Without possessing a dairy, it is quite possible for families to have always a sufficient provision of milk and cream for their consumption, provided there be a clean cool larder or pantry where it can be kept. It should be taken from persons who can be depended on for supplying it pure, and if it can be obtained from a dairy near at hand it will be an advantage, as in the summer it is less easy to preserve it sweet when it has been conveyed from a distance. It should be poured at once into well-scalded pans or basins kept exclusively for it, and placed on a very clean and airy shelf, apart from all the other contents of the larder. The fresh milk as it comes in should be set at one end of the shelf, and that for use should be taken from the other, so that none may become stale from being misplaced or overlooked. The cream should be removed with a perforated skimmer (or skimming-dish as it is called in dairy-counties) which has been dipped into cold water to prevent the cream, when thick, from adhering to it. Twelve hours in summer, and twenty-four in winter, will be sufficient time for the milk to stand for “creaming,” though it may often be kept longer with advantage. Between two and three pints of really good milk will produce about a quarter of a pint of cream. In frosty weather the pans for it should be warmed before it is poured in. If boiled when first brought in, it will remain sweet much longer than it otherwise would; but it will then be unfit to serve with tea; though it may be heated afresh and sent to table with coffee; and used also for puddings, and all other varieties of milk-diet.
DEVONSHIRE, OR CLOTTED CREAM.
From the mode adopted in Devonshire, and in some other counties, of scalding the milk in the following manner, the cream becomes very rich and thick, and is easily converted into excellent butter. It is strained into large shallow metal pans as soon as it is brought into the dairy and left for twelve hours at least in summer, and thirty-six in cold weather. It is then gently carried to a hot plate—heated by a fire from below—and brought slowly to a quite scalding heat but without being allowed to boil or even to simmer. When it is ready to be removed, distinct rings appear on the surface, and small bubbles of air. It must then be carried carefully back to the dairy, and may be skimmed in twelve hours afterwards. The cream should be well drained from the milk—which will be very poor—as this is done. It may then be converted into excellent butter, merely by beating it with the hand in a shallow wooden tub, which is, we are informed, the usual manner of making it in small Devonshire dairies.
DU LAIT A MADAME.
Boil a quart of new milk, and let it cool sufficiently to allow the cream to be taken off; then rinse an earthen jar well in every part with buttermilk, and while the boiled milk is still rather warm, pour it in and add the cream gently on the top. Let it remain twenty-four hours, turn it into a deep dish, mix it with pounded sugar, and it will be ready to serve. This preparation is much eaten abroad during the summer, and is considered very wholesome. The milk, by the foregoing process, becomes a very soft curd, slightly, but not at all unpleasantly, acid in flavour. A cover, or thick folded cloth, should be placed on the jar after the milk is poured in, and it should be kept in a moderately warm place. In very sultry weather less time may be allowed for the milk to stand.
Obs.—We give this and the following receipt from an unpublished work which we have in progress, being always desirous to make such information as we possess generally useful as far as we can.
CURDS AND WHEY.
Rennet is generally prepared for dairy-use by butchers, and kept in farmhouses hung in the chimney corners, where it will remain good a long time. It is the inner stomach of the calf, from which the curd is removed, and which is salted and stretched out to dry on splinters of wood, or strong wooden skewers. It should be preserved from dust and smoke (by a paper-bag or other means), and portions of it cut off as wanted. Soak a small bit in half a teacupful of warm water, and let it remain in it for an hour or two; then pour into a quart of warm new milk a dessertspoonful of the rennet-liquor, and keep it in a warm place until the whey appears separated from the curd, and looks clear. The smaller the proportion of rennet used, the more soft and delicate will be the curd. We write these directions from recollection, having often had the dish thus prepared, but having no memorandum at this moment of the precise proportions used. Less than an inch square of the rennet would be sufficient, we think, for a gallon of milk, if some hours were allowed for it to turn. When rennet-whey, which is a most valuable beverage in many cases of illness, is required for an invalid to drink, a bit of the rennet, after being quickly and slightly rinsed, may be stirred at once into the warm milk, as the curd becoming hard is then of no consequence. It must be kept warm until the whey appears and is clear. It may then be strained, and given to the patient to drink, or allowed to become cold before it is taken. In feverish complaints it has often the most benign effect.
Devonshire junket is merely a dish or bowl of sweetened curds and whey, covered with the thick cream of scalded milk, for which see page [451].