No. 211 - THE PENNY MAGAZINE - July 18, 1835

BUTTER.

ITALIAN, butirro; Spanish, manteca; Portuguese, manteiga; German, butter; French, beurre; Greek, Bovtupov: the similarity of this word in the language of different nations would seem to indicate one common source of derivation. Butter, which is prepared by the long-continued agitation of milk or cream, which is called churning, is mentioned in several places in the Bible; and though the passages "Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter" (Prov. xxx. 33), and "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter" (Psalms lv. 21, Bible Translation), appear to remove all doubt, it is by many supposed that the butter of Scripture is milk, cream, or even cheese; and that we first read of butter, properly so called, in Herodotus. It appears that the use of it was made known to the Greeks by the Scythians, Thracians, and Phrygians. The Romans, who adopted it as an unguent or medicine to anoint the bodies of their children, learnt the invention from the Germans; but neither Greeks nor Romans applied it to the art of cookery. The ancient butter was apparently much more fluid than that at present in daily use, probably resembling the ghee of the East Indies. It was used by the ancient Burgundians to besmear their hair; and the early Christians burnt it in their lamps. Pliny says that butter was the favourite food of the barbarious nations, and that it distinguished the rich from the poor. A great deal was made of cows' milk, and it was also made of the milk of goats and ewes, that of the latter being the fattest. The milk was warmed in the winter, while in the summer it was made by frequent agitations in long vessels (churns), a little water being added to produce acidity. The butter of the Moors of the empire of Morocco is made of all milk, as it comes from the cow, by putting it into a skin and shaking it till the butter separates from it; and a similar practice was observed by Hasselquist in an encampment of Arabs near Tiberias. The distinction of fresh butter is not modern, it being styled, in the middle ages, Phrysicum butyrum. The preparation of butter descended from the Britons to the Welsh and Irish; and the inhabitants of Cheshire, as neighbours of the north Welsh, were remarkably fond of it. Holinshed says of the ancient Irish, "oat-meale and butter they cram together, they drink wheie-milke and beefe-broth;--they let their cows blood, which, growne to a gellie, they bake, and overspread with butter, and so eat it in lumps:" and the Scots were hardly more delicate, for "they brought furthermore from their houses to the field with them a vessell full of butter, cheese, meale, milke and vinegar, tempered together, as a shoote-anchor against extreme hunger, on which they would feed and sucke out the moisture when other provisions could not be gotten." Bread-and-butter superseded the use of "kychir grosse," or dripping for breakfast, between the reigns of Edward IV. and Elizabeth; and in the reign of this queen, by the laws of coursing, greyhounds were fed in the morning with a toast and butter, or oil.

The present method of making butter usually is, in the morning, to place the milk in shallow vessels, presenting a good deal of surface, and in the evening the cream is skimmed, the evening's new milk being added to the already skimmed; and the same process is observed night and morning till the day of churning, which is either once or twice a week, according to the temperature. The cream must be placed in clean pans every other morning. The churn, previous to its being used, is rinsed with cold water in summer and warm in the winter; and the cream having been strained into the churn, it should be turned slowly in warm weather and rapidly in cold; and, when the churn has been turned two or three times, it is necessary to open the aperture or door that the air may escape, after which it should be firmly reclosed. The churn is then worked till the butter is formed, which it will be in the summer in an hour, and in the winter in two hours, or perhaps not quite so soon. When the churning is completed, the buttermilk is let out at a cork-hole, and the butter is put into a butter-trundle, which is a species of tub; and after it has been washed in water, changed two or three times, it must be drained, worked with the hand, and salted. In Gloucestershire, and some other countries, it is weighed in half pounds, and impressed with various patterns, and it is then placed in water in warm weather, and on boards if it is cold. The print which forms the impression is made of ash, and is four inches in diameter; and if it bears what is called the Gloucester print, which is a number of small knots, the butter sells for a penny a pound more.

The process of making whey-butter is similar to that already stated, but the cream that arises, or whey, ought not to be kept more than thirty-six hours. Pigs are fed with the skimmed whey and also with the buttermilk. The butter produced from a good cow is about 100 lbs. in a year, but the quantity varies very much in different animals and different pastures, and the butter is frequently found to retain the taste of garlic and other plants on which the cows have fed. It is in all cases particularly essential to the making of good butter that all the dairy-utensils should be perfectly clean. With respect to the prices of butter, it appears by the household-book of Lord North that a pound of butter in the reign of Queen Elizabeth cost fourpence: at the present time (the summer of 1835), a pound of the best butter in the west of England costs from sevenpence to eightpence, while in the metropolis the price is fourteenpence.

A large portion of the butter consumed in London is in rolls without any impression. Dutch and Irish butter is also imported in considerable quantities, but the flavour and quality are not considered equal to the butter of this country; and the Dutch butter often abounds with hairs and other impurities. The firkin of butter contains fifty-six pounds.

Salted butter is prepared by working the moisture out of the butter and adding salt, after which it is closely pressed into the vessel, in which it is to remain till it is taken out for use.

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