PLAN No. 821. EQUIPMENT FOR HOME BUTTER-MAKING
There is no secret in making good butter. With proper care and attention to details good butter can be made in any farm home. The quality of the butter is dependent upon the intelligent use of equipment rather than the kind, although suitable equipment is time-saving and labor-saving and can be purchased and made at a nominal cost.
Fig. 14.—Equipment for home butter making.
Milk vessels should be of high-grade tin with all joints and seams smoothly soldered so that there will be no crevices in which dirt may accumulate. A convenient milking can to use is the three-gallon shotgun can. It should have a smooth, heavily tinned interior, to prevent rusting and difficulty in cleaning. All butter-making equipment should be thoroughly scrubbed with a brush in hot water containing sal-soda or washing powder. Never use a dish cloth or soap. Inexpensive stiff fiber scrub brushes or vegetable brushes can be purchased at any grocery or hardware store. After equipment is washed it should be scalded or steamed. A home made sterilizer will be found most convenient and helpful. (Write for Farmer’s Bulletin No. 748, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.)
A medium sized dipper strainer with a fine-meshed gauze has been found to be very satisfactory. It should be smooth and free from seams. Butter should not be touched or handled with the bare hands. It injures the quality of the butter and is very insanitary. Wooden ladles can be easily whittled from maple, ash, or poplar or bought at a small cost. A thermometer is absolutely essential to successful butter-making. Controlling temperatures is second only to keeping equipment clean. A floating dairy thermometer can be ordered from any dairy supply company.
In making butter the salt should be uniformly distributed and the granules pressed together into a close-grained mass and the surplus water worked out. This can most easily be accomplished by use of a V-shaped lever butter worker made of one-inch material. This worker is made of maple, ash or poplar, the material of which all wooden butter equipment is made. Any woods from which odors or flavors might be absorbed by the butter should not be used.
For the amount of butter made in most farm homes a butter worker 18 inches long, 16 inches at the wide end and 21⁄2 inches at the narrow end is a convenient size. The sides are 3 inches wide and are screwed to the bottom. The corrugated roller having six or eight sides is 24 inches long. One end of the roller is shaped to fit a small hole made in the pieces across the narrow end of the worker. This end piece is of a width that leaves a slot just above the bottom of the worker which allows the water to drain off into a pan as the roller is pressed firmly backward and forward over the butter. The worker rests on three knobs or supports. The two knobs at the wider end are 31⁄2 inches high, while the knob at the narrow end is 21⁄2 inches.
The most popular, convenient, and attractive butter mold is the brick-shaped or square-cornered shape. This mold can be made of 5⁄8-inch material. The mold most commonly used is 45⁄8 by 21⁄2 by 23⁄8 inches. An inch hole is bored through the center of the top and through the center of a plunger which fits closely into the mold. Through the hole in the top of the mold is inserted the round handle which screws into the hole in the plunger. Most satisfactory molds of this type can be found on the market.
When butter is to be sold, parchment papers 8 by 11 inches should be used to wrap the pound print. Also neat and attractive paper butter cartons should be used when butter is put on the market. It will bring a better price if packed well.