Part 11

Generally, in shallow setting, whether in large or small pans, cooling the milk in air is depended upon. Formerly, an underground room, or one in a shady place, was the only appliance usually resorted to for cooling. But, of late years, some method of artificially cooling the air by the use of ice is generally adopted. In some cases, the milk room is made small, with low ceiling and double walls, so that a cake of ice near the ceiling does the cooling. Usually, however, some sort of refrigerator construction is resorted to, so that cool air from the ice-house, or ice placed above the milk room, is introduced to regulate the temperature and keep it steady. We prefer cooling in air, though it may take a little more space and time. By this method, extremely rapid cooling and low temperature are avoided, and no violence is done to the milk or cream. Deep setting, it is true, exposes less surface to the air; but if the milk is not submerged, the surface is likely to be cooler than the air above, and to condense the vapor in it, which falls with all its impurities on the surface of the cream. Any foulness or bad odors are thus absorbed and go into the butter product. While submerging obviates this objection and keeps out all impurities from the air, it also prevents all escape of bad odors by evaporation. Whatever that is objectionable may be in the milk is retained there. By setting in open air, which should of course always be pure and sweet, the air, being cooled down and used as a medium for cooling the milk, takes up the exhalations of moisture and odor from the milk, and thus purifies it. The colder medium is always the condenser and absorbent, and it is only when the milk gets colder than the air above it that it condenses the moisture in the air and absorbs its odor. This will never occur where cold air is the cooling medium. The milk theoretically can never get cooler than the air, while practically it remains a degree or two warmer than the air.

OXYDIZING CREAM.

There is another advantage in using the air as a cooling medium. In shallow setting, more surface is exposed and the air, coming in contact with the surface, imparts to it a portion of its oxygen, which mingles with the oils and develops that fine butter flavor so much relished by most and which is a peculiarity of fine butter. Again, slow cooling gives more time for this oxydation to go on, and thus "ripen" the cream for churning without souring it. This leaves all the fine flavor in it, unmixed with flavors resulting from acidification. But, where milk is set deep for creaming--and especially where there is no exposure to the air, as is the case in submerging--no butter flavor is developed, and the cream has to be kept until sour before it is properly oxydized. There is not a full development of butter flavor proper, but development of flavor resulting from the mingling of lactic acid with the oils. But without this exposure and acidification, the butter is insipid and comparatively flavorless. Any subsequent exposure to the air soon throws the butter off flavor, the oxygen mingling with the fats alone while the cream is rising and still sweet. This development of flavor by oxydation is not mere theory; it has been scientifically demonstrated at Cornell University, New York, if not elsewhere, and must sooner or later be generally accepted and butter making proceed on a more rational and certain basis. But it is hard work to get people out of old ruts, or to overcome fixed habits and prejudices. Really scientific butter making, in which every step will be thoroughly understood and deliberately taken, is a thing of the future. It will come in time, and then our descendants will wonder why we were so stupid and slow as not to see and adopt the simplest principles when they were thrust into our very faces. But mind and judgment are matters of growth, the same as everything else in this universe of being.

SKIMMING MILK.

So many improvements or inventions have been introduced in the setting of milk for cream that the term "skimming" has become almost a misnomer. In both deep and shallow setting, arrangements have been made in several of the patent pans and cans for drawing out the milk from the bottom and leaving the cream. Glass gauges are set in the vessels so that the exact depth of the cream can be seen, and the milk drawn down close to the cream or a small amount of the upper portion of the milk left with the cream. In skimming with a skimmer or dipper, many aim to take the upper portion of the milk, on the theory that the separation is less perfect toward the top than it is lower down. Especially may this be done where a dipper or skimmer without holes is used. It is claimed by some careful experimenters and close observers that this adds to the quantity of butter yielded without deteriorating the quality.

WHEN TO SKIM.

