Butter, as we have seen, is the oily or fatty constituent of all good milk, mechanically united or held in suspension by the solution of caseine or cheesy matter in water. It is already formed in the udder of the cow, and the operations required after it leaves the udder, to produce it, effect merely the separation, more or less complete, of the butter from the cheese and the whey.

This being the case, it is natural to suppose that butter was known at an early date. The wandering tribes, accustomed to take on their journeys a supply of milk in skins, would find it formed by the agitation of travelling, and thus would be suggested the first rude and simple process of churning.

But it is not probable that the Jews possessed a knowledge of it; and it is pretty well settled, at the present time, that the passages in our English version of the Old Testament in which it is used are erroneously translated, and that wherever the word butter occurs the word milk, or sour, thick milk, or cream, should be substituted. And so in Isaiah, “Milk and honey shall he eat,” instead of “butter;” and in Job (29: 6), “When I washed my feet in milk,” instead of “butter.” And the expression in Prov. (30: 33), “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter,” would be better translated, according to the best critics, “the pressing of the milker bringeth forth milk,” or the “pressing of milk bringeth forth cheese.”

In the oldest Greek writers milk and cheese are spoken of, but there is no evidence that butter was known to them. The Greeks obtained their knowledge of it from the Scythians or the Thracians, and the Romans obtained theirs from the Germans.

In the time of Christ it was used chiefly as an ointment in the baths, and as a medicine. In warm latitudes, as in the southern part of Europe, even at the present day, its use is comparatively limited, the delicious oil of the olive supplying its place.

I have already stated that all good milk of the cow contained butter enclosed in little round globules held in suspension, or floating in the other substances. As soon as the milk comes to rest after leaving the udder, these round particles, being lighter than the mass of cheesy and watery materials by which they are surrounded, begin to rise and work their way to the surface. The largest globules, being comparatively the lightest, rise first, and form the first layer of cream, which is the best, since it is less filled with caseine. The next smaller, rising a little slower, are more entangled with other substances, and bring more of them to the surface; and the smallest rise the slowest and the last, and come up loaded with foreign substances, and produce an inferior quality of cream and butter. The most delicate cream, as well as the sweetest and most fragrant butter, is that obtained by a first skimming, only a few hours after the milk is set. Of three skimmings, at six, twelve, and eighteen hours after the milk is strained into the pan, that first obtained will make more and richer butter than the second, and that next obtained richer than the third, and so on.

The last quart of milk drawn at a milking, for reasons already stated, will make a more delicious and savory butter than the first; and if the last quart or two of a milking is set by itself, and the first cream that rises taken from it after standing only five or six hours, it will produce the richest and highest-flavored butter the cow is capable of giving, under like circumstances as to season and feed.

The separation of the butter particles from the others is slower and more difficult in proportion to the thickness and richness of the milk. Hence in winter, on dry feeding, the milk being richer and more buttery, the cream or particles of butter are slower and longer in rising. But, as heat liquefies milk, the difficulty is overcome in part by elevating the temperature. The same effect is produced by mixing a little water into the milk when it is set. It aids the separation, and consequently more cream will rise in the same space of time, from the same amount of rich milk, with a little water in it, than without. Water slightly warm, if in cold weather, will produce the most perceptible effect. The quantity of butter will be greater from milk treated in this way; the quality, slightly deteriorated.

It must be apparent, from what has been said, that butter may be produced by agitating the whole body of the milk, and thus breaking up the filmy coatings of the globules, as well as by letting it stand for the cream to rise. This course is preferred by many practical dairymen, and is the general practice in some of the countries most celebrated for superior butter.

The general treatment of milk and the management of cream have been already alluded to in a former chapter. It has been seen that the first requisites to successful dairy husbandry are good cows, and abundant and good feeding, adapted to the special object of the dairy, whether it be milk, butter, or cheese; and that, with both these conditions, an absolute cleanliness in every process, from the milking of the cow to bringing the butter upon the table, is indispensably necessary.

