a mass as possible. Mould as much only as is required, as the more
surface is exposed, the more liability there will be to spoil; and the
outside very soon becomes rancid. Fresh butter should be kept covered
with white paper. For small larders, butter-coolers of red brick are now
very much used for keeping fresh butter in warm weather. These coolers
are made with a large bell-shaped cover, into the top of which a little
cold water should be poured, and in summer time very frequently changed;
and the butter must be kept covered. These coolers keep butter
remarkably firm in hot weather, and are extremely convenient for those
whose larder accommodation is limited.

[Illustration: BUTTER-DISH.]

In choosing fresh butter, remember it should smell deliciously, and be
of an equal colour all through: if it smells sour, it has not been
sufficiently washed from the buttermilk; and if veiny and open, it has
probably been worked with a staler or an inferior sort.

TO PRESERVE AND TO CHOOSE SALT BUTTER.

1633. In large families, where salt butter is purchased a tub at a time,
the first thing to be done is to turn the whole of the butter out, and,
with a clean knife, to scrape the outside; the tub should then be wiped
with a clean cloth, and sprinkled all round with salt, the butter
replaced, and the lid kept on to exclude the air. It is necessary to
take these precautions, as sometimes a want of proper cleanliness in the
dairymaid causes the outside of the butter to become rancid, and if the
scraping be neglected, the whole mass would soon become spoiled. To
choose salt butter, plunge a knife into it, and if, when drawn out, the
blade smells rancid or unpleasant, the butter is bad. The layers in tubs
will vary greatly, the butter being made at different times; so, to try
if the whole tub be good, the cask should be unhooped, and the butter
tried between the staves.

It is not necessary to state that butter is extracted from cream, or
from unskimmed milk, by the churn. Of course it partakes of the
qualities of the milk, and winter butter is said not to be so good as
spring butter.

A word of caution is necessary about _rancid_ butter. Nobody eats it on
bread, but it is sometimes used in cooking, in forms in which the
acidity can be more or less disguised. So much the worse; it is almost
poisonous, disguise it as you may. Never, under any exigency whatever,
be tempted into allowing butter with even a _soupcon_ of "turning" to