Butter, an artificial preparation of cow's milk} which, either in its entire state, or in that of cream, is agitated for a considerable time, till all its unctuous particles are separated from the whey, and a soft consistent mass is formed.

The Greek writers, though frequently speaking of milk and cheese, do not mention butter: and the Romans, while they lived without physicians for six centuries, never used it as an article of food, but only as a medicine. In modern times, the art of making, improving, and preserving butter, has kept pace with the unwholesome custom of eating this animal oil, from an early period of infancy. Thus, we have reason to think that many diseases of children, especially those of a scro-phulous nature, are wantonly induced, or atleast rendered more malignant.

As butter is, at present, used in our daily food, chiefly on account of its agreeable taste, we shall first speak of its physical proper-ties.—To render it less hurtful, it ought to be perfectly fresh, and free from rancidity; which it easily acquires, if the butter-milk has not been completely separated. Fried, or burnt butter, is still more detrimental to health ; as it is thus converted into an acrid, and even caustic fluid, which cannot fail to disorder the stomach, to render digestion difficult and painful, to excite rancid belchings, and, ultimately, to taint all the fluids with a peculiar acrimony. Hence, toast and butter should never be eaten by persons who value their health ; as there are many who, even by fresh butter, are affected with those inconveniencies. Nor can we recommend the prevailing custom of melting butter with flour and water ; for, in this manner, it forms a compound more indigestible, than sweet butter is in its natural state.

Notwithstanding the injurious tendency of butter, especially after it is salted, this substance forms a considerable article of trade. It is affirmed that not less than 50, 000 tons are annually consumed in London; of which the counties of Cambridge and Suffolk are said to furnish 50, 000 firkins, each containing 56lb. None, however, is equal to that produced in Essex, and known by the name of Epping butter, which was formerly sold ar from 12d. to 14d. per pound avoirdupois ; but, lately, at the exorbitant price of is. 8d.

With respect to the various methods of making butter, we shall state only those practised in Essex ; to enable the reader to select the most useful parts of the different processes, and apply them to particular situations.

The Epping method has been described by Mr. Josiah Hazard ; from whose directions we extract the following particulars: After having stated the proper requisites for a Dairy-house, which we shall communicate under that head of the alphabet, he observes, that that a good milch-cow may be worth from 7 to 10. a year, whereas an . indifferent one will bring in no more than from 5 to 61. during the same period: hence the farmer should never keep any but such as afford an abundance of milk. No milk must be suffered to remain in the udder, as by this neglecf the Cow will give less every meal, till at length she becomes dry before her proper time, and, the next Season, will scarcely give sufficient to repay the expences of keeping her.

If a cow's teats are scratched, or wounded, her milk will be foul, and should not be mixed with that of other cows, but given to pigs. In warm weather, the milk should remain in the pail till it is nearly cool, before it is strained; but, in frosty weather, this should be done immediately, and a small quantity of boiling water mixed with it; which will produce cream in abundance, especially in pans, or vats, of a large surface.

During the hot summer-months, the milk should stand only 24 hours, and the cream be skimmed from it, either early in the morning, before the dairy becomes warm; or in the evening, after sun-set. In winter, the milk may remain unskimmed for 36, or even 4S hours ; the cream ought to be preserved in a deep pall, kept, during summer, in the coolest part of the dairy, or in a cool cellar where a free air is admitted. Dr. Anderson (whose aphorisms on this subject we shall qnote at the conclusion of the present article), is of opinion, that the temperature of a dairy should, if possible, be kept between 50 and 55° of Fahrenheit; which is nearly about the average temperature of a building secured from the external air, in the manner he has proposed; and a delineation of which the reader will find under the article Milk-House.

Those, who have not an opportunity of churning every other day, should shift the cream daily into clean pans, in order to keep it cool; but they should regularly churn twice a week in hot weather, and this in the morning before sun-rise, taking care to fix the churn in a free draught of air. Nor should this vessel be exposed to a fire so near as to heat the wood in cold seasons, as by this means the butter will acquire a strong rancid flavour.

