The Still-Room. Mrs. Charles Roundell
branch of labour has inspired in man. Mechanically and brainlessly the recipes of the cookery books are followed by myriads of women everywhere, so that the compounding of foods and drinks is usually as uninteresting a piece of drudgery as can be conceived. One may well pray for a reaction, if indeed the art of housewifery is not past praying for.
BUTTER AND CREAM
AS a volume of the present series will be devoted to the subject of The Dairy, which is too large a subject to be treated usefully in a single chapter, I shall here merely record such facts and formulæ as may be of help to those who have a general knowledge of dairy work, and also offer a little advice of a practical kind to those who have to deal with dairying on the smallest scale. A larder or store-room should never be used for the storage of milk, as the conditions required are somewhat different, and also because, more than almost any other substance, milk absorbs and is spoilt by any strong smell such as many stores yield to the air about them. The milk-room should be cool, only moderately light, well ventilated and somewhat dry, and should, if possible, face the east or north. There must be no possibility of gas from drain or manure heap coming into contact with the milk at any stage, either in milking-yard or dairy. The floor should be of tiles or concrete, and the shelves should be of slate or stone. The room and all vessels used should be kept scrupulously clean. If a separator is used, the milk should be put through the machine as soon as possible after milking, as the milk should have a temperature of about 90° F. If the cream is to be separated by “setting,” the milk should be taken straight to the dairy as soon as possible after milking, and poured through a hair sieve or other strainer into shallow pans—about four to six inches deep. These should be kept at a temperature of between 46° and 56° F. In from twenty-four to thirty-six hours, according to the season (more quickly in summer), the cream is separated by a flat perforated skimmer, or the milk is drawn off by a syphon, or by the removal of a plug. If skimmed, the process is repeated twelve hours later, and occasionally a third time after a similar period has elapsed. If clotted cream be desired, the pans—about six to eight inches deep—of milk, having stood in the dairy for twenty-four hours, are heated over a furnace or in a water-bath to a temperature of 175° F., and then again restored to the dairy to cool. The cream is then skimmed off the milk by means of the skimmer. If the cream is to be made into butter, it must be “ripened,” but must not be allowed to become too sour. In summer, it must not be kept for more than two days, and in winter for not more than four days. It should be placed, as soon as separated, in an earthenware cream-holder, large enough to hold the entire cream to be used at a single churning. When adding the cream from subsequent skimmings, thoroughly stir the whole together. Keep the cream cool until twenty-four hours before churning, and add no fresh cream to the mixture within twelve hours of the churning in summer, or within twenty-four hours in winter. For the twenty-four hours previous to churning, the cream must be kept at a temperature of about 60° F. In summer, churn at a temperature of from 57° to 59° F., and in winter at from 59° to 63° F. The room, the churn, and the cream should all be of about the same temperature. The cream should be strained through straining muslin into the churn, and the latter should be not more than half full. Churn rather slowly for the first five minutes, and allow the gas to escape frequently, until no air rushes out when the vent is opened. Directly you hear the butter form or “break,” open the churn and see that it has come. It will resemble mustard seed. Add for each gallon of cream a quart of cold water, and slowly turn the churn for about half a minute. Draw off the butter-milk, add to the butter the same quantity of cold water as there was originally of cream, give the churn a few turns quickly, and then draw off the water. Repeat this process until the water comes away quite clear. Then take the butter out of the churn, place it on the worker, allow it to drain for quarter of an hour, and then work the whole mass together. Weigh it, and dredge over it from a quarter to three-quarters of an ounce of fine pure salt to the pound of butter, rolling it out and sprinkling the salt evenly and by degrees. Well roll it so as to mix the salt uniformly, and get rid of all the water, but do not overwork it. Place the butter in a cool place for six hours to harden before being made up. The hands should never touch the milk, cream, or butter at any stage; a thermometer should be used to measure the various temperatures of which knowledge is required; and the churn, worker, wooden hands, and other appliances should be prepared for use by first rinsing them with cold water, then scalding them with boiling water, rubbing them thoroughly with salt, and lastly rinsing them again with cold water.—H. R.
DIAPHRAGM CHURN.
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To pot Butter.—The great secret in potting butter so that it will keep is to extract from it every drop of superfluous milk. This should be done either by working the butter thoroughly with a pair of the wooden “hands,” or spatulas, used in all good dairies instead of the human hand, or by immersing the butter in hot water. In the latter case the milk will fall to the bottom, leaving the butter floating on the surface of the water. The butter should be packed in layers in an earthenware jar or crock, a little salt being sprinkled upon each layer. If this process is carefully carried out the butter will keep well. Another method is to make a pickle by pouring a quart of boiling water upon two pounds of salt, two ounces of loaf sugar, and one ounce of saltpetre. Let this stand till perfectly cold. Then put the butter into a jar, and keep it well covered with the pickle. Butter thus treated will keep sweet and firm throughout the hottest summer.
A SELF-SKIMMING PORCELAIN MILK-PAN.
Cream Curds.—To one quart of new milk add four eggs, beaten together, and a little salt. Put it in a covered earthenware jar, and set it in a pan of water over the fire. Do not stir it, but as soon as the milk cracks, lay it upon a sieve to drain. Put it upon a china dish in large spoonfuls.—J. R.
BUTTER-SCOOP.
CHEESE
IT is quite impossible here to give more than the merest outline of the steps taken in preparing the various sorts of cheese manufactured in this country. The processes will, moreover, be more fully described in a future volume of this series. Meanwhile, the reader may be advised to study the three pamphlets issued by the Royal Agricultural Society dealing with the practices of making Cheddar, Cheshire, and Stilton cheeses respectively. A brief summary may, however, be useful to those who can supplement this by a few actual observations of practical cheese-making by skilful operators.
In some ways, and by many connoisseurs, Stilton is considered the finest of English cheeses. The first step in its manufacture is the addition of Hansen’s (or other) rennet, at the rate of one drachm to four gallons, to the fresh-strained milk when the milk has a temperature of from 80° to 85°