THE FIRST BUTTER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 13 December 1938, Page 10

THE FIRST BUTTER

WHO MADE IT? | t GOAT, REINDEER AND CAMEL s ( When "Penelope," of "The Mail" visit- l ed the recent Nelson and Motueka Shows ihe was apparently fascinated c by the home-made butter, though the . sight of separators reminded her of many not too pleasant hours spent “washing the discs.” Still there will J probably be nearly 1000 separators within the radius of the Waimea Co-opera- J tive Dairy Company, and many thous- ‘ ands of discs to wash twice a day by ‘ someone. Despite the importance of the dairy industry to New Zealand and the large quantities of produce exported, the fact remains that a very small portion of; the world is familiar with butter made ! I from the milk of the cow. The first but- i t ter was made from the milk of the goat. 11 reindeer, camel and yak, and a large t part of the world has never seen but- I ter of any kind. Historically cow’s ( butter, then, belongs to what might be t called the modern history of the eating 1 world. « ANCIENTS CHURNED CREAM OF | GOATS

The ancients churned the cream of goats by shaking it in sacks. Sometimes the sacks were slung like a hammock. The Armenian dairymaid still hangs her goatskin churn beneath a tripod and swings it back and forth by hand. The Arabs who first discovered the golden lumps of butter in the camel’s milk which was hung in sacks across the backs of the animals for their desert journeys could not discover for a long time just what motion produced the mystery. As soon as they did, they tried racing their fastest horses carrying the cream-filled sacks, but it soon became evident that wearing out the horses was an expensive way of producing the mysterious yellow lumps. Then the sacks were laid on the ground and beaten with sticks until the butter "came.” In some countries even to-day milk is placed in earthen jars and beaten with the hands until the butter “comes.” Our casher churn is based on this same principle of beating “BUTTER-SHINING FACES” It is interesting to learn some of the uses besides food uses to which butter was first devoted. For instance, the Arabs used it as cold cream, feeling very beautiful with their butter-shining laces. There is a record of its having been used as a remedy for wounded elephants by the early Romans, who also used it as an ointment for the skin and hair Not many years ago. in Scotland and Northern England butter was used for smearing sheep. In rural districts of Germany to-day fresh, unsalted butter is used as a cooling salve for burns. The Greeks believed that the soot of burned butter was unusually good for sore eyes.

Can you imagine being butter-wealthy or counting your wealth in golden butter bricks? Yet records show that in the Far East butter was stored in the ground and the wealth of the owner was reckoned by the quantity that he thus put away. Often a tree was planted over this butter storage place to mark the spot. This habit of storing butter in far-away and long ago days is repeated in more modern times in Ireland where butter packed in firkins was | discovered buried in the bogs. In sevjeral countries in Asia butter is especial- J ly valued that is held over one hun- , died years. The flavour is considered ' ripened like cheese and it is used to enrich cooked foods. IN THE FIRST CENTURY When butter first came to sail the seas is not exactly known, but it probably became an article of commerce between the continents as early as the first century when it was shipped from j India to ports of the Red Sea. In the twelfth century Germans sent cargoes ! of wine to Norway and exchanged them for cargoes of butter and dried fish, although the king of Norway finally I stopped this exchange. Probably the : making of butter was introduced all i over Europe from Norway, Sweden and i Denmark.

No story of how butter first “came” is finished without telling about the ‘butter cows." These have the family names of Guernsey and Jersey since Ihey are more famous for the high proportion of butter fat found in the milk ;han any other breeds. These cows :ome from the islands that have the same names in the narrow English Channel between England and France, rhe Island of Jersey is only eleven niles long and seven miles wide, while Guernsey is half as large and has half is many cows. For hundreds of years 10 cows have been imported to either sland so that the stock has remained Dure. So strict are the laws in Jersey ?ven that once a cow has left the isand she can never come back. rt is nteresting to realise that although there ire never more than 15.000 Jersey cows it any one time on the Island of Jer;ey, still the Jersey descendants abroad lumber many hundreds of thousands. "BUTTER” IN THE BIBLE Of all the modern foods which we lave there are very few of them from :o-day’s menus which could be found in .he Bible. Butter, however, appears in ;he Scriptures on many occasions and as far back as the Eook of Genesis. 18th :hapter. Bth verse: "He. Abraham, took butter and milk and the calf which hie had dressed and set it before them.” Solomon refers to it in Proverbs: "Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter.” Historians tell us that the earliest quotations on butter-making go back to

2000 B.C. It is interesting to speculate how long before that man was i worshipping the cow merely as a sacred animal and not realising that from her milk could be made butter, the usual accompaniment of our daily bread.