Butter

Of all foods wholly composed of fat, good fresh butter is the most wholesome.

It should, however, be used unmelted and taken in a finely divided state, and only in very moderate quantities.

If exposed to great heat, as on hot buttered toast, meats, rich pastry, etc., it is quite indigestible.

We do not recommend its use either for the table or for cooking purposes when cream can be obtained, since butter is rarely found in so pure a state that it is not undergoing more or less decomposition, depending upon its age and the amount of casein retained in the butter through the carelessness of the manufacturer.

Casein, on exposure to air in a moist state, rapidly changes into a ferment, which, acting upon the fatty matter of the butter, produces rancidity, rendering the butter more or less unwholesome. Poor, tainted, or rancid butter should not be used as food in any form.

Good butter is pale yellow, uniform throughout the whole mass, and free from rancid taste or odor. White lumps in it are due to the incorporation of sour milk with the cream from which it was produced. A watery, milk-like fluid exuding from the freshly cut surface of butter, is evidence that insufficient care was taken to wash out all the buttermilk, thus increasing its liability to spoil.

The flavor and color of butter vary considerably, according to the breed and food of the animal from which the milk was obtained. An artificial color is often given to butter by the use of a preparation of annatto.

Both salt and saltpeter are employed as preservatives for butter; a large quantity of the former is often used to increase the weight of the butter.

Artificial Butter.—Various fraudulent preparations are sold as butter. Oleomargarine, one of the commonest, is made from tallow or beef-fat, cleaned and ground like sausage, and heated, to separate the oil from the membranes. It is then known as "butter-oil," is salted, cooled, pressed, and churned in milk, colored with annatto, and treated the same as butter. Butterine, another artificial product, is prepared by mixing butter-oil and a similar oil obtained from lard, then churning them with milk.

An eminent analyst gives the following excellent way of distinguishing genuine butter from oleomargarine:—"When true butter is heated over a clear flame, it 'browns' and gives out a pleasant odor,—that of browned butter. In heating there is more or less sputtering, caused by minute particles of water retained in washing the butter. On the bottom of the pan or vessel in which true butter is heated, a yellowish-brown crust is formed, consisting of roasted or toasted casein. When oleomargarine is heated under similar circumstances, it does not 'brown,' but becomes darker by overheating, and when heated to dryness, gives off a grayish steam, smelling of tallow. There is no 'sputtering' when it is being heated, but it boils easily. If a pledget of cotton or a wick saturated with oleomargarine be set on fire and allowed to burn a few moments before being extinguished, it will give out fumes which are very characteristic, smelling strongly of tallow, while true butter behaves very differently."

Butter in Ancient Times.—Two kinds of butter seem to have been known to the ancient Jews, one quite like that of the present day, except that it was boiled after churning, so that it became in that warm climate practically an oil; the other, a sort of curdled milk. The juice of the Jerusalem artichoke was mixed with the milk, when it was churned until a sort of curd was separated. The Oriental method of churning was by putting the milk into a goat-skin and swinging and shaking the bag until the butter came, as illustrated in the accompanying cut.

An article still sold as butter in Athens is made by boiling the milk of goats, allowing it to sour, and then churning in a goat-skin. The result is a thick, white, foamy substance appearing more like cream than butter.

Butter-Making.—The manufacture of good butter is dependent upon good cows and the care given them, as well as most careful treatment of the milk and cream. The milk to be used for butter making, as indeed for all purposes, should be most carefully strained through a wire strainer covered with three or four thicknesses of perfectly clean cheese cloth.

The following points given by an experienced dairyman will be found worthy of consideration by all who have to do with the manufacture of this article:—

"Milk is almost as sensitive to atmospheric changes as mercury itself. It is a question among many as to what depth milk should be set to get the most cream. It does not make so much difference as to the depth as it does the protection of the milk from acid or souring. As soon as the milk begins to sour, the cream ceases to rise.

"With a clear, dry atmosphere the cream will rise clean in the milk; but in that condition of the atmosphere which readily sours the milk, the cream will not rise clean, but seems to hang in the milk, and this even when the milk is protected by being set in water.

"The benefit of setting milk in cold water is that the water protects the milk from becoming acid until the cream has time to rise. For cream to rise readily on milk set in cold water, the atmosphere in the room should be warmer than the water. As much cream will rise on milk set in cold water in one hour as on milk not set in water in twenty-four hours. The milk should be skimmed while sweet, and the cream thoroughly stirred at each skimming.

"Cream skimmed from different milkings, if churned at the same time in one churn, should be mixed eight to ten hours before churning; then the cream will all come alike.

"The keeping qualities of butter depend principally upon two things: First, the buttermilk must be all gotten out; and secondly, the grain of the butter should be kept as perfect as possible. Butter should not be allowed to be churned after it has fairly come, and should not be gathered compactly in the churn in taking out, but the buttermilk should be drained from the butter in the churn, through a hair sieve, letting the butter remain in the churn. Then take water and turn it upon the butter with sufficient force to pass through the butter, and in sufficient quantity to rinse the buttermilk all out of the butter. With this process of washing the butter the grain is not injured or mashed, and is thus far kept perfect. And in working in the salt the ladle or roll or worker, whatever it is, should never be allowed to slip on the butter,—if it does, it will destroy the grain,—but it should go upon the butter in a pressing or rolling motion."

Test the temperature of the cream with a thermometer, and churn it at 60° in summer and 62° in winter. If the butter is soft, it may be hardened by pouring onto it while working a brine made by dissolving a pint of salt in ten quarts of water. The salt used in the butter should be carefully measured, three fourths of an ounce of salt to the pound being the usual allowance.

Butter, like milk, absorbs odors readily, and should never be allowed to remain in occupied rooms or any place exposed to strong or foul odors, but be kept covered in a cold place.

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