a fat unctuous substance, prepared from milk by heating or churning.

It was late ere the Greeks appear to have had any notion of butter; their poets make no mention of it, and yet are frequently speaking of milk and cheese.

The Romans used butter no otherwise than as a medicine, never as a food.

The ancient Christians of Egypt burnt butter in their lamps instead of oil; and in the Roman churches, it was anciently allowed, during Christmas time, to burn butter instead of oil, on account of the great consumption of it otherwise.

For the making of butter, when it has been churned, open the churn, and with both hands gather it well together, take it out of the butter-milk, and lay it into a very clean bowl, or earthen pan; and if the butter be designed to be used sweet, fill the pan with clear water, and work the butter in it to and fro, till it is brought to a firm consistence of itself, without any moisture. When this has been done, it must be scotched and sliced over with the point of a knife, every way as thick as possible, in order to fetch out the smallest hair, mote, bit of rag, strainer, or any thing that may have happened to fall into it. Then spread it thin in a bowl, and work it well together, with such a quantity of salt as you think fit, and make it up into dishes, pounds, half pounds, &c.

There are as many sorts of butter, as there are different milks of animals whereof to make it: That of the cow is most in use. The northern people, however, make more use of it than others. In the Geographical Essays, Vol. V. p. 209, we have the following method of making well-tasted butter from the milk of cows fed on turnips. "Let the bowls, either lead or wood, be kept constantly clean, and well scalded with boiling water before using. When the milk is brought into the dairy, to every eight quarts mix one quart of boiling water; then put up the milk into the bowls to stand for cream."

Butter is the fat, oily, and inflammable part of the milk. This kind of oil is naturally distributed through all the substances of the milk in very small particles, which are interposed betwixt the caecous and feros parts, amongst which it is suspended by a slight adhesion but without being dissolved. It is in the same state in which oil is, in emulsions; hence the same whiteness of milk and emulsions; and hence, by rest, the oily parts separate from both these liquors to the surface, and form a cream. See Emulsion.

When butter is in the state of cream, its proper oily parts are not yet sufficiently united together to form an homogeneous mass. They are still half separated by the interposition of a pretty large quantity of feros and caecous particles. The butter is completely formed by pressing out these heterogeneous parts by means of continued percussion. It then becomes an uniform soft mass.

Fresh butter which has undergone no change, has scarcely any smell; its taste is mild and agreeable, it melts with a weak heat, and none of its principles are disengaged by the heat of boiling water. These properties prove that the oily part of butter is of the nature of the fat, fixed, and mild oils obtained from many vegetable substances by expression. See Oils.—The half fluid consistence of butter, as of most other concrete oily matters, is thought to be owing to a considerable quantity of acid united with the oily part; but this acid is so well combined, that it is not sensible while the butter is fresh, and has undergone no change; but when it grows old, and undergoes some kind of fermentation, then the acid is disengaged more and more; and this is the cause that butter, like oils of the same kind, becomes rancid by age.

Butter is constantly used in food, from its agreeable taste; but to be wholesome, it must be very fresh and free from rancidity, and also not fried or burnt; otherwise its acid and even caustic acid, being disengaged, disorders digestion, renders it difficult and painful, excites acid empyreumatic belchings, and introduces much acrimony into the blood. Some persons have stomachs so delicate, that they are even affected with these inconveniences by fresh butter and milk. This observation is also applicable to oil, fat, chocolate, and in general to all oleaginous matters.

The trade in butter is very considerable. Some compute 50,000 tons annually consumed in London. It is chiefly made within 40 miles round the city. Fifty thousand firkins are said to be sent yearly from Cambridge and Suffolk alone; each firkin containing 56 pounds. Uttoxeter in Staffordshire is a market famous for good butter, inasmuch that the London merchants have an established factory there for butter. It is bought by the pot, of a long cylindrical form, weighing 14 lb. Divers abuses are committed in the packing and salting of butter, to increase its bulk and weight, against which we have a statute express. Pots are frequently laid with good butter for a little depth at the top, and with bad at the bottom; sometimes the butter is set in rolls, only touching at top, and standing hollow at bottom. To prevent these cheats, the factors at Utoxeter keep a surveyor, who, in case of suspicion, tries the pots with an iron instrument called a butter-here, made like a cheese-taile, to be struck in obliquely to the bottom.

Shower of Butter. Naturalists speak of showers and dews of a butyraeous substance. In 1695, there fell in Ireland, during the winter and ensuing spring, a thick yellow dew, which had the medicinal properties of butter.

Butter, among chemists, a name given to several preparations, on account of their consistence resembling that of butter; as bitter of antimony's, &c.

Butter-Bar, in botany. See Tussilago.

Butter-Milk, a kind of serum that remains behind, after the butter is made.

Butter-Wort, in botany. See Pinguicula.