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BUTTER AND

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 750 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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BUTTER (Lat. butyrum, Gr. 0obrvpov, apparently connected with $ous, cow, and rvpbs, cheese, but, according to the New English Dictionary, perhaps of Scythian origin)

BUTTER AND BUTTER-MAKING As with See also:

CHEESE (Lat. caseus)

cheese, so with butter, large quantities of the latter have been inferior not because the cream was poor in quality, but because the wrong kinds of bacteria had taken See also:

possession of the See also:

ATMOSPHERE (Gr. fir µ6r, vapour; orkaipa, a sphere)

atmosphere in hundreds of dairies. The greatest if not the latest novelty in dairying in the last See also:

DECADE (from Gr. Oka, ten)

decade of the 19th See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century was the See also:

ISOLATION

isolation of lactic See also:

ACID (from the Lat. root ac-, sharp; acere, to be sour)

acid bacilli, their cultivation in a suitable See also:

MEDIUM

medium, and their employment in cream preparatory to churning. Used thus in butter-making, an excellent product results, provided cleanliness be scrupulously maintained. The culture repeats itself in the buttermilk, which in turn may be used again with marked success. Much See also:

FINE

fine butter, indeed, was made See also:

long before the bearing of bacteriological.See also:

SCIENCE (Lat. scientia, from scire; to learn, know)

science upon the practice of dairying was recognized—made by using acid butter-See also:

MILK (0. Eng. meoluc; from a common Indo-European root, cf. Lat. mulgere, Gr. ?t dXyetv)

milk from a previous churning. In See also:

Denmark, which is, for its See also:

SIZE

size, the greatest butter-producing See also:

COUNTRY (from the Mid. Eng. contre or contrie, and O. Fr. cuntree; Late Lat. contrata, showing the derivation from contra, opposite, over against, thus the tract of land which fronts the sight, cf. Ger. Gegend, neighbourhood)

country in the See also:

WORLD

world, most of the butter is made with the aid of " starters," or artificial cultures which are employed in ripening the cream. Though the butter made by such cultures shows little if any superiority over a See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good See also:

SAMPLE (through the O. Fr. essemple, from Lat. exemplum; a doublet of " example ")

sample made from cream ripened in the See also:

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary way—that is, by keeping the cream at a fairly high temperature until it is ready for churning, when it must be cooled—it is claimed that the use of these cultures enables the butter-makers of Denmark, to secure a muchgreater uniformity in the quality of their produce than would be possible if they depended upon the ripening of the cream through the See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence of bacteria taken up in the usual way from the See also:

air. Butter-making is an altogether simpler See also:

PROCESS

process than cheese-making, but success demands strict See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention to See also:

sound principles, the observance of thorough cleanliness in every See also:

STAGE (Fr. 6/age; from Lat. stare, to stand)

stage of the See also:

WORK

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 See also:

CHURN (0. Eng. cyrin; found in various forms in most Teutonic languages, cf. Dutch karn; according to the New English Dictionary not connected with " quern," a mill)

churn, butter-worker, wooden-hands and See also:

SIEVE (O.E. sife, older sibi, cf. Dutch zeef, Ger. Sieb; from the subst. comes O.E. siftan, to sift)

sieve as follows:—(a)Rinse with See also:

COLD (in O. Eng. cald and ceald, a word coming ultimately from a root cognate with the Lat. gelu, gelidus, and common in the Teutonic languages, which usually have two distinct forms for the substantive and the adjective, cf. Ger. Kolte, kalt, Dutch koude

cold See also:

WATER

water. (2) See also:

SCALD

Scald with boiling water. (3) Rub thoroughly with See also:

salt. (4) Rinse with cold water.

Always use a correct thermometer. The cream, when in the churn, to be at a temperature of 56° to 58° F. in summer and 6o° to 62 ° F. in See also:

winter. The churn should never be more than See also:

HALF

half full. Churn at number of revolutions suggested by maker of churn. If none are given, churn at 40 to 45 revolutions per See also:

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; if in doubt, look. The butter should now be like grains of See also:

MUSTARD

mustard See also:

SEED (from the root seen in Lat. serere, to sow)

seed. Pour in a small quantity of cold water (I See also:

PINT (derived probably through Spanish, from Lat. pincta, pitta, a painted or marked vessel)

pint of water to 2 quarts of cream) to harden the grains, and give a few more turns to the churn gently. Draw off the buttermilk, giving plenty of See also:

time for draining.

