BUTTER (Ger. butter; Fr. beurre; Lat. butyrum) is the fatty substance present in the milk of the mammalia, and capable of being extracted from it. In ancient times the Hebrews seem to have made copious use of butter as food; but the Greeks and the Romans used it only as an ointment in their baths, and it is probable that the Greeks obtained their know-ledge of the substance from the Scy-thians, Thracians, and Phrygians, whilst the Romans obtained it from Germany. In southern Europe, at the present time, B. is very sparingly used; and in Italy, Spam, Portugal, and southern France, it is sold by apothecaries as a medicinal agent for external application. The amount of B. iu cows' milk (q.v.) is about 4 per cent, though the kind of pasture, quantity of milk, and general condition, influence the relative quantity of the several ingredients of milk. In the extraction of B. the milk Is allowed to cool, and the cream which rises to the sur face is skimmed off, and put into a large, deep, earthenware vessel, where it lies for several days till enough has been collected for a churning. Any difference in the exact mode of treatment of themilk yields a B. with some peculiarity or other. Thus, the B. and cream of Devonshire, which are famed for their superior richness, owe this in greater part to the mode of manipulating the milk, and not to the special character of that fluid, or to the richness of the pastures in those districts. The milk in Devonshire. is not allowed to cool slowly, as elsewhere, but is at once placed in large deep pans. and carefully heated. A scum quickly rises, which is pushed to the side; and whenever the bubbles of steam appear, the milk is removed, and allowed to cool in the ordinary way, when a good deal of the milk thickens to the consistence of B., and is skimmed off as the celebrated Devonshire dented cream. In England, the B. of Epping and Cambridge is highly esteemed, and in every 'part of Great, Britain, the Dutch B., inn salted form, is very largely consumed; indeed, three fourths of all the foreign B. consumed in Great Britain is imported from Holland.
In order to separate B. from milk, recourse is always had to the process of agitation in churns (q.v.). The principle involved in each and all forms of this apparatus is the thorough agitation of the contents, so as to cause the rupture of the minute fat globules present in the milk, and the incorporation of these ruptured fat globules into larger or smaller masses of butter. The cream is strained through cloth into the churn, to remove
any foreign matter; and the agitators being set in motion, the friction of the movement, combined with the admission of air, and the chemical changes it induces, raises the tem perature of the whole contents. At one time, it was thought that one great object of the agitation was the admission of the oxygen of the air, which becoming thoroughly incorporated with constituents of the milk, combined therewith, and, as a consequence, led to the separation of the butter. It .is found, however, that B. can be obtained from milk by mere agitation, without the admission of the oxygen of the air. At the same time, in the ordinary way of churning, oxygen does play a subordinate part by combin ing with the sugar of the milk, and forming lactic acid, which in its turn sours the milk, and separates therefrom the caseine (q.v.)—cheese-matter—in minute clots or flakes, yielding what is commonly called sour or butter milk. The process of churning must be conducted at a medium rate. If too quickly performed the B. is soft and frothy, and is said to burst; whilst when too slowly made, it is highly tenacious, strong tasted, and badly flavored. When all the B. has come, which is known by the particles aggluti?at Ing into irregular masses, the B. is made by taking the lumps, and well washing and kneading them on a wooden board in a tub of pure spring-water till all the butter-milk has been expressed; it is then divided into the requisite size of lumps, fashioned into rolls, or molded into forms, and usually stamped with some device. In the making up of the B. the hands of the operator must be scrupulously clean, and be free from the slightest taint of soap. Persons who are subject to moist hands should never knead B., as it is very liable to be contaminated by the slightest foreign matter, especially animal secretions; and it is better always for the operator to wash the hands with water contain ing some oatmeal before commencing. So important is this source of contamination regarded in America, that every endeavor is made to get quit of manual labor in work ing the B., and a wooden has been invented, and is largely used there. When newly prepared, the B. is called fresh or sweet B., and is of a yellow color, which is well known to be deeper as the pasture on which the cows have been fed is richer, and hence the poorer kinds of B. are often artificially colored with arnotto (q.v.).