FARMING. BUTTERMAKING IN DENMARK.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2773, 13 August 1883, Page 3

FARMING. BUTTERMAKING IN DENMARK.

Sour-cream or " keeping " butter ia the chief Danish butter of commerce. The milk is weighed aa it ia brought into the milk-cellar, the produce, of each cow being weighed and enterod separately. It is then put into the cans or other vessels m which it is to be sot for cream. As a rule deep cans plunged m ico, or a mixture of ice and water, aro used, especially m the summer, their placo m winter being m 6orao dairies taken by the shallow, round wooden tuba, known as tho Holstcin system. Thore are, however, " runuingwater dairies," where ths deep cans are plungod m a tank through which cold water flows continually. Other dairies, again, are furnished with the rectangular shallow " Destinon," troughs, but until recently tho Swartz system was steadily driving all other methods out of tho field. Now, however, the centrifugal cream separators are competing with tho Styartz system, and probably most now dairies will be fitted with these machines to the exclusion of all other means of obtaining cream from milk. Tho Swarta cans were originally long and narrow with rounded ends, and thesa are still seen m dairies which have been specially fitted with tanks appropriate to this system. But m other dairies, into which the system has been, as it were, imported, cylindrical cans aro used and plunged m huge tubs filled with ico and water. If large cans are used, it is calculated that lib of milk requires lib of ico to keep it at the required temperature for 12 hours ; but with cans of a smaller diameter Jib of ice is sufficient for lib of milk. In tho beat dairies tho cream is taken oil' after 12 hours' standing, and tho milk is skimmed a second time after remaining another 12 or 24 hours ; but the two skimmings are nevor mixed together. The cream first taken off is used for making butter for market, and the second skimming for household purposes, or an inferior quality of butter. Each skimming of cream is weighed, and the quantity duly onterod by the chief dairymaid. It is then put to sour — a process which varies much on different farms. Tho most usual practice is to warm the cream to about 03 deg. F., and then to add from 2 por cent to 3 per cent of buttormilk, which ia well mixed with the cream. Some dairymaids add only 1 per cent of buttermilk, and some as much as 5 per cent ; but probably the temperature of tho milk-cellar and other circumstances necessitate variations m this as m other dairy practices. The souring material having been added to the cream m a kind of barrel with a movoable lid, through a hole m which projects the handle of tho stirring-stick, it is left for about 24 hours, being occasionally stirred with tho stick without removing the lid. It ia them brought to the requisite temperature and placed m the invariable upright Uolstein churn. Tho cream ia generally put into the churn at a low temperature, 55deg. F. being not unusual, and 57deg rarely, if ever exceeded. But it must be remembered that the upright Holstein churn it used, and that tliis machine has a very smal dashboard power m comparison with it! size. Therefore, tho deficiency m power ii compensated for by driving the dashboard at a high speed, generally between 120 anc 150 revolutions per minute. Churning ii stopped when the butter-grama are n(

larger than grains of mustard seed ; ii fact, as soon as they are distinctly formed It is one of the advantages of the Holsteii churn that by means of a small hole m tin top, fitted with a sliding lid, the progresi of the churning can bo observed a: often as desired without stopping the churn. A thermometer can alao bi inserted m another hole, and thus th< gradual rise m temperature can be noted The butter having " come," it is carefully removed from the churn m the following manner : — The dairymaid takes a hail sieve, dips it into the churn, and bringf up about a pound of butlor m granules. She holds it for the buttermilk to drain off, and by gently tipping the sieve first to one sido and then to tho other, she gradually gets rid of most of tho buttermilk, and also brings the granules into a loose roll. This preliminary and very simple operation is a good index of the skill of the dairymaid. Prnperly and gently done, tho butter is drained of a large proportion of the contained buttermilk, it is fairly consolidated, and, more important than all, its rjriua is not broken. A careleas or too energetic dairymaid will obtain none of these advantages, and will irreparably spoil tho butter. Tho roll of butter is then gently deposited on the sido of the kneadingtrough ; and when the whole of tho " make " has been similarly dealt with, the process of kneading or working commences. Tho dairymaid has close at hand three cans and a cloth which she makes frequent use of as follows : — Premising that her hands are perfectly cloan she begins by thoroughly wiping them with a damp cloth. She then swills them well m tho can which contains hot water ; then plunges them into, and keeps them for some moments m, the second cati, which contains cold water, or preferably, a mixturo of ice and water, and finally rinses them m the third can, which contains buttermilk just taken from tho churn. Having thus prepared her hands, blio proceeds to work the butter as follows:— One of the rolls is set on end, and gently but firmly pressed against the sido of the trough, with one hand placed crosswise over tho other, until it forms a flat cake. This is then rolled up, and set on end again, when the process is repoated, and so on until the butter has been thoroughly squeezed and consolidated, and most of the buttermilk expressed without injuring tho grain of tho still tender butter. Generally this first working necessitates seven times rolling and pressing ; but the number varies from six to twelve on different farms and at different times of year. Salting is done by carefully uncoiling each roll of buttor and spreading it out m its cake-like form on the bottom of tho kneading-tub, until about one-half the number havo been thus treated. They should bo placed close together so as almost to overlap. The salt is then ovenly aprinkled over the butter, and the remaining rolls are uncoiled and placed upaide down on the others. The dairymaid next takes a wooden knife and cuts pieces of a convenient sizs vertically, out ofthesalt-and-buttor sandwich. She then works each piece precisely m the aaine manner as before, and for about as many times, taking tho same precautions as before to keep her hands clean and cool, and with only a butter flavor. In this way she thoroughly incorporates tho salt with the butter and expresses any lingering buttermilk, while still carefully preserving the grain of the butter. When it lias been sufficiently worked m this way, she brings the butter into a " saddle " shape, so as to expose as much of its surface as possible to the cooling influences to which it will next be subjected. Where ice is not used, the butter is covered with a cloth, and left m the coolest available placo for as long as four hours m summer, but m winter not longer sometimes than one hour. The test adopted to ascertain whether the butter ia ready for the next operation is its comparative brittloness. If tho pieces of butter can be broken short off, they are ready for the final working. The butter is worked for tho last time before it is packed, either by being passed through a mechanical butter-worker, or by a repetition of the hand process already described. The making of tho butter being now completed, nothing remains to be done but packing it for market. This is a very simplo operation, but is conducted with tho same regard for cleanliness and neatness as overy other operation m a Danish dairy. Tho butter is simply rammed by means of a wooden pestle, into a new keg, at the hottom of which is placed a pieco of clean linen lined with salt, and when the kog is full, a similar pieco of linen covered with salt 13 put on tho top of it, before tho head is fixed m, which is not done until just before tho butter is sent to tho merchant or factor to whom the butter mado on tho farm is always con-