BUTTER. The oil or fat of milk. The light matters suspended in milk separate in the form of cream, and this cream by churning becomes separated into butter and buttermilk. During this process the temperature of the cream is slightly raised, a little oxygen absorbed, and the acid produced : this change is not, how ever, essential to the separation of the butter which takes place when air is ex cluded and depends upon tho rupture of the oil globules. It is naturally of a yel low color, and is deepened when cows are fed in rich pastures ; and carrot juice and arnotto are often added to heighten the tint. The Tartars and French pre serve butter by melting it in a water bath at a temperature of 176°, whereby the al buminous and curdy matters, which are putrescible, are coagulated. If it be de canted while liquid, strained and lightly salted, it may be kept fresh for years.
In November, 1849, a patent was grant ed to Mr. Elias H. Merryman, of Spring field, Illinois, for improvements in But ter-working Machines. His claim is the use of two or more rollers, with adjusta ble scrapers, held in contact with the rollers by springs, or other devices, operating in a vat of running water, to wash butter and separate the broken capsules, cheesy matter, buttermilk, and other impurities, by dissolving tilosf that are soluble in water, and washin! away those that are not soluble, sub stantially as described—the water being let into the vat from a cistern place; above the level of the vat, and escaping at the spout, on a level with the journals of the rollers.
According to time census return of 1845, the quantity of butter made in the State of New-York, was 79,501,770 pounds ; which at twelve and a half cents a pound, would amount to $9,937,716. American butter, if well prepared, would find a ready sale in the English market.
The following, taken from the Patent Office Reports of 1847, is the plan, in substance, pursued by Philip Physiek of Germantown, who has taken the pre mium of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society for two or three years succes sively. In the first place, great atten
tion is paid to cleanliness : the tin pans are put into a boiler and boiled for an hour, then scoured with white silver sand and pure hard soap and rinsed in pure water, and then put away for use. The udders of the cows are washed for three days, and wiped with a clean towel. The milk is also drawn in tin pails, which have been cleansed in the same manner as the pans ; it is strained through a per fectly clean muslin strainer, and put into the spring-house till four milkings are collected; then the whole milk and cream are thrown into a common barrel-churn, which has been rinsed with boiling wa ter with a quarter of a peck of hickory ashes and live coals stirred about in it by turning the crank, and then thrown out and the churn rinsed several times with boiling water ; the cows' udders are then washed and milked, and this milk strained and poured warm into the churn—the churning is done slowly, as the tenacity and hardness of the butter depends on this ; it should take three Lours. When the butter has come it is collected by a clean wooden ladle and laid on a clean linen cloth as flat as possible, not more than two inches thick. Next take a clean coarse cotton bag, which will hold a half peck or more, and fill it with ice, and with a mallet mash it down flat about four inches thick ; place the cloth on it till it is hard; then on a clean white marble slab add finely pulverized salt to suit the taste, and work out the butter milk with a wooden spoon and ladle ; spread the butter flatagain, and again sopping up the buttermilk with the linen cloth, which must however, be clone very slowly. When it is free from all the but termilk, make it up into pounds or half pounds.