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 D A I R Y-F ARMING [butter AND BUTTER-MAKING. in brine, put lid on churn, turn sharply half a dozen times, and the outside. The Gouda is a flat cheese with convex leave for 10 to 15 minutes. Then lift the butter out of churn edges, and is of any weight up to 20 ft. _ Of the two, into sieve, turn butter out on worker, leave it a few minutes to the Edam has the finer flavour. Limburger is the leading drain, and work gently till all superfluous moisture is pressed out. To’ dry salt butter, place butter on worker, let it drain 10 to 15 German cheese, whilst other varieties are the Backstem minutes, then work gently till all the butter comes together. and Munster; all are strong-smelling. Parmesan cheese Place it on the scales and weigh ; then weigh salt, for slight is an Italian product, round and flat, about 5 inches salting, l oz.; medium, oz.; heavy salting, f oz. to the ft of thick, weighing from 60 to 80 ft, and possessed of fine butter. Roll butter out on worker and carefully sprinkle salt over flavour. Gorgonzola cheese, so called from the Italian the surface, a little at a time ; roll up and repeat till all the salt town of that name near Milan, is made in the Cheddar is used. Never touch the butter with your hands. shape, and weighs from 20 to 40 ft. When ripe it is Well-made butter is firm and not greasy. It possesses permeated by a blue mould, and resembles m flavour, a characteristic texture or “ grain,” in virtue of which it appearance, and consistency a rich old Stilton. cuts clean with a knife and breaks with a granular fracture, like that of cast-iron. Theoretically, butter should Butter and Butter-Making. of little else than fat, but in practice this degree of As with cheese, so with butter, large quantities of the consist perfection is never attained. Usually the fat ranges from latter have been inferior not because the cream was poor in quality, but because the wrong kinds of bacteria, had 83 to 88 per cent., whilst 1 water is present to the extent taken possession of the atmosphere in hundreds of dairies. of from 10 to 15 per cent. There will also be from 0-2 0'8 per cent, of milk-sugar, and from 0‘5 to 0'8 per The greatest if not the latest novelty in dairying in the last to cent, of casein. It is the casein which is the objectionable decade of the 19 th century was the isolation of lactic acid ingredient, and the presence of which is usually the cause bacilli, their cultivation in a suitable medium, and their of rancidity. In badly washed or badly worked butter, employment in cream preparatory to churning. Used thus in butter-making, an excellent product results, provided from which the buttermilk has not been properly removed, cleanliness be scrupulously maintained. The culture re- the proportion of casein, or curd, left in the product may considerable, and such butter has only inferior keeping peats itself in the buttermilk, which in turn may be used be qualities. At the same time, the mistake may be made again with marked success. Much fine butter, indeed, was of overworking or of overwashing the butter, thereby demade long before the bearing of bacteriological science priving it of the delicacy of flavour which is one of its upon the practice of dairying was recognized—made by chief attractions as an article of consumption if eaten fresh. using acid buttermilk from a previous churning. In Denmark, which is, for its size, the greatest butter- The object of washing with brine is that the small quantity producing country in the world, most of the buttei is of salt thus introduced shall act as a preservative and demade with the aid of “starters,” or artificial cultures velop the flavour. Streaky butter may be due either to cuid which are employed in ripening the cream. Though the left in by imperfect washing, or to an uneven distribution butter made by such cultures shows little if any superiority of the salt. Equipment of the Dairy. over a good sample made from cream ripened in the ordinary way,—that is, by keeping the cream at a fairly The improved form of milking-pail shown in Fig. 1 high temperature until it is ready for churning, when it has rests or brackets, which the milker when seated on must be cooled—it is claimed that the use of these cultures enables the butter-makers of Denmark to secure a much greater uniformity in the quality of their produce than would be possible if they depended upon the ripening of the cream through the influence of bacteria taken up m the usual way from the air. Butter-making is an altogether simpler process than cheese-making, but success demands strict attention to sound principles, the observance of thorough cleanliness in every stage of the work, and the intelligent use of the thermometer. The following rules for butter - making, issued by the Royal Agricultural Society, sufficiently indicate the nature of the operation:— Prepare churn, butter - worker, wooden hands, and sieve as follows:—(1) Rinse with cold water. (2) Scald with boiling water. (3) Rub thoroughly with salt. (4) Rinse with cold water. Always use a correct thermometer. The cream, when in the churn, to be at a temperature ot 56 to 58° F. in summer and 60° to 62° F. in winter. The churn should never be more than half full. Churn at number of revolutions suggested by maker of churn. If none are given, churn at 40 to revolutions ycr minute. Always churn slowly at first. Ventilate the churn freely and frequently during churning, until no air rushes out when the vent is opened. Stop churning immediately the butter comes. This can be ascertained by the sound ; it in doubt, look. The butter should now be like grains of mustard seed. Pour in a small quantity of cold water (1 pint of water to 2 quarts of Fig. 3.—Rectangular Cheese Vat. cream) to harden the grains, and give a few more turns to the ^Draw^off ^the buttermilk, giving plenty of time for draining. his stool places on his knees; he thus bears the weight on Use a straining-cloth placed over a hair-sieve, so as to prevent any his thighs, and is entirely relieved of the strain mvolvea 1 loss and wash the butter in the churn with plenty of cold water ; butter is sometimes deliberately over-weighted with water, then draw off the water, and repeat the process until the water and Market a fraudulent profit is obtained by selling this extra moisture comes off quite clear. , the price of butter. In July 1901, therefore, a departmental committee To brine butter, make a strong brine, 2 to 3 ft of salt to 1 gallon of water. Place straining-cloth over mouth of churn, pour was appointed to inquire into the matter (vide infra).

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