A correspondent in the Papers of the Bath and West-of-England Society observes, that the operation of churning may be much facilitated, by adding a table-spoonful or two of distilled vinegar to a gallon of cream, but not till after the latter has undergone consi-derable agitation. When the butter is churned, it should immediately be washed in several waters, till it be perfectly cleansed from the milk ; but a warm hand will soften it, and make it appear greasy. Hence it is advisable to employ two pieces of wood, such as are used by cheese-mongers > an expedient by which those who have naturally a very warm hand, might render their butter more saleable. See Churning.

In many parts of England, butter is artificially coloured in winter; though this process adds nothing to its goodness. The farmers in and near Epping, take sound carrots, the juice of which they express through a sieve, and mix with the cream, when it enters the churn; which makes it appear like May-butter. There is very little salt used in the best Epping butter: but it is a fact, that a certain proportion of acid, either natural or artificial, must be used in the cream, in order to ensure a successful churning some keep a small small quantity of the old cream for that purpose; some use a little rennet, and others a few tea spoon-fuls of lemon-juice.—Cleanli: in the dairy is, at all times, an essential requisite.

The Lancashire method of pre-paring milk for butter, is as follows : The whole milk is divided into two parts: the first drawn being set apart for family use, after being skimmed; the cream of which is put into proper vessels, as also the whole of the second, or last drawn milk, provincially called offerings. Those two, being mixed together, are stirred, but not to a great depth, to prevent the bad effects of foul air accumulating on the surface, and kept, according to the season of the year, exposed to the fire, for promoting the acetous fermentation, which is accelerated by the acid remaining in the pores of the vessels. For this reason they are not scalded, except after having contracted some taint and, in this case, they are sometimes expeditiously rinsed out with sour butter-milk: during this preparation for souring, the milk is kept ready for the churn; and, in con-se.qu.enpe of such treatment, more butter is obtained, and of a better quality, than if the. milk were churned in a sweet state.

Decisive experiments have been made, in order to ascertain whit be more profitable to churn the whole milk, or only the cream which the milk produces: it was found that one. day's milk of a particular cow, churned by itself, yielded only 12oz. of butter ; the cream of two days milk produced 3 lb. 2 oz. Hence it appears to be more profitable 'to collect the cream, and churn it, than to churn the whole milk. Cream-butter is, likewise, the richer of the two though it will not keep so long sweet.

In justice to Dr. James Anderson, who has favoured the public with an excellent Essay "on the Management of the Dairy, " inserted in the correspondence of the Bath and West-of-England Society, we. shall communicate a few of his aphorisms: 1. The first milk, drawn from a cow is always thinner, and of an inferior quality to that which is afterwards obtained ; and this richness increases progressively, to the very last drop that can be drawn from the udder, 2. The portion of cream rising first to the surface, is richer in quality, and greater in quantity, than what rises in the second equal space of time, and so forth : the cream continually decreasing, and growing worse than the preceding. 3, Thick milk produces a smaller proportion of cream than that which is thinner, though the cream of the former is of a richer quality. If, therefore, the thick milk be diluted with water, it will afford more crearn than it would have done in its pure state; but its quality will at the same time be inferior. 4, Milk carried about in pails, or other vessels, agitated, and partly cooled, before it be poured into the milk-pans, never throws up such a good and plentiful cream as if it had been put into proper vessels immediately after it came from the cow.

