Butter,Cheese,Coffee,Tea

Butter.

It is of the first importance that every thing connected with milk and butter should be kept clean; if the milk acquires an unpleasant taste, it communicates it to the butter. Tin pans are best to keep milk in, and they should be painted on the outside to keep them from rusting when they are put in water.

In summer, milk should be kept as cool as possible; before it is strained, the pans and strainer should be rinsed with cold water, and the milk not covered until it is cold, as soon as the cream rises sufficiently, it should be skimmed, and put in a large tin bucket with a lid that fits down tight, and stirred every day. Butter will be spoiled by neglecting to stir the cream, a yellow scum will form on it, which gives it an unpleasant taste. And if you leave a pan of milk till the cream is covered with spots of mould, you had better throw it away than put it in, as it will spoil the taste of a whole churning.

If you have no way of keeping your cream cool in hot weather, it ought to be churned twice a week, the earlier in the morning the better. Always put cold water in your churn the night before you use it, and change it in the morning just before you put in the cream. When the butter is gathering, take off the lid of the churn to let the heated air escape, and move it gently, have your butter ladle and pan scalded and cooled, take out the butter and work it till all the milk is out, scrape some lumps of salt, and work in, cover it up, and set away in a cool place till the next morning, when work it again.

If you have neither an ice, or spring house, a box by the side of the pump, with a cover over it, is very convenient to put cream and butter down the well, put them in tin kettles with covers to fit tight, and fasten them to strong tarred ropes twenty feet long. The air of a well will keep butter sweet for several weeks in the hottest weather. It is best to have one kettle or basket to put the butter in that is used at the table, it should be deep enough to hold five or six plates, each covered with a saucer. It can be kept in this way as firm and sweet as in an ice house. You can have a separate kettle to put a large lump of butter in for seasoning vegetables. If you print butter for home use, it is not necessary to weigh it, make it out in little lumps that will weigh about half a pound, scald the print and ladle, and put them in cold water, as you print each lump, lay it on a dish.

In winter it is more difficult to have good butter, as much depends on the food of the cows, the milk should be kept in a cellar, where it will not freeze, if you have a safe to keep it in, it need not be covered. Cream takes much longer to rise in winter, after it has stood two days, to put it on the top of a moderately heated stove will assist it, when it is hot, set it away to skim the next day, when the cream will be thick and rich, and churns easier.

If the weather is very cold, and the cream has been chilled, have a large pot of water over the fire, set in the bucket when it is near boiling heat, and keep stirring till it is milk warm, have the churn scalded and put it in, by churning steadily, it will come as quick as in summer, one good working answers very well for butter in winter, always scald the churn before you put in the cream in cold weather.