Care of the Milk and Butter

Keep milk pails, pans and strainer perfectly sweet and clean.

Strain milk through a wire strainer kept separate from the pail as soon as each pail is filled, and take it to the milk-room.

Do not let milk stand in the barn or barnyards.

Use stone crocks or pans with flaring sides for the milk; in winter pour hot water into them or let them stand in a warm place until heated.

Skim each day if possible, and do not let milk stand more than twenty-four hours.

Keep cream in a separate crock until ready to churn, and stir fresh cream thoroughly into the old.

Do not use a perforated skimmer; remove a little milk with the cream.

Churn the cream if there is enough each day, and do not let milk or cream freeze or become lobbered before the cream is taken off.

Do not let cream stand more than two days before churning.

Scald the churn and dash, then put in the cream at a temperature of sixty-two degrees.

When the butter comes, put a quart of cold water in the churn and gather the butter together with the dash.

Take the butter out with the dash into a wooden bowl.

Work the butter with a wooden ladle and plenty of cool, soft water until the buttermilk is all worked out; do not work it too long.

In cold weather, set the churn in hot water or heat it until as hot as the hand can bear, then churn steadily.

In hot weather, if the cream does not come readily, set it in a pan of cold water until the right degree is reached.

Do not churn in the cellar except in the warmest weather.

Scald the bowl, let hot water stand in it five minutes, then pour out and rub bottom and sides with coarse salt.

Rinse the bowl thoroughly and fill with cold water to cool.

Salt the butter at a half ounce of salt to a pound of butter for table use, or three-fourths ounce for packing.

After salting, cover with cotton cloth wet in salt and water, set in the cellar until morning, then work the butter a second time to remove remaining buttermilk.

For rolls, dip cheesecloth in salt and water and wrap around each roll.

For jars, put a layer of salt at the bottom, pack the butter tightly, then add salt, a wet cloth and more salt on top.

For crocks, pack in layers, covering each layer with a cloth wet in brine until the next churning is added.

For tubs, use ash rather than pine, soak the tub twelve hours in strong brine, layer salt, pack the butter, and cover with a cloth soaked in strong brine before nailing up the tub.