Cleanliness may, indeed, with propriety be regarded as the chief requisite in the manufacture of good butter; for the least suspicion of a want of it turns the appetite at once, while both milk and cream are so exceedingly sensitive to the slightest taint in the air, in everything with which they come in contact, as to impart the unmistakable evidence of any negligence, in the taste and flavor of the butter.

It is safe to say, therefore, that good butter depends more upon the manufacture than upon any other one thing, and perhaps than all others put together. So important is this point, that a judicious writer remarks that “in every district where good butter is made it is universally attributed to the richness of the pastures, though it is a well-known fact that, take a skilful dairymaid from that district into another, where good butter is not usually made, and where, of course, the pastures are deemed very unfavorable, she will make butter as good as she used to do. And bring one from this last district into the other, and she will find that she cannot make better butter there than she did before, unless she takes lessons from the servants, or others whom she finds there;” and a French writer very justly observes that “the particular nature of Bretagne butter, whose color, flavor, and consistence, are so much prized, depends neither on the pasture nor on the particular species of cow, but on the mode of making;” and this will hold, to a considerable extent, in every country where butter is made.

Many things, indeed, concur to produce the best results, and it would be useless to underrate the importance of any; but, with the best of cows to impart the proper color and consistency to butter, the sweetest feed and the purest water to secure a delicate flavor, the utmost care must still be bestowed by the dairymaid upon every process of manufacture, or else the best of milk and cream will be spoiled, or produce an article which will bring only a low price in the market, when, with greater skill, it might have obtained the highest.

From what has been said of the care requisite to preserve the milk from taint, it may be inferred that attention to the milk and dairy room is of no small importance. In very large butter-dairies, a building is devoted exclusively to this department. This should be at a short distance from the yard, or place of milking, but no further than is necessary to be removed from all impurities in the air arising from it, and from all low, damp places, subject to disagreeable exhalations. This is of the utmost importance. It should be well ventilated, and kept constantly clean and sweet, by the use of pure water; and especially, if milk is spilled, it should be washed up immediately, with fresh water. No matter if it is but a single drop; if allowed to soak into the floor and sour, it cannot easily be removed, and it is sufficient to taint the air and the milk in the room, though it may not be perceptible to the senses.

In smaller dairies, economy dictates the use of a room in the house; and this, in warm climates, should be on the north side, and used exclusively for this purpose. I have known many to use a room in the cellar as a milk-room; but very few cellars are at all suitable. Most are filled with a great variety of articles which never fail to infect the air.

But, if a house-cellar is so built as to make it a suitable place to set the milk, as where a large dry and airy room, sufficiently isolated from the rest, can be used, a greater uniformity of temperature can usually be secured than on the floor above. The room, in this case, should have a gravel or loamy bottom, uncemented, but dry and porous. The soil is a powerful absorbent of the noxious gases which are apt to infect the atmosphere near the bottom of the cellar.

Milk should never be set on the bottom of a cellar, if the object is to raise the cream. The cream will rise in time, but rarely or never so quickly or so completely as on shelves from five to eight feet from the bottom, around which a free circulation of pure air can be had from the latticed windows. It is, perhaps, safe to say that as great an amount of better cream will rise from the same milk in twelve hours on suitable shelves, six feet from the bottom, as would be obtained directly on the bottom of the same cellar in twenty-four hours.

One of the most convenient forms for shelves in a dairy-room designed for butter-making is represented in Fig. 73, made of light and seasoned wood, in an octagonal form, and capable of holding one hundred and seventy-six pans of the ordinary form and size. It is so simple and easily constructed, and so economizes space, that it may readily be adapted to other and smaller rooms for a similar purpose. If the dairy-house is near a spring of pure and running water, a small stream can be led in by one channel and taken out by another, and thus keep a constant circulation under the milk-stand, which may be so constructed as to turn easily on the central post, so as often to save many footsteps.

