The fat or oil peculiar to butter is in winter more solid than in summer, and known as margarine fat, while that of summer is known as liquid or oleine fat. The proportions in which these are found in ordinary butter have been stated by Prof. Thomson, as follows:
| Summer. | Winter. | |
|---|---|---|
| Solid or margarine fat, | 40 | 65 |
| Liquid or oleine fat, | 60 | 35 |
| 100 | 100 |
Winter butter appears to be rich and fine in proportion as the oleine fat increases. The proportion is undoubtedly dependent on the food.
A more general attention to the details of butter-making, and to the best modes of preserving its good qualities, would add many thousands of dollars to the aggregate profits of our American dairies.
In the management of the dairy, an ice-house and a good quantity of ice for summer use are not only very convenient for regulating the temperature of the dairy-room, and for keeping butter at the proper consistence, and preserving it, but are also profitable in other respects. And now, when ice-houses are so easily constructed, and ice is so readily procured, no well-ordered dairy should be without a liberal supply of it. It is housed at a time when other farm-work is not pressing, and ponds are so distributed over the country that it may be generally procured without difficulty; but where ponds or streams are at too great a distance from the dairy-house, an artificial pond can be easily made, by damming up the outlet of some spring in the neighborhood. Where this is done, the utmost care should be taken to keep the water perfectly clean when the ice is forming. The ice-house should be above ground, and in a dry, airy place. The top of a dry knoll is better than a low, damp shade. The ice may be packed in tan, sawdust, shavings, or other non-conductors, and when wanted for use it should be taken off the top.
CHAPTER IX.
THE CHEESE-DAIRY.
“Streams of new milk through flowing coolers stray,
And snow-white curds abound, and wholesome whey.”
Milk, if allowed to become sour, will eventually curdle, when the whey is easily separated; and this simple mode was probably the universal method of making cheese in ancient times. Cheese, as already explained, is made from caseine, an ingredient of milk held in solution by means of an alkali, which it requires the presence of an acid to neutralize. This, in modern manufacture, is artificially added to form the curd; but the acidity of milk, after standing, acts in the same manner to produce coägulation. This is due to the change of the milk-sugar into lactic acid.
Cheese has been made and used as an article of food from a very early date. It was well known to the early Jewish patriarchs, and is frequently mentioned in the earliest Hebrew records. “Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?” says Job; and David was sent to “carry ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand in the camp.” Most of the ancient nations, indeed, barbarous as well as civilized, made it a prominent article of food. But cheese, as made by the ancients, was found to be hard and brittle, and not well flavored, and means were devised to produce the same effect while the milk still remained sweet. It was observed that acids of various kinds would answer, and vinegar was used; and cream of tartar, muriatic acid, and sour milk, added to sweet, produced a rapid coägulation. In Sweden, Norway, and other countries, a handful of the plant known as butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) is sometimes mixed with the food of the cow, to cause the milk to coägulate readily. A few hours after milking, the curd is formed without the addition of an acid. Milk taken into the stomach of the calf was found to curdle rapidly, even while sweet; and hence the use of rennet, which is simply the stomach of the calf, prepared by washing, salting, and drying, for preservation. This acts the most surely, and, if properly prepared and preserved, is the least objectionable, of any article now known; and is, in fact, the natural mode of curdling the milk as it enters the stomach, preparatory to the process of digestion. Besides this, it is generally the cheapest and most available for the farmer.