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.
Butter is the fat, oily, and inflammable part of the milk. This kind of oil is naturally distributed through all the substance of the milk in very small particles, which are interposed betwixt the caseous and serum parts, amongst which it is suspended by a slight adhesion, but without being dissolved. It is in the family state in which oil is in emulsions; hence the same whiteneds of milk and emulsions; and hence, by rest, the oily parts separate from both these liquids 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 serum and caseous 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; which acid is so well combined, that it is not perceptible 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 stomaches 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.
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.
In the Georgicall 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."
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 lbs. Uttoxeter in Staffordshire is a market famous for good butter, insomuch that the London merchants have established a factory there for that article. It is bought by the pot, of a long cylindrical form, weighing 14 lbs.
But no butter is esteemed equal to that which is made in the county of Essex, well known by the name of Epping butter, and which in almost every season of the year yields at London from one shilling to 1½ pence per pound averdupoise. The following directions concerning the making and management of butter, including the Epping method, are extracted from the 3d volume of the Bath Society Papers.
In general it is to be observed, that the greater the quantity made from a few cows, the greater will be the farmer's profit; therefore he should never keep any but what are esteemed good milkers. A bad cow will be equally expensive in her keep, and will not perhaps (by the butter and cheese that is made from her) bring in more than from three to five pounds a-year; whereas a good one will bring from seven to ten pounds per annum: therefore it is obvious that bad cows should be parted with, and good ones purchased in their room. When such are obtained, a good servant should be employed to milk them; as through the neglect and mismanagement of servants, it frequently happens that the best cows are spoiled. No farmer should trust entirely to servants, but sometimes to see themselves that their cows are milked clean; for if any milk is suffered to remain in the udder, the cow will daily give less, till at length she will become dry before the proper time, and the next season she will scarce give milk sufficient to pay for her keep.
It sometimes happens that some of a cow's teats may be scratched or wounded so as to produce foul or corrupted milk: when this is the case, we should by no means mix it with the sweet milk, but give it to the pigs; and that which is conveyed to the dairy-house should remain in the pail till it is nearly cool, before it be strained, that is, if the weather be warm; but in frosty weather it should be immediately strained, and a small quantity of boiling water may be mixed with it, which will cause it to produce cream in abundance, and the more so if the pans or vats have a large surface.
During the hot summer-months, it is right to rise with or before the sun, that the cream may be skimmed from the milk ere the dairy becomes warm; nor should the milk at that season stand longer in the vats, &c. than 24 hours, nor be skimmed in the evening till after sun-set. In winter milk may remain unskimmed for 36 or 48 hours; the cream should be deposited in a deep pan, which should be kept during the summer in the coolest part of the dairy; or in a cool cellar where a free air is admitted, which is still better. Where people have not an opportunity of churning every other day, they should shift the cream daily into clean pans, which will keep it cool, but they should never fail to churn at least twice in the week in hot weather; and this work should be done in a morning before the sun appears, taking care to fix the churn where there is a free draught of air. If a pump-churn be to be used, it may be plunged a foot deep into a tub of cold water, and should remain there during the whole whole time of churning, which will very much harden the butter. A strong rancid flavour will be given to butter, if we churn so near the fire as to heat the wood in the winter season.
After the butter is churned, it should be immediately washed in many different waters till it is perfectly cleansed from the milk; but here it must be remarked, that a warm hand will soften it, and make it appear greasy, so that it will be impossible to obtain the best price for it. The cheesemongers use two pieces of wood for their butter; and if those who have a very hot hand were to have such, they might work the butter so as to make it more saleable.
The Epping butter is made up for market in long rolls, weighing a pound each; in the county of Somerset they dilute it in half pounds for sale; but if they forget to rub salt round the inside of the dish, it will be difficult to work it so as to make it appear handsome.
Butter will require and endure more working in winter than in summer; but it is remarked, that no person whose hand is warm by nature makes good butter.
Those who use a pump-churn must endeavour to keep a regular stroke; nor should they admit any person to assist them, except they keep nearly the same stroke: for if they churn more slowly, the butter will be more quick and violent in the summer, it will cause a fermentation, by which means the butter will imbibe a very disagreeable flavour.
Where people keep many cows, a barrel-churn is to be preferred; but if this be not kept very clean, the bad effects will be discovered in the butter; nor must we forget to shift the situation of the churn when we use it, as the season alters, so as to fix it in a warm place in winter, and where there is a free air in summer.
In many parts of this kingdom they colour their butter in winter, but this adds nothing to its goodness; and it rarely happens that the farmers in or near Epping use any colour, but when they do, it is very innocent. They procure some found carrots, whose juice they express through a sieve, and mix with the cream when it enters the churn, which makes it appear like May butter; nor do they at any time use much salt, though a little is absolutely necessary.