The pans designed for milk are generally made of tin. That is found, after long experience, to be, on the whole, the best and most economical, and subject to fewer objections than most other materials. Glazed earthen ware is often used, the chief objection to it being its liability to break, and its weight. It is easily kept clean, however, and is next in value to tin, if not, indeed, equal to it. A tin skimmer is commonly used, somewhat in the form of the bowl of a spoon, and pierced with holes, to remove the cream. In some sections of the country, a large white clam-shell is very commonly used instead of a skimmer made for the purpose, the chief objection to it being that the cream is not quite so carefully separated from the milk.

A mode of avoiding the necessity of skimming has long been used to some extent in England, by which the milk is drawn off through a hole in the bottom of the pan. This plan is recommended by Unwerth, a German agriculturist, who proposes a pan represented in Fig. 74, made of block tin, oblong in shape, and having the inside corners carefully rounded. The pan is only two inches in depth, and is made large enough to hold six or eight quarts of milk at the depth of one and a half inches. This shallowness greatly facilitates the rapid separation of the cream, especially at a temperature somewhat elevated. A strainer is shown in Fig. 75, pierced with holes, the centre half an inch lower than the rim, to which hooks are fixed to hold it to the top of the pan. On this a coarse linen cloth is laid, the milk being strained through both the cloth and the strainer, thus serving to separate all foreign substances in a thorough manner.

In the bottom of the milk-pan, near one end, is an opening, a, through which the milk is drawn, after the cream is all risen or separated from it, by raising a brass pin, b. The opening is lined with brass, and is three fourths of an inch in diameter. Fig. 76 represents the tin cylinder magnified. This is pierced, to the height of an inch, with many small holes, diminishing in size towards the top. The cream is all risen in twenty-four hours. The pin is then drawn from the cylinder, and the milk flows out, leaving the thick cream, which is prevented from flowing out by the smallness of the holes in the cylinder.

With the form of pans in most common use in this country, which are circular, three or four inches deep, this shallow depth of milk causes a little more trouble in skimming; but, if the principle is correct, the form and depth of the pan will be easily adapted to it.

After the cream is removed, it is put into stone or earthen jars, and kept in a cool place till a sufficient quantity is accumulated to make it convenient to churn. If a sufficient number of cows is kept, it is far better to churn every day; but in ordinary circumstances that may be oftener than is practicable. The more frequently the better; and the advantages of frequent churning are so great that cream should never be kept longer than three or four days, where it is possible to churn so often.

The mode of churning in one of the many good dairies in Pennsylvania,—that of Mr. J. Comfort, of Montgomery county,—is as follows: He uses a large barrel-shaped churn, of the size of about two hogsheads, hung on journals supported by a framework in an adjoining building. It is worked by machinery in a rotatory motion, by a horse travelling around in a circle. The churning commences about four o’clock in the morning in summer, the cream being poured into the churn and the horse started. When the butter has come, a part of the butter-milk is removed by a vent-hole in the churn. Then, without beating the mass together, as is usual, a portion of the butter and its butter-milk is taken out by the spatula and placed in the bottom of a tub covered with fine salt, and spread out equally to a proper depth; then the surface of this butter is covered with salt, and another portion of butter and butter-milk taken from the churn and spread over the salted surface in the same manner, and salted as before, thus making a succession of layers, till the tub is full. The whole is then covered with a white cloth, and allowed to stand a while. A part of this butter, say eight or ten pounds, is then taken from the tub and laid on a marble table (Fig. 80), grooved around the edges, and slightly inclined, with a place in the groove for the buttermilk and whey to escape. It is then worked by a butter-worker or brake, turning on a swivel-joint, which perfectly and completely removes the butter-milk, and flattens out the butter into a thin mass; then the surface is wiped by a cloth laid over it, and the working and wiping repeated till the cloth adheres to the butter, which indicates that the butter is dry enough, when it is separated into pound lumps, weighed and stamped, ready for market. The rest of the butter in the tub is treated in the same way.

