Clarifying Butter

Ingredients

• butter
• an enamelled pan
• another pan containing boiling water

Method

1. 1

   Place butter in an enamelled pan over boiling water.

2. 2

   Once liquefied, remove the scum from the top.

3. 3

   Allow to cool and firm, then remove the butter, leaving the buttermilk and any foreign matter behind.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The housewife's referee (1898) by Harriet Anne de Salis, University of Leeds Library, page 22. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

butter will turn sour ; even if a drop of milk is spilt it should be wiped up at the very moment. Milk should always be strained through both a wire and cloth strainer as soon as it is brought into the house or dairy. Milk-pans and pails should be thoroughly washed and scalded before using. The cream separators are now mostly used, where a quantity of butter has to be made, as it makes 20 per cent, more, and is more economical in every way. All firing for heating skim milk for calves is saved, as the separated milk is warm and sweet. Since it is separated the moment it comes from the cow, filling, skimming, emptying and clean- ing pans are dispensed with. The Victoria hand-power cream-separator is one of the best, it is so simple to use and keep clean, and is made in several sizes. The machine should always be warmed before using, so as not to chill the milk. The handle should be turned very slowly, and the directions with it strictly attended to. In large dairies there should be always refrigerators to cool the milk. When the milk has a turnip flavour, to get rid of it, put the milk, immediately after milking, in a water bath at from 135° to 140°, which will completely destroy the turnip flavour, and which will also cause the cream to rise better if set in shallow pans, and thus increase the amount of butter. The way to give the water bath is to set the pail into a larger pail containing water, allowing the watei* to circu- late under the vessel containing the milk by raising it on two thin bars of iron. The milk will then be heated by hot water and cannot be scorched. To make butter the cream must never be left to stand too long, and a dairy thermometer should be kept, for it is most necessary that the cream be brought to the right temperature before it is put in the churn. If the cream is too cold, when churning time comes add a little warm water, if too warm, add cold water. When the butter is about the size of wheat grains, stop churning and draw ofl* the butter-milk and pour into the churn some clear, cold water. Turn the churn slowly several times to free the granules of butter from the butter-milk. Be careful not to overdo this, and gather the butter »HE DAIRY 33 together in lumps, then squeeze the butter in a cloth and return it to the churn. Put in more cold water and churn for a few minutes to wash the butter, then lift the butter with the " hands " on to a wooden bowl to be salted. To salt the butter, take some table salt — see there are no lumps in it — rinse the hands well and spread out the butter. Sprinkle a little salt over the butter and work it well in (about one ounce of salt to a pound of butter). This must be continued till the butter is salted according to taste. If the butter is to be made into rolls or prints, it should be allowed to get cold enough to stay in shape when re- worked ; but it should be remembered that butter is injured in quality every time it is reworked. The grain becomes broken and soft, when it is apt to adhere to the beaters of the churn owing to being churned at too high a temperature. Unless the weather is exceedingly cold, cream should never be churned at a higher temperature than 60° Fahr., and at this temperature butter should be brought in the course of an hour or an hour and a quarter. When butter is very white it is due to the over-heated cream. To make butter pats, pour boiling water over the grooved side of the wooden hands ; sprinkle with coarse salt and rub together, so that the ridges clean the grooves ; rinse and place in water for five minutes. Cut off a piece of butter firm into flat cakes and balls ; or beat out to a thin, flat piece, and then curl up. By scooping out butter with large and small spoons, roses may be represented ; baskets or nests may be made by rolling out the butter in three long thin rolls and plaiting them together, then forming them into a round, fill- ing them with little egg-shaped balls of butter, and stretching a long thin roll over for a handle. To represent a nest, press the butter through a dairy strainer and it will come out in feathery portions ; remove them very carefully, lay them round the edge of the basket, and fill in with butter eggs, but no handle. Chemical preservatives are much used for keeping the butter sweet ; but borax or frigiline are the only kinds I can recommend. Abroad, or even in one or two of the English counties, heat is the only preservative used. The milk is put into air-tight bottles, and warmed to a certain point under 212° Fahr., then re-heated to boiling point, 3 34 THE housewife's KEFEHEE and kept boiling for ten minutes, cooled off, and not opened till required for use. To clarify butter, place it in an enamelled pan, and stand it in another pan containing boiling water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.