[Sca-cooks] Re: Making butter

[Pixel, Queen of Cats]

On Mon, 21 May 2001 rcmann4 at earthlink.net wrote:

> On 20 May 01,, Stefan li Rous wrote:
>
> > There are several descriptions given in this file in the FOOD section
> > of the Florilegium for making butter:
> > butter-msg        (99K)  4/13/01    Period butter. Making butter. Butter churns.
> >
> > I don't think any of these descriptions talk about washing the butter
> > blobs.
>
> Here is an excerpt from Markham's _The English Housewife_ on
> the subject of making butter.  As the first edition was published in
> 1615, it is post-period, but I don't think butter-making techniques
> changed all that much.
>
[snip]

I don't know how period they are, but in Colonial times they used wooden
paddles with grooves running lengthwise along the surface to mash the
butter in the buttermilk/whey removal process. Having used them, I can say
they really do work.

If you're going to be hand-kneading butter, and you have warm hands or the
weather is very warm, you really want to have a separate container of ice
water to dip your hands in occasionally to cool them off. Otherwise what
you get is butter smeared all over your hands. You also want your wash
water to be very cool. Not ice-cold, but cool enough to keep the butter
firm.

Margaret FitzWilliam