It will be seen that this method avoids the ordinary washing with water, not a drop of water being used, from beginning to the end. It avoids also the working by hand, which in warm weather has a tendency to soften the butter. In the space of about an hour a hundred pounds are thus made, and its beautiful color and fragrance preserved. If it happens to come from the churn soft, it hardens by standing a little longer in the brine.

The most common form of the churn in small dairies is the upright or dash-churn, Fig. 77; but many other forms are in extensive use, each possessing, doubtless, more or less merit peculiar to itself. The cylinder churn, Fig. 78, is very simply constructed, and capable of being easily cleaned. Some prefer the thermometer churn, Fig. 79, having an attachment for indicating the temperature of the cream.

As already stated, there are two modes of practice with regard to the process of churning, each of which has its advantages. The milk itself may be churned, or it may be set in the milk-room for the cream to rise, which is to be churned by itself. The former is the practice of a successful dairyman of New York, who, in his statement, says: “I take care to have my cellar thoroughly cleansed and whitewashed early every spring. I keep milk in one cellar, and butter in another. Too much care cannot be taken by dairymen to observe the time of churning. I usually churn from one hour to one hour and a half, putting from one to two pails of cold water in each churn. When the butter has come, I take it out, wash it through one water, set it in the cellar and salt it, then work it from three to five times before packing. Butter should not be made quite salt enough until the last working. Then add a little salt, which makes a brine that keeps the butter sweet. One ounce of salt to a pound of butter is about the quantity I use. I pack the first day, if the weather is cool; if warm, the second. If the milk is too warm when churned, the quantity of butter will be less, and the quality and flavor not so good as when it is at a a proper temperature, which, for churning milk, is from 60° to 65°.”

But, whichever course it is thought best to adopt, whether the milk or cream is churned, it is the concussion, rather than the motion, which serves to bring the butter. This may be produced in the simple square box as well as by the dasher churn; and it is the opinion of a scientific gentleman with whom I have conversed on the subject, that the perfect square is the best form of the churn ever invented. The cream or milk in this churn has a peculiar compound motion, and the concussion on the corners and right-angled sides is very great, and causes the butter to come as rapidly as it is judicious to have it. This churn consists of a simple square box, which any one who can handle a saw and plane can make, hung on axles turned by a crank somewhat like the barrel churn. No dasher is required. If any one is inclined to doubt the superiority of this form over all others, he can easily try it and satisfy himself. It costs but little.

In some sections the milk is churned soon after milking; in others, the night’s and morning’s milk are mixed together, and churned at noon; in others, the cream is allowed to rise, when the milk is curdled, and cream, curd, and whey, are all churned together.

A successful instance of churning only the cream is found in the statement of Mr. Lincoln, who received the first dairy premium of the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. He says: “The cream, as it is skimmed, is poured into stone pots, which in warm weather are kept in a refrigerator, and during the winter stand in the milk-room. The times of churning depend upon the quantity of cream.

“The time usually occupied in churning is from fifty minutes upwards. This is deemed a matter of importance. We consider it much better to bring the cream to the degree of temperature necessary to the formation of butter by a steady, moderate agitation, than to use artificial heat to take it to that point before commencing to churn. By such moderate, long-continued agitations, we think the butter has a firmer, more waxy consistence than it can have by more rapid churning. The churn used is ‘Galt’s.’ Numerous trials have been made with many of the other kinds of churns in comparison with this, and the result has been uniformly favorable to this patent.

“When the butter has come, the butter-milk is drawn off, and the butter, after being thoroughly worked, is salted with from one half to three fourths ounces of salt to the pound. It is now set away for twenty-four hours, when it is again worked over thoroughly, and made into pound lumps with wooden ‘spatters.’ After standing another twenty-four hours, it is sent into market. In ‘working’ butter we use a table over which a fluted roller is made to pass (Fig. 80), rolling out the butter into a thin sheet, and completely and entirely depriving it of butter-milk.

