Then and Now

Bruce Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 2498, 1 August 1893, Page 1

Then and Now

B. Gedhofer in a letter to the 1 Warrnambool Standard,' writes: — " The recent testing of ])auish butter brings back to my memory the old digging days at BaUarat — 1855 7. Butter then was to be had in the general stores only, and was all imported. 'Double Rose Cork' — ah, what a lovely taste that butter had There was no local-made butter availaWej bub now and then our storekeepers, Messrs Tuxen and Co., a Danish firm, who had their general store nob far from where the present Ballarat fire brigade station (Barkly« street) stands, used to get a consignment of * Danish butter,' which was sold at 3s per lb. This butter was packed in a cask made ot nice light beech- wood. A thin layer of salt was placed on the top and bottom, and this cask was put in another rough cask, leaving about an inch of space all round, which was filled up and rammed tightly with coarse salt and straw to keep the inner cask firm. There was no mail steamer service then. The Blackwall liners and the White Star c'ippers did the work at that time. The Danish butter con-* sign men ts all came via Hamburg, so even close on 40 years ago Danish butter had a good name in Victoria of tbe different samples imported. I don't thing in those early days pre--Bem'tas was known, but what was used in all these imported butters was simply beet rock-ealt, thoroughly crushed, and every particle sieved through a very close steel wire sieve and a small quantiiy of saltpetre. That, at any rate, kept the Irish and Danish butters for six months and more without any refrigerating accommodation."