point where the operator should exercise his or her judgment; for even in warm weather it may be necessary to draw off the water from the milk, if the spring be cold. The milk should remain there, under no circumstances, longer than the fourth meal, or forty-eight hours; but thirty-six hours is much to be preferred, if the milk has become thick, or the cream sufficiently raised, when it should be taken off carefully, so as not to take any sour milk with it, and put in the cream-pot. When the cream-pot is full, sprinkle a small handful of fine salt over the top of the cream, and let it remain. Our custom has been, when making butter but once a week, to pour the cream into a clean vessel at the end of three days, keeping back any milk that might have been taken up with the cream, which is found at the bottom of the jar.