Whether skimming off the cream or drawing off the milk be practiced, the question arises as to the proper time for performing the operation. The more general practice is to "skim" just as the milk gives unmistakable signs of acidity, or thickens a very little on the bottom of the pan or can. A few prefer to skim the cream sweet, and still another few let the milk lopper. This wide divergence of opinion and practice shows how very imperfectly is the real philosophy of butter making understood; but, notwithstanding this, each one is usually very tenacious in his belief as to the superiority of his own practice. A few fancy butter makers say that the finest butter is made from sweet cream, raised in cold air by shallow setting. It is insisted by them that airing and oxydizing, and not souring, is what "ripens" cream and fits it for easy churning, while this airing and oxydizing imparts the fine aroma so much desired in the finest butter. This view of the origin or development of flavor is sustained by experiments made at Cornell University, at the suggestion or under the supervision of Prof. L.B. Arnold. It is also claimed that the lack of flavor and the short-keeping of sweet-cream butter churned from cream raised by deep setting is due to its lack of oxygen, and that souring the cream thus raised, before churning, both oxydizes it and imparts a ranker and more positive flavor resulting from the effects of the lactic acid. We think both propositions look reasonable, and we should like to see a series of scientific experiments made to determine both the effects of oxygen and the effects of lactic acid on the butter product of cream. At present, theory and practice vary so widely with different butter makers who turn out a high-priced butter for the market, that one is led to doubt all theories and query whether the quality of butter does not depend on something not yet known, which is independent of all current theories and practices.

CHURNING.

And as to the proper time of churning, there is an equal divergence of opinion and practice. One churns his cream sweet, another wants it slightly changed, a third wants positive acidity in the cream, and a fourth loppers the cream, while a fifth lets the cream stand even twelve hours after loppering--and this extremely sour cream butter sells for the very highest market price. So we are left all at sea, so far as acidity is an element in butter making. Again, to further illustrate these extremes, while a gentleman in Vermont is setting his neighbors agog by raising cream in a vacuum, a Canada gentleman is experimenting with an invention to raise cream by hydrostatic pressure and get the fat of the milk so pure as to dispense with churning. We hope both will succeed.

TEMPERATURES.

There is not so wide a difference in opinion and practice as regards the temperature at which churning should be done in order to secure the best results; yet there is quite a wide range--from 55 degrees to 65 degrees--or 10 degrees Fahrenheit. But only a few go as high as 65 degrees or as low as 55 degrees. The great majority favor 60 degrees to 63 degrees as the proper range of temperature for different seasons and conditions. Some favor 58 degrees to 60 degrees, and all appear satisfied with results. It is not improbable that different degrees of acidity in the cream require different degrees of temperature for churning, and that sweet cream requires still another variation of temperature. So the breed, condition of the cows, kind of feed, quality of feed, character of the water drank, length of time the cows have been in milk, and other considerations, require variations in the temperature. Sure we are that the difference in conditions and surroundings must explain some of the differences of opinions and practices among butter makers.

WHAT MAKES THE BUTTER COME.

It is not known whether concussion or friction, or both, cause the separation of the butter from the buttermilk in churning. But we suspect that concussion is the real agent that produces the separation, as we have really seen no churn that did not in some way produce more or less concussion. All the churns we have seen used appeared to produce good results, and we find every dairyman is satisfied with the work of the churn he uses, whatever the kind, style or patent. We cannot, therefore, recommend any style of churn as superior to another, but we prefer the simple and less expensive forms, as not only costing less but being easier to keep clean.

The churning should be steady and not violent. A too rapid or sudden separation of the butter from the buttermilk is not desirable. It is no recommend for a churn that it churns quick. Such a churn is apt to injure the so-called grain of the butter and make it salvy and greasy. The least churning that will separate the butter from the buttermilk is the best.

WHEN TO STOP CHURNING.