Dr. Anderson, in the same paper, imparts the following judicious hints : The milk should be forced out of the cavities of the butter with a flat, wooden ladle, or skimming dish, provided with a short handle; and this should be dexterously performed, with as little working of the butter-as possible; for it it be too much beat and turned, it- will become tough and gluey, which- greatly debases its quality. To beat it up by the hand, is an indelicate practice. It is also very detrimental to pour told water on the butter, during this operation. If the-heat should be so great, as to render it too soft to receive the impression of the mould, it may be put into small vessels, allowed to swim in the trough of cold water under the table; preventing, however, the water from touching the butter: thus it will, in a short time, acquire the necessary degree of firmness, especially if a small piece of ice be put into the vessel. The Doctor, on this occasion, severely censures the practice that prevails in many private families, of keeping fresh butter in water, and thus bringing it to table in a glass vessel. It coolness only is wanted, he advises to put the butter into a dry glass, and immerse this into cold water: and if it be taken out immediately before it is used, such butter will, in our climate, always have sufficient firmness.

After the butter has been beaten up and cleared from the milk, it is ready for being salted. The vessels intended tor this purpose, being rendered perfectly clean, should be rubbed in the whole inside with common salt; and a little melted butter should be poured into the cavity, between the bottom and the sides: thus prepared, they are fit to receive the butter.

Although common salt is generally employed for preserving but-ter, yet Dr. Anderson has found by experience, that the following composition not only preserves the butter more effectually from any taint of rancidity, -but makes it also look better, taste sweeter, richer, and more marrowy, than if it had been cured with common salt alone. Best common salt, two parts; saltpetre, one part; sugar, one part: beat them up together, so that they may be completely blended. To every pound, or sixteen ounces of butter, add one ounce of this composition. Mix it well in the mass, and close it up for use. Butter prepared in this manner, will keep good for threo years, and cannot be distinguished from that recently salted. It should, however, be remarked, that butter, thus cured, does not taste well till it has stood a fort-night, or three weeks. In the opinion of Dr. Anderson, such butter would keep sweet during the longest voyages, if it were so stowed, that it could not melt by the heat of the climate, and occasion the salts to separate from it. Hence the butter ought to be previously freed from its mucilage, which is more putrescible than the oily parts. In order to prepare it for a distant voyage, let it be put into a vessel of a proper shape, which should be immersed into another, containing water. Let this be gradually heated, till the butter be thoroughly melted, in which state it may remain for some time, and then be allowed to settle. Thus, the mucilaginous part will fall entirely to the bottom, and the pure oil will swim uppermost, perfectly transparent, while hot; but, on cooling, it becomes opaque, assumes a colour somewhat paler than the original butter, before it was melted, and acquires a firmer consistence; by which it is better enabled to resist the heat of tropical climates.

When this refined butter is become somewhat firm, yet soft enough to be handled, the pure part should be separated from the dregs, then salted, and packed in the usual manner.

There is another, still more curious, way of preserving this refin-ed butter, stated by Dr. Anderson. After it is purified, add to the butter a certain portion of firm honey, mix them well, and they will thoroughly incorporate: this mixture, when spread on bread, has a very pleasant taste, and may be given to aged persons, if they relish it, instead of marrow; and to others, as being useful for coughs and colds. The proportion of honey employed was considerable; and the Doctor remarks, that this mixture has been kept for years, without acquiring the least degree of rancidity; so that there can be do doubt that butter might thus be safely preserved during long voyages.

The food of cows very often affects the taste of butter. Thus, if wild-garlic, charloc, or Mayweed, be found in a pasture ground, cows should not be suffered to feed there, before the first grass has been mown, when such pernicious plants will not again appear till the succeeding spring; but milch-cows must not partake of the hay made, of those plants, as it will likewise communicate their pernicious influence.

Cows should never be suffered to drink water from stagnant pools, in which there are frogs, spawn, etc.; or from common sewers, or ponds that receive the drainings of stables - all which are exceedingly improper.