As they make in that country but very little cheese, so of course very little whey-butter is made; nor indeed should any person make it, except for present use, as it will not keep good more than two days; and the whey will turn to better account to fatten pigs with. Nothing feeds these faster, nor will anything make them so delicately white. At the same time it is to be observed, that no good bacon can be made from pigs thus fattened; where much butter is made, good cheese for servants may be obtained from skimmed milk, and the whey will afterwards do for store pigs.
The foregoing rules will suffice for making good butter in any country; but as some people are partial to the well-country method, it shall be described as briefly as possible.
In the first place, they deposit their milk in earthen pans in their dairy-house, and (after they have stood twelve hours in the summer, and double that space in the winter) they remove them to stoves made for that purpose, which stoves are filled with hot embers; on these they remain till bubbles rise, and the cream changes its colour; it is then deemed heated enough, and this they call scalded cream; it is afterwards removed steadily to the dairy, where it remains twelve hours more, and is then skimmed from the milk and put into a tub or churn: if it be put into a tub, it is beat well with the hand, and thus they obtain butter; but a cleaner way is to make use of a churn. Some scald it over the fire, but then the smoke is apt to affect it; and in either case, if the pans touch the fire, they will crack or fly, and the milk and cream will be wasted.
The Cambridgeshire salt butter is held in the highest esteem; and is made nearly after the same method as the Epping; and by washing and working the salt from it the cheesemongers in London often sell it at a high price for fresh butter. They deposit it when made into wooden tubs or firkins, which they expose to the air for two or three weeks, and often wash them; but a readier way is to season them with unslaked lime, or a large quantity of salt and water well boiled will do: with this they must be scrubbed several times, and afterwards thrown into cold water, where they should remain three or four days, or till they are wanted; then they should be scrubbed as before, and well rinsed with cold water; but before they receive the butter, care must be taken to rub every part of the firkin with salt; then if the butter be properly made, and perfectly sweet, it may be gently pressed into the firkin; but it must be well salted when it is made up, and the salt should be equally distributed through the whole mass, and a good handful of salt must be spread on the top of the firkin before it is headed, after which the head should be immediately put on.
They pursue nearly the same method in Suffolk and Yorkshire; nor is the butter that is made in these counties much inferior to that made in Cambridgeshire; indeed it is often sold in London for Cambridge butter; and no people make more butter from their cows than the Yorkshire farmers do, which is certainly owing to the care they take of their cows in the winter; as at that season they house them all, feed them with good hay, and never suffer them to go out (except to water) but when the weather is very serene; and when their cows calve, they give them comfortable malt meals for two or three days after; but these cows never answer if they are removed to other counties, except the same care and attendance be given them, and then none answer better.
Land wherein cows feed does very often affect the butter. If wild garlic, charlock, or May-weed, be found in a pasture ground, cows should not feed therein till after they have been mown, when such pernicious plants will appear no more till the following spring; but those cows that give milk must not partake of the hay made therefrom, as that will also diffuse its bad qualities.
Great part of the Epping butter is made from cows that feed during the summer months in Epping forest, where the leaves and shrubby plants contribute greatly to the flavour of the butter. The mountains of Wales, the highlands of Scotland, and the moors, commons, and heaths in England, produce excellent butter where it is properly managed; and though not equal in quantity, quantity, yet far superior in quality to that which is produced from the richest meadows; and the land is often blamed when the butter is bad through mismanagement, fluttilness, or inattention.
Turnips and rape affect milk and butter, but brewers' grains are sweet and wholesome food, and will make cows give abundance of milk; yet the cream thereon will be thin, except good hay be given at the same time, after every meal of grains. Coleworts and cabbages are also excellent food; and if these and savoys were cultivated for this purpose, the farmers in general would find their account in it.
Cows should never be suffered to drink improper water; stagnated pools, water wherein frogs, &c. spawn, common sewers, and ponds that receive the drainings of stables, are improper.
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-bore, made like a cheese-taster, to be struck in obliquely to the bottom.
Shower of Butter. Naturalists speak of showers and dews of a butyaceous 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 butter of antimony, &c. See Chemistry-Index.
Butter-Bur, in botany. See Tussilago.
Butter-Milk, the milk which remains after the butter is come by churning. Butter-milk is esteemed an excellent food, in the spring especially, and is particularly recommended in hectic fevers. Some make curds of butter-milk, by pouring into it a quantity of new milk hot.
Butter-Wort, in botany. See Pinguicula.