(18) Mention the precautions that should be observed in caring for milk.
(19) (a) How is milk affected by cooking? (b) Describe the best way to heat milk.
(20) Give the proportions of flour and liquid required in each of the three varieties of white sauce.
BUTTER AND BUTTER SUBSTITUTES (PART 2)
ECONOMICAL USE OF BUTTER
1. BUTTER is the fatty constituent of milk. It is obtained by skimming or separating the cream from milk and churning it in order to make the particles of fat adhere to one another. Butter is used largely in the household as an article of food, for it is one of the most appetizing and digestible forms of fat.
To supply the demand for butter, it is produced domestically in the home and on farms and commercially in dairies and large establishments. The principle of all churns used for butter making is practically the same. They simply agitate the cream so that the butter-fat globules in it are brought together in masses of such size as to enable the butter maker to separate them from the buttermilk. Butter is seasoned, or salted, to give it a desirable flavor and to improve its keeping qualities; it is washed, or worked, in order to distribute the salt evenly, to separate from it as much of the curd and other non-fatty constituents of the cream as can be conveniently removed, to bring it into a compact, waxy mass, and to give it texture. The United States authorities have set a standard for the composition of butter, which allows this product to contain not more than 16 per cent. of water and requires it to have at least 82.5 per cent. of butter fat.
2. ECONOMICAL USE OF BUTTER.--In the home, butter is used on the table and in the cooking of many foods. Hardly any article of food has such general use as this one; in fact, a meal is usually considered to be incomplete without it, both as an accompaniment to bread, rolls, biscuits, or whatever variety of these is used, and as an ingredient in the cooking of some foods that require fat. But butter is not cheap, so that the wise and economical use of this food in the home is a point that should not be overlooked by the housewife. This precaution is very important, it having been determined that butter, as well as other fats, is wasted to a great extent; and still it is true that no other material can be so economically utilized. The very smallest amount of any kind of fat should be carefully saved, for there are numerous uses to which it can be put. Even though it is mixed with other food, it can always be melted out, clarified--that is, freed from foreign substances--and then used for some purpose in cooking. The chief way in which butter is wasted is in the unnecessary and improper use of it, points that a little careful thought will do much to remedy.