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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 82

Butter

page 15

Butter.

The butter industry is not of less importance than that of cheese. No great amount of skill or expensive machinery is required. When a number of dairies send their cream to a factory it is churned and made into fresh butter every day for local markets, and the surplus salted for foreign consumers. There is not so much risk in shipping butter, as there is cheese, to distant markets. A temperature of from 40° to 50° Fahr. would be required. One cwt. of butter would not require more room in the vessel than the same weight of cheese. The former would realize in London £7, the latter £4 2s.

Twenty-years ago, in the United States of America, it was difficult to obtain good butter; the vilest compounds were sold in New York, and had the appearance and flavour of tallow more than of butter. Now it is difficult to find any but fine quality. The revolution is wonderful, and can only be accounted for by the improved method of setting the milk and raising the cream by the "Cooley" or centrifugal processes. These are highly approved of in England, but not generally adopted, owing to the price of the appliances. Many use Cooley tins for the milk, but make the cold water flow through boxes of their own construction. These appliances arc exceedingly simple; they need little skill in management, and by their use no person can fail to procure good sound cream, provided a plentiful supply of cold water is procurable. If one cow will give 560 gallons of milk in one season, that is equal to 200 lb. of butter, say at 1s. per lb., it is clear one cow will produce butter worth £10.

Then there is the calf and the pig, worth at the lowest calculation £3. There are cows upon these Islands at the present time whose milk in one year produces 350 lb. of butter, after the rate of 2 gallons to 1 lb. The milk on the West Coast is richer in cream than that in other parts of the North Island, the test-glasses frequently showing 16 per cent. of cream.

In the North Island it may be found that the centrifugal process of raising cream for butter will answer best, owing to a possible difficulty of procuring water sufficiently cool for the requirements of the Cooley process.

It will be seen that, in the production of good sound butter, the management of the milk is of the first importance. There page 16 are dairies in England at the present time worked upon the old system : These make butter equal to any made upon the Cooley or centrifugal methods. The plan is exceedingly simple. When the milk is drawn from the cow it is heated up to 140° Fahr before it is set for cream. This is what is called scalding the milk. By attending to this the unpleasant animal odours are expelled from the milk, and the germs which quickly tend to decay are checked; further, it will he found that the milk thus treated will keep longer in hot weather than raw milk set as it comes, from the cow.

The average price, quantity, and value of foreign butter imported into England in two years was as follows :—
Imported from Average Price per cwt.
1879. 1880.
Holland £6 8s. to £6 14s. £6 0s. to £6 10s.
Jersey £6 5s. to £6 16s. £5 10s. to £6 5s.
Kiel £5 11s. to £7 5s. £5 14s. to £6 16s.
Normandy £6 0s. to £7 6s. £5 8s. to £7 0s.
America £4 10s. to £6 15s. £4 15s. to £6 5s.
Bostrop £3 5s. to £4 15s. £3 5s. to £4 4s.
Imported from Quantity. 1879. Value. 1879. Quantity. 1880. Value. 1880.
Cwt. £ Cwt. £
Holland 655,377 3,331,149 810,509 4,076,399
United States 301,054 1,243,075 277,790 1,343,967
France 438,725 2,264,591 531,619 2,826,586
Denmark 281,740 1,673,452 300,157 1,777,176

Professor Sheldon's Scale of Points for Judging Butter a on a Basis of a Total of 100 as Perfection.

Definition of Positive Qualities. Definition of Negative Qualities.
Flavour : 25.—Agreeable, clean, nutty, aromatic, sweet, pure, distinct, and full.
Keeping: 20.—Inclined to slow changing, indicative of stability in retaining good qualities.
Soidity: 10.—Stiffness of body, firmness, not easily melting or becoming soft.
Texture : 15.—Compactness, closeness of grain, breaking with a distinct fracture like cast iron, fat globules unbroken and perfect, sticking little to trier.
Colour: 15.—Pleasing, natural, not appearing artificial, bright, and even.
Make : 15.—Includes all not included under other points, as cleanliness, perfect separation of buttermilk, proper handling of milk and butter, as churning, working, salting, skilful packing, &c.
Strong, rancid, tallowy, cheesy, bitter, stale, insipid, too fresh, too fresh.
Early loss of good qualities and assumption of bad ones, indicating rapid change.
Softness of body, unable to stand firm, easily melting or becoming soft.
Openness of grain, salvy, greasy, sticking to trier or knife in cutting, pasty, not breaking with distinct fracture.
Excessively deep or pale, appearing artificial, dull, uneven.
Uncleanliness, imperfect churning, or at bad temperature, uneven working, salting, bad handling, packing, or
moulding, &c.