As turnips and rape impart a disagreeable taste to milk and butter, Mr. Arthur Young directs the dairy-man to boil two ounces of saltpetre in a quart of water; to bottle the decoction; and, when cold, to put a large tea-cupful of the mixture into ten, or twelve quarts, of new milk, immediately after it comes from the cow. As the turnips become stronger, the proportion of nitre may be in-creased. - A shorter, and equally effectual method, is, to scald the pans, or trays, with boiling water, just before the milk is poured in, and it will answer the purpose intended. - But it is not generally known that the bad flavour, or rancidity of turnip-but-ter, arises solely from the green food, or the tops of that plant. By previously cutting these away, the evil is completely prevented. Lord Egremokt has adopted this expedient: he fed from 25 to 30 cows, for the greatest part of the winter, with turnips, the tops of which were carefully separated : and the butter prepared from their milk was equal to the very best of the kind.

For removing, or rather preventing, the bitter taste of barley-straw butter, as well as the rancidity of turnip-hitter, Mr. Marshall suggests the following simple, and rational means : Instead of putting the cream, immediately after it is skimmed off the milk, into the jar, or other retaining vessel, it is first poured upon hot water, and having stood till cool, it is again skimmed off the wa-ter.

According to experiments accurately made by Mr. Joseph Wimpey, to determine the comparative value of butter and cheese, 1051/2 gallons of milk, properly dis posed in pans for skimming off the cream, produced 361b. of butter, and 60lb. of skimmed cheese. From a like quantity of milk were made 1061b. of raw-milk cheese, and 61b. of whey-butter. After selling the cream-butter at 81/2d. and the skimmed cheese at 2d. the pound, when the raw-milk cheese, two months old, was worth 31/2d. the pound, and the whey-butter 7d., it appears that a small ad-vantage of about three per cent. lies on the side of butter and skimmed cheese.

Many abuses are practised in the packing and salting of butter, to increase its bulk and weight, against which we have an express statute. Lumps of good butter are frequently laid, for a little depth, at the top, and with an inferior quality under it; sometimes the butter is set in rolls, touching only at top, and standing hollow at bottom. To prevent such deceptions, the factors at Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire, a market famous for good butter, employ a surveyor, who, in case of suspicion, tries the cask, or jar, with an iron instrument, made not unlike a cheese-taster, and which he thrusts in obliquely to the bottom. - But we understand, that the greatest frauds are committed with the Irish butter, imported in firkins. One of our sagacious correspondents has suggested to us the propriety of communicating the marks, which the butter-casks ought to have on them, to distinguish their real goodness, before they are exported from Ireland: such information might be a guide to private families, who purchase a whole, or half a firkin at a time. On particular inquiry, we could only learn from several eminent butter-men, that the name of Belfast, or some other town in the north of Ireland, is usually marked on the cask, with an additional cross, and either one or more incisions under it, according to the superior quality of the butter. We trust, however, that no person will be disposed to purchase so precarious an article, with-out previously examining the contents of the vessel.

Lasly, we cannot omit to animadvert upon the pernicious practice of keeping milk in leaden vessels, and salting butter in stone jars, which begins to prevail, from a mistaken idea of cleanliness. But, in the hands of a cleanly person, there surely can be nothing more wholesome than wooden dishes. We fully agree with Dr. Anderson, that vessels made ei ther of solid lead, or badly glazed, are alike destructive to the human constitution ; that we may doubtless attribute to this cause the frequency of paralytic complaints, which occur in all ranks of society; and that the well known effects of the poison of lead, are, bodily debility, palsy - death !

Milk-Butter is principally made in Cheshire; where, contrary to the usual practice in other parts of the kingdom, the whole of the milk is churned, without being skimmed; preparatory to which operation, in summer, immediately alter milking, the meal is put to cool in earthen jars, till it becomes sufficiently coagulated, and has acquired a slight degree of acidity, sufficient to undergo the operation of churning. This is usually performed, during the summer, in the course of one or two days. In winter, in order to forward coagulation, the milk is placed near a fire; fire; but, in summer, if it has not been sufficiently cooled, before it is added to the former meal, or, if it has been, kept too close, and be not churned shortly alter it has acquired the necessary degree of coagulation and acidity, a fermentation will ensue ; in which case, the butter becomes rancid, and the milk does not yield that quantity, which it would, if it had been churned in proper time. This is also the case, when, in winter, the jars, or mugs, have been placed too near the fire, and the milk runs entirely to whey. No peculiar process attends the making of this kind of butter.

