Buckeye cookery

Souring does not injure the quality of the cream, but the milk should not be allowed to become watery. Do not use a perforated skimmer, but remove a little of the milk with the cream, as this does not injure the quality or lessen the quantity of butter, and gives more well-flavored buttermilk, which is a favorite and wholesome drink. If there is cream enough each. day, it should, of course, be churned, and this plan makes the best butter, although it takes longer to churn it. If not, the cream should be set aside in a cool place, covered, and stirred thoroughly whenever more is added. It ought not to stand more than two days, and must not be allowed to become bitterand flaky. The best plan is to churn as soon as it becomes slightly acid. Scald the churn and dash thoroughly, and put in the cream at a temperature of 58 degrees. The motion of the churn will soon bring it up to about 60 degrees. When the butter comes put a quart or two of cold, soft water (or ice is better) into the churn to harden the butter, and make it easier to gather up. After gathering it as well as possible with the dash, it should be removed to the table or bowl, and thoroughly worked with a flat wooden paddle, (never with the hand, as the insensible perspiration will more or less taint the butter), using an abundance of cold soft water to wash out the buttermilk and harden.the butter. By this process the buttermilk is removed quickly, and there is no need of excessive working, which jures the grain of the butter. This is especially true of that which is to be e ort, ~~ packed, as it keeps longer when well washed. If to be used immediately the washing may be less thorough. Another and better plan is to remove the butter toa marble slab and lay on the top of it a piece of ice. As it settles down by its own weight, work it up around the edges with the paddle, and the water from the melting ice will wash out and carry off the buttermilk. Before or during the churning, the bowl (which should never be used for any thing else) in which the butter is to be salted, should be filled with scalding water, which should remain for ten minutes; pour out and rub both bowl and paddle with hard coarse salt, which prevents butter from sticking. Rinse thoroughly and fill with cold or ice-water to cool. After | washing butter free from milk, remove to this bow], having first poured out — the cold water, and (the butter-bowl and paddle should occasionally be scoured with sand or ashes, washed thoroughly with soap-suds, and rinsed until all smell of soap has disappeared) work in gradually salt which has been pulverized by rolling, and freed from foreign substances. If wanted for use, one-half ounce of salt to the pound of butter is sufficient, but if wanted for packing, use three-fourths of an ounce or even an ounce of salt. Use only the best quality of dairy salt. After salting, cover with cotton cloth soaked in brine, and set away in a temperature of about 60 degrees for twelve hours. Work the second time just enough to get the remaining but- © termilk out. This, however, must be done thoroughly, as otherwise the acid of the buttermilk will make the butter rancid. At the end of the second working it is ready for use, and should be kept ina clean, sweet place, as it soon absorbs bad odors and becomes tainted. The air of a cellar in which are decaying vegetables soon ruins the sweetest butter. In packing for market (ash butter tubs are the neatest and best packages) soak the package for twelve hours in brine strong enough to float an egg, pack the butter in evenly and firmly, having first put in a thin layer of salt. If the tub is not filled by the first packing, set away until next churning, in a cool place, with a cotton cloth wet in brine spread over the butter, and place cover carefully on the tub.