“From many years’ experience, the observation is warranted, that by no other process of manufacture can the butter-milk be so completely extracted. I am aware of the truth of the objection made that the shrinkage occasioned by its use is too great; yet there is, in fact, a difference in the worth of the butter made upon it, over that manufactured in the ordinary way, quite equal to the loss in weight occasioned by it.”

The high reputation of Philadelphia butter being so well known, I was desirous of ascertaining the opinions of practical men as to what this was due,—whether to any peculiar richness of the pasturage, or to the careful mode of manufacture. In reply to my inquiries, I have received satisfactory statements from several sources, and among them the following communication from one of the most successful of the butter-makers who supply that market. “The high reputation of Philadelphia butter,” he says, “is owing to the manner of its manufacture, though I would not say that the sweet-scented vernal and other natural grasses do not add to the fine quality of well-made butter.

“In proof of what I say, I would refer to the experience of my brother, who is the owner of two farms. His tenant, an excellent butter-maker, lived on one farm, and made a very fine article, which brought the highest prices. He moved to the other farm, where the former tenant had never made good butter, and had ascribed his want of success to the spring-house. On this farm he succeeded in establishing a higher reputation than he ever had before. The tenant who followed him on the first farm never succeeded in gaining a reputation for good butter, his inability arising from his ignorance of the proper mode of manufacture, and his unwillingness to improve by the experience of others.

“Only a part of the information as to the best mode of manufacture can be given, so much depends on the judgment and experience of the operator. The first thing required is to provide a suitable place. This should be, for the summer months, a well-ventilated house, over a good spring of water. The second requisite will be proper vessels to hold the milk and cream, and for churning. A table is needed which shall not be used for any other purpose than for working and printing the butter on. I have always used a lever in connection with the table (Fig. 80). A large sponge, with a linen cloth to cover it, with which the milk can be removed from the butter, is another important article; and then a skimmer, either of wood or tin, or both, as may be necessary in the different states of the milk; a thermometer, and a boiler convenient for heating water for cleansing the vessels. No person can expect to make good butter without the greatest attention to the cleanliness of the vessels used for the milk and cream, and care in exposing them to the sun and air.

“After the milk has been brought from the yard or stable, strain it immediately into the pans, in which has been put a little sour milk from which the cream has been removed, the quantity varying from a tablespoonful to half a common teacupful, according to the state of the weather. In very warm weather the smaller quantity is sufficient. But the rule for warm weather will not always hold good; for, from the electrical state of the atmosphere, the milk may sour either too slow or too fast.

“The pans containing the milk should then be set into the water, if the weather be hot: and here is a point where the operator should exercise his or her judgment; for even in warm weather it may be necessary to draw off the water from the milk, if the spring be cold. The milk should remain there, under no circumstances, longer than the fourth meal, or forty-eight hours; but thirty-six hours is much to be preferred, if the milk has become thick, or the cream sufficiently raised, when it should be taken off carefully, so as not to take any sour milk with it, and put in the cream-pot. When the cream-pot is full, sprinkle a small handful of fine salt over the top of the cream, and let it remain. Our custom has been, when making butter but once a week, to pour the cream into a clean vessel at the end of three days, keeping back any milk that might have been taken up with the cream, which is found at the bottom of the jar.