Use a straining-See also:

CLOTH

cloth placed over the See also:

HAIR (a word common to Teutonic languages)

hair-sieve, so as to prevent any loss, and See also:

WASH, THE

wash the butter in the churn with plenty, of cold water: then draw off the water, and repeat the process until the water comes off quite clear. Ta brine butter, make a strong brine, 2. to 3 lb of salt to I See also:

GALLON

gallon of water. See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

Place straining-cloth over mouth of churn, pour in brine, put lid on churn, turn sharply half a dozen times, and leave for to to 15 minutes. Then lift the butter out of the churn into sieve, turn butter out on worker, leave it a few minutes to drain, and work gently till all superfluous moisture is pressed out. To drysalt butter, place butter on worker, let it drain Io to 15 minutes, then work gently till all the butter comes together., Place it on the scales and weigh ; then See also:

WEIGHT

weight salt, for slight salting, ,f oz.; medium, a oz.; heavy salting, 1 oz. to the lb of butter. See also:

Roll butter out. on worker and carefully sprinkle salt over the See also:

SURFACE

surface, a little at a time; roll up and repeat till all the salt is used. Never See also:

TOUCH (derived through Fr. toucher from a common Teutonic and Indo-Germanic root, cf. " tug," " tuck," O. H. Ger. zucchen, to twitch or draw)

touch the butter with your hands. Well-made butter is See also:

FIRM

firm and not greasy. It possesses ' a characteristic texture or " See also:

GRAIN (derived through the French from Lat. granum, seed, from an Aryan root meaning " to wear down," which also appears in the common Teutonic word " corn ")

grain, in virtue of which it cuts clean with a See also:

KNIFE (0. E. cuff, a word appearing in different forms in many Teutonic languages, cf. Du. knijf, Ger. Kneif, a shoe-maker's knife, Swed. knif; the ultimate origin is unknown; Skeat finds the origin in the root of " nip," formerly " knip "; Fr. canif is a

knife and breaks with a granular fracture, like that of See also:

CAST (from the verb meaning " to throw "; the word is Scand. in origin, cf. Dan. kaste, and Swed. kasta; " cast " in Middle Eng. took the place of the A.S. weor pan, cf. Ger. werf en)

cast-See also:

IRON [symbol Fe, atomic weight 55.85 (0=16)]

iron. Theoretically, butter should consist of little else than See also:

FAT (O.E. fdett; the word is common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dutch vet, Ger. Fett, &c., and may be ultimately related to Greek Irian, and =apos, and Sanskrit pivan)

fat, but in practice this degree of perfection is never attained. Usually the fat ranges from 83 to 88 %, whilst water is See also:

PRESENT

present to the extent of from 10 to 15 %.l There will also be from 0.2 to o.8 % of milk-See also:

SUGAR

sugar, and from o•5 to 0.8 % of casein. It is the casein which is the objectionable ingredient, and the presence of which is usually the cause of rancidity.

In badly-washed or badly-worked butter, from which the buttermilk has not been properly removed, the proportion of casein or curd See also:

LEFT

left in the product may be considerable, and such butter has only inferior keeping qualities. At the same time, the See also:

MISTAKE (i.e. take amiss)

mistake may be made of overworking or of overwashing the butter, thereby depriving it of the delicacy of flavour which is one of its See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief attractions as an See also:

ARTICLE (from Lat. articulus, a joint)

article of See also:

CONSUMPTION (Lat. consumere)

consumption if eaten fresh. The See also:

OBJECT

object of washing with brine is,that, the small quantity of salt thus introduced shall See also:

ACT (Lat. actus, actum)

act as a preservative and develop the flavour. Streaky butter may be due either to curd left in by imperfect washing, or to an uneven See also:

DISTRIBUTION (Lat. distribuere, to deal out)

distribution of the salt.

End of Article: BUTTER AND

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