Whey-Butter is so called, from its being made of whey, which is either green or white. The former is taken from the curd, out of the cheese tub; the white whey is pressed out of the curd, by the hand or otherwise, after having been put into the cheese vat. This kind of butter is made as follows ; Sometimes the white whey, or, as it is called in Cheshire, the thrust-ings, is set in cream mugs, to acquire a sufficient degree of coagu-lation, and acidity for churning, either by the. warmth of the season, or of a room, in the same manner as above described, for making milk-butter. In other instances, the green and the white whey are boiled together, and turned by a little sour ale, or other acid, which produces fleetings. See scalding Whey. In this case, when the green whey is boiled alone, it is necessary to keep up such a fire as will make the whey as hot as possible, without boiling it; and, when it has acquired that degree of heat, the butyraceous particles, which it contains, will break and separate, , and rise to the surface, which effect usually takes place in the space of an hour. Care should, be taken to rub the boiler, if of iron, with butter, to prevent the whey from acquiring a rancid other respects, the pro-cess of making whey-butter differs little from that of milk-butter But the former will keep only a few days, has a marbled appear-ance, and does not cut quite so firm, or clear, as butter made 0f cream. - One of our correspondents observes, that, in the year 1794, whey-butter was sold by, contract, for the whole year, at l0d. per pound, and carried 20 miles to Manchester :—he further. remarks, that the fleetings are "nice eating, " with sugar, though, some epicures add wine or brandy..

Butter-Milk, is that part of the milk which remains after the butter is extracted.—Curds of but-ter-mhk are made by pouring into; it a quantity of hot new milk The quality of butter-miik greatly depends on the manner of managing the process of churning. If it be obtained according to the Lancashire method, above-describ-ed, it becomes an excellent food for man, being both wholesome and pleasant; though it is, in many English counties, given to hogs.

Good butter-milk is refreshing and cooling : hence, it is often recommended in hectic fevers, for abating preternatural heat and flushings of the face. In spring, if drank freely, it is said to produce a favourable change on the fluids, when they are in a state of acrimony. And, though modern physicians smile at the idea of sweetening, or purifying the blood, yet the good effects of butter-milk, as well as sweet whey in proper cases and. constitutions, have . too often been experienced, to admit of any doubt, in consequence of an unsettled theory.

Butter. - The following method of preparing butter is advantageously practised in Holland. When the cows are milked, the fluid is not poured into pans, till it become perfectly cold : it is then stirred two or three times in the day, so that the cream and milk May more intimately combine; and if it be agitated till a spoon will nearly stand upright, the butter thus obtained is held in great esteem. As soon as the milk acquires a proper consistence, it is poured into a churn ; worked for an hour; and, when the butter begins to form, one or two pints of cold water are added, in proportion to the capacity of the vessel ; with a view to separate the former with greater facility.

After the butter is taken out of the churn, it is repeatedly washed and kneaded in pure water, till the last affusion be clear and free from milk. In this simple manner, a larger portion of butter is gained from an equal quantity of milk; and which is not only more firm and sweet, but also remains fresh for a longer time than that usually made in England, while the buttermilk is more palatable.

Beside the different modes of curing butter, already described, it may be easily preserved in a sweet state, by melting it down in large vessels over a slow fire; care being taken to remove the scum that rises to the surface. This method being adopted by the Tartars, we have inserted it on the authority of Mr. Eton ; who states (in his late interesting " Survey of the Turkish Empire, " etc. 8vo.), that he has used butter, thus boiled, and then salted, as is usual in Britain ; in which state it remained perfectly sweet for the space of two years.