“I would mention that it is essential, in making a fine article, to keep the cream clear of milk. The next operation will he preparatory to churning, by straining the cream, and reducing the temperature of the churn by the use of the cold spring-water. The operation of churning should neither be protracted nor hastened too much. After the butter has made its appearance of the size of a small pea, draw off the milk, and throw in a small amount of cold water, and gather it. After the butter has been taken from the churn, it is placed upon the table, worked over by the lever, and salted; then worked again with the lever, in connection with the sponge and cloth, a pan of cold water being at hand, with a piece of ice in it in summer, into which you throw the cloth and sponge frequently, and wring out dry before again using it. These, as well as every other article which will come into contact with the butter, must be scalded, and afterward, as well as the hands, placed in cold water. I would here add that the use of the sponge is one of the important points in making butter to keep well; for by it you can remove almost every particle of butter-milk, which is the great agent in the destruction of its sweetness and solidity. For the winter dairy a room in which is placed a stove should be provided, which can be made warm, and also well ventilated. I prefer the use of coal, on account of keeping the fire through the night. My dairy-room is adjoining the spring-house, and connects with it, which I consider important. This room should be used for no other purpose, as cream and butter are the greatest absorbents of effluvia with which I am acquainted. I have known good butter to be spoiled by being placed over night in a close closet.

“The thermometer should always accompany the winter dairy. There is one thing very important in the winter dairy, which, perhaps, I should have placed first, and that is the food of the cows; for, without something else than hay, you will not make very fine butter. Mill-feed and corn-meal I consider about the best for yield and quality, although there are many other articles of food which will be useful, and contribute to the appetite and health of the cattle.

“The process for the winter dairy is similar to that of the summer, with the exception of the regulation as to the temperature of room, etc., which is as follows:

“Particular care should be taken not to let the milk get cold before placing it in the dairy-room; for, should it be completely chilled, the cream will not rise well. Add about a gill of warm water to the sour milk for each pan, before straining into it, which will greatly facilitate the rising of the cream. Keep the temperature of the room as near fifty-eight degrees, Fahrenheit, as possible, and guard against the air being dry by having a small vessel of water upon the stove, or else a dry coat will form on the surface of the cream. The cream should be kept in a colder place than the dairy-room until the night before churning, when it might be placed in the warm room, so that its temperature shall be about 58°.

“The churn may be prepared by scalding it, and then reduced to the same temperature as the cream by cold water, using the thermometer as a test.

“This regulation of temperature is of the greatest importance: for, should it be too low, you will be a long time churning, and have poor, tasteless butter; if too high, the butter will be soft and white.”

What is especially noticeable in the above statement is the use of the sponge, and the thorough and complete removal of all the butter-milk. Here is probably the secret of success, after all. I have given the statement in full, notwithstanding its length, on account of the well-known excellence of the butter produced by the process, as well as for the suggestions with regard to the dairy-rooms, and not because I can recommend all its details for the imitation of others. The use of sour milk in the pans is based, I suppose, on the idea that the cream does not begin to rise till acidity commences in the milk,—an idea which was once pretty generally entertained; but the process of souring undoubtedly commences, though imperceptible to the senses, very soon after the milk comes to rest in the pan. At any rate, there is no doubt that the separation of the butter from the other substances commences at once, and without the addition of any foreign substance to the milk.

Nor do I believe there is any necessity for the milk to stand over twenty-four hours in any case; for I have no doubt that all the best of the cream rises within the first twelve hours, under favorable circumstances, and I am inclined to think that whatever is added to the quantity of cream after twenty-four hours, detracts from the quality of the butter to an extent which more than counterbalances the whole of the quantity.

Many good dairy-women make an exceedingly fine article, in spite of the defects of some parts of the process of manufacture. This does not show that they would not make still better butter if they remedied these defects.

The more we can retard the development of acidity in the milk, within certain limits, the more cream may we expect to get; and hence some use artificial means for this purpose, mixing in the milk a little crystallized soda, dissolved in twice its volume of water, which corrects the acidity as soon as it forms. It is a perfectly harmless addition, and increases the product of the butter, and improves its quality. But under ordinarily favorable circumstances, from twelve to eighteen hours will be sufficient to raise all the cream in summer, and from twenty to thirty hours in winter.

Fig. 80. Butter-worker.