The proper temperature can be readily obtained both in winter and summer. A hundred gallons of entire milk, will give, in summer, five per cent. more butter than the cream
from the same quantity of milk. Butter of the best quality can be obtained without difficulty, both in winter and summer. No special attention to circumstances, or change of method, is at any time required. The churning in winter and summer is alike simple and easy. The butter is not only of the best quality while fresh, but is also best for long-keeping, when properly cured or salted.
Cleanliness in all the operations of the Dairy.
This is peculiarly necessary to the manufacture of good butter. Cream is remarkable for the rapidity with which it absorbs and becomes tainted by any unpleasant odors. It is very necessary that the air of the dairy should be sweet, that it should be often renewed, and that it should be open in no direction from which bad odors can come. (Johnston and other authorities.)
The statement of J. T. Lansing, who received the first premium for butter from the New York State Agricultural Society, is as follows:—
Keep the cows stabled through the inclement season; feed them from three to four times per day with good hay or green stalks; when near coming in, add some oats, barley, or corn cracked. In summer, good pasture, with living water accessible at all times, and plenty of salt.
Treatment of milk and cream before churning.—Strain the milk in tin pans; place them in a cool cellar for the cream to rise. When sufficiently risen, separate the cream from the milk; put in stone jars, well prepared before churning.
The mode of churning in summer.—Rinse the churn with cold water; then turn in the cream, and add to each jar of cream put in the churn, full one-fourth of the same quantity of cold water. The churn used is a patent one, moved by hand with a crank, having paddles attached, and so constructed as to warm the milk (if too cold) with hot water, without mixing them together. The milk and cream receive the same treatment in winter as in summer; and in churning, use hot instead of cold water, if necessary.
The method of freeing the butter from the milk, is to wash the butter with cold water, till it shows no color of the milk, by the use of a ladle.
Salting the butter.—Use the best kind of Liverpool sack-salt; the quantity varies according to the state in which the butter is taken from the churn; if soft, more; if hard, less;