Branch of the Annatto tree
Coloring.—When the cream is ready it is poured into the churn and a little butter color is added. Some people prefer butter very light or even uncolored, but usually 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls of a standard butter color[[5]] to 10 gallons of cream will be found right, varying according to the season and the breed of cows furnishing the milk. The butter-fat in Guernsey and Jersey milk is naturally highly colored, while that in Holstein milk is comparatively white. When the cows are on fresh pasture in the early summer the butter-fat is more highly colored than when they are on dry food. The amount of coloring to be added to the cream is regulated to overcome such variations and make the butter of uniform color all the year round.
Adding the butter color
Churning.—Hundreds of varieties of churns have been constructed from time to time; 2,000 years ago Pliny described the old dash churn much the same as still occasionally used on the farm, and the principle involved in the process has not been changed. The object is to make the fat globules conglomerate into grains that can be collected and leave as little butter-fat as possible in the buttermilk.
Old Arabian churn made out of the skin of a goat
Ancient churn
