any more salt. An error, that spoils more butter than any other, is that
of doing very little with butter when it first comes out of the churn,
because it must be gone through with the next day. Many do not know why
their butter has different colors in the same mass--some white, and some
quite yellow, and all shades between. The reason always is, putting in
the salt immediately on churning, but neglecting to incorporate that
salt into every part of the mass equally: thus, where there is most salt
there will be one color, and where less, another. Another evil is, when
the salt is thus put in carelessly, while much buttermilk remains, that
salt dissolves; and when the butter is worked over the next day, the
salt is mostly worked out, with the milk or water left in, the previous
day. The addition of more salt then will not save it. It has received an
injury, by retaining the milk or water for twenty-four hours, from which
no future treatment will enable it to recover. We recommend washing as
preferable; it has the following advantages: it cools butter quickly in
warm weather, bringing it at once into a situation to be properly worked
and salted. The buttermilk is also removed more speedily than in any
other way; this is a great object. It removes the milk with less
working, and consequently with less injury, than the other method. These
three advantages, cooling in hot weather, expelling the milk in the
shortest time, and working the butter the least, lead us to prefer using
water, by one hundred per cent. We have for years used butter that has
been made in this way, and never tasted better. Butter made in this way
in summer will keep well till next summer, to our certain knowledge.
Immediately after churning, pour off all the milk and put in half a
pailful of water, more or less according to quantity; agitate the whole
with the dasher, and pour off the water. Repeat this once or twice until
the water runs off clear, without any coloring from the milk, and nearly
all the buttermilk is out; this can all be done in five minutes after
churning. Press out the very little water that will remain, and put in
all the salt the butter will require, and work it thoroughly into every
part. All this need occupy no more than ten minutes, and the butter is
set away for putting up in rolls, or packing down in jars the next day.
Such butter would keep tied up in a bag, and hung in a good airy place.
Best to put it down in a jar, packed close