The improved modern method, now in practice by the best butter makers generally, is to stop the churn as soon as the butter is collected in particles the size of wheat kernels. Just before this, when the first signs of the separation of the butter is seen, the sides of the churn are washed down with cold water--usually below 60 degrees, or about 55 degrees--to not only prevent waste, but to harden the butter and make it easier to handle. When the granules are the size of wheat kernels, the butter is drawn off or the butter taken out of the buttermilk, as the case may be. If the butter is left in the churn, water is poured in to float the butter, which is then gently agitated a moment and the water drawn off. This operation is repeated until the water runs clear. Sometimes one of the washings is in brine, which coagulates the caseine into a soluble form and prepares it to be washed out afterward. In this way, it is believed that purer, longer-keeping butter can be made. In some cases, however, butter makers have customers who want a buttermilk flavor in their butter. They, therefore, do not wash the butter, or wash it very little. Such butter must be consumed at once, as it will not keep.

WORKING.

By this method of retaining the butter in a granulated form, only sufficient working is required to evenly work in the salt. The less working the better.

SALTING.

The salt, after the butter is properly drained, can be carefully mixed with the butter by stirring. When thoroughly incorporated, barely pressing the butter together into a solid mass is all that is needed. If one does not want butter very salty to the taste, it can be evenly and nicely salted by completely wetting it with saturated brine, then carefully pressing the granulated butter together and leaving in it as much of the strong brine as will remain. We have seen butter salted in this way, and it was very evenly and completely salted, having in it no undissolved grains of salt, but it was not as salt to the taste as some like.

About an ounce to the pound is good salting; but more or less salt must be used to suit the taste of customers. None but refined salt should be put into butter. No salt is better for this purpose than the Onondaga F.F., which is American, and the cheapest salt fit for dairy use that can be obtained.

The principal office of the salt in butter is to impart an agreeable flavor, in conjunction with the natural aroma of fine butter; but it is a fact that too much salt injures good flavor, and it may, to some extent, be used to cover up or neutralize bad flavors. We do not recommend its use for this latter purpose, preferring that the natural flavor of butter from pure cream should be preserved.

SALT AS A PRESERVATIVE.

Salt does very little to preserve butter. It retards the decomposition of the caseous and albuminous materials left in it; but if butter is properly made of cream not mixed with loppered milk and is completely washed with pure water, it is a fair question if butter will not keep longer without salt than with it. There are instances on record where butter has been kept sweet without salt for a long time. We half suspect that, though salt at first retards decomposition, the salt itself, in time, decomposes and becomes sodium and chlorine gas, or enters into new combinations with the constituents of the butter, and thus makes new compounds that do not in the least improve the flavor. We have no positive evidence of this, but have had this suspicion awakened by facts related about the keeping of butter and by a process of general reasoning. It is true that salt is one of the most stable compounds known, but we have proof that it can be resolved into its original elements, when stronger affinities are presented for one or both of them to unite with. It would not, therefore, be strange if such decomposition sometimes follows when used in our food preparations.

PACKING BUTTER.

It is quite a knack to properly pack butter in large packages, and the work needs to be carefully done. Some use it too violently, by pounding it down, and thus making the butter greasy or oily. It should be gently pressed together in the package in such a way as to leave no spaces filled with air, for the air will surely mingle with the surrounding butter and injure its flavor. A good way is to begin the pressure at the center and work carefully toward the circumference, so that all air may escape at the sides. In this way, perfect solidity of the mass is secured, and it is left in the best condition for keeping, so far as the packing is concerned.

PREPARING THE PACKAGE.

Before putting the butter in the package, the package should be soaked in water, so as to remove the taste of the wood, and then thoroughly soaked in saturated brine, so that the wood will not draw the salt from the butter which comes in contact with it. If it does, the butter thus deprived of salt will turn white, have a sickish flavor, and soon turn rancid. It is a good idea to not only sprinkle a thin layer of salt over the bottom of the package, but to rub the moist inner sides with dairy salt, and thus make sure that there is salt enough in contact with the wood to prevent its absorbing the salt from the butter.