The improved modern method, now in practice by the best butter makers
generally, is to stop the churn as soon as the butter is collected in
particles the size of wheat kernels. Just before this, when the first
signs of the separation of the butter is seen, the sides of the churn
are washed down with cold water--usually below 60 degrees, or about 55
degrees--to not only prevent waste, but to harden the butter and make
it easier to handle. When the granules are the size of wheat kernels,
the butter is drawn off or the butter taken out of the buttermilk, as
the case may be. If the butter is left in the churn, water is poured
in to float the butter, which is then gently agitated a moment and
the water drawn off. This operation is repeated until the water runs
clear. Sometimes one of the washings is in brine, which coagulates the
caseine into a soluble form and prepares it to be washed out afterward.
In this way, it is believed that purer, longer-keeping butter can be
made. In some cases, however, butter makers have customers who want a
buttermilk flavor in their butter. They, therefore, do not wash the
butter, or wash it very little. Such butter must be consumed at once,
as it will not keep.
WORKING.
By this method of retaining the butter in a granulated form, only
sufficient working is required to evenly work in the salt. The less
working the better.
SALTING.
The salt, after the butter is properly drained, can be carefully mixed
with the butter by stirring. When thoroughly incorporated, barely
pressing the butter together into a solid mass is all that is needed.
If one does not want butter very salty to the taste, it can be evenly
and nicely salted by completely wetting it with saturated brine, then
carefully pressing the granulated butter together and leaving in it as
much of the strong brine as will remain. We have seen butter salted in
this way, and it was very evenly and completely salted, having in it no
undissolved grains of salt, but it was not as salt to the taste as some
like.
About an ounce to the pound is good salting; but more or less salt must
be used to suit the taste of customers. None but refined salt should be
put into butter. No salt is better for this purpose than the Onondaga
F.F., which is American, and the cheapest salt fit for dairy use that
can be obtained.
The principal office of the salt in butter is to impart an agreeable
flavor, in conjunction with the natural aroma of fine butter; but it
is a fact that too much salt injures good flavor, and it may, to
some extent, be used to cover up or neutralize bad flavors. We do not
recommend its use for this latter purpose, preferring that the natural
flavor of butter from pure cream should be preserved.
SALT AS A PRESERVATIVE.
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