churning. In hot weather, the milk should stand only
twenty-four hours, and be skimmed early in the morning before the dairy
becomes warm, or in the evening after sun-set. In winter the milk may
remain unskimmed for six and thirty or even eight and forty hours. The
cream should be preserved in a deep pan during the summer, and placed in
the coolest part of the dairy, or in a cellar where free air is
admitted. The cream which rises first to the surface is richer in
quality, and larger in quantity, than what rises afterwards. Thick milk
produces a smaller proportion of cream than that which is thinner,
though the former is of a richer quality: if therefore the thick milk be
diluted with water, it will afford more cream, but its quality will be
inferior. Milk carried about in pails, and partly cooled before it be
strained and poured into the trays, never throws up such good and
plentiful cream, as if it had been put into proper vessels immediately
after it came from the cow. Those who have not an opportunity of
churning every other day, should shift the cream daily into clean pans,
in order to keep it cool; but the churning should take place regularly
twice a week in hot weather, and in the morning before sun-rise, taking
care to fix the churn in a free circulation of air. In the winter time,
the churn must not be set so near the fire as to heat the wood, as by
this means the butter will acquire a strong rancid flavour. Cleanliness
being of the utmost importance, the common plunge-churn is preferable to
any other; but if a barrel-churn be requisite in a large dairy, it must
be kept thoroughly clean with salt and water. If a plunge-churn be used,
it may be set in a tub of cold water during the time of churning, which
will harden the butter in a considerable degree. The motion of the churn
should be regular, and performed by one person, or the butter will in
winter go back; and if the agitation be violent and irregular, the
butter will ferment in summer, and acquire a disagreeable flavour. The
operation of churning may be much facilitated by adding a table-spoonful
or two of distilled vinegar to a gallon of cream, but not till after the
latter has undergone considerable agitation. In many parts of England,
butter is artificially coloured in winter, though it adds nothing to its
goodness. The juice of carrots is expressed through a sieve, and mixed
with the cream when it enters the churn, to give it the appearance of
May butte