UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA

7

RENO, NEVADA, 1916

HOME BUTTER-MAKING Suggestions on How to Improve the Quality of Farm Butter

HOME BUTTER-MAKING PROJECT

Such good results have come from our plan of scoring monthly the butter made by the several creameries in the State that we are here proposing to extend the same assistance, but in a separate project, to the home butter-makers of Nevada. The value of scoring by experts is that the defects in butter are disclosed to the butter-maker, and in most instances the cause of the trouble may be pointed out or suggested. Accompanying the score-card, when returned to the butter-maker, is a brief report suggesting how to cure the defects. The next sample of butter from the same maker in most instances shows improvement, and this improvement progressively continues with the different scorings until the butter is uniformly of satisfactory quality.

It is not the purpose of this project to encourage farmers to make their own butter when they have access to a creamery. But there are many instances where conditions make it desirable for farmers to manufacture butter, and a better knowledge of the art is important to them as well as to their customers. The containers used for mailing butter samples for scoring will be furnished free to contestants enrolled in the project.

PROJECT OUTLINE

(1) Schedule-Contestants may begin on June 15, 1916, and thereafter on December 1, February 1, April 1, or June 1, of each year.

(2) Contestants-The contestants in this project will be farm families engaged in butter-making, who market at least 50 pounds of butter per annum over and above home consumption.

(3) Terms and Conditions of Contest-These may be summarized as follows: (a) Enrollment of farm as a contestant;

(b) Compliance with the requirements mentioned in project outline; (c) Submission of the report required.

(4) Farm Enrollment-The application card must contain the names of those on the farm who actually make the butter; the average quantity produced: number of cows in herd, and average quantity of butter marketed. The farm, however, only will appear in the contest, and in the name in which the butter is sold. That is to say, if the butter is sold as "Jones Farm" butter, or "Clover Leaf Farm" butter, that name will be used in the contest, together with the county and district in which it is located, instead of the names of those who make it. Creameries may not enter in this contest.

(5) Agreement-The contestant agrees to mail the Agricultural Extension Division, University of Nevada, Reno (or such other address as may be specified), in the prescribed container (furnished free), a sample of butter from the churning on or first after June 15, 1916, if beginning on that date, and thereafter from the first churning in the months mentioned in (1), beginning with the given month of enrollment-a total of six samples. It is optional with the contestant to continue longer than one year.

(6) Scoring the Butter-The samples of butter received will be scored by the State Leader in Dairying, the Professor of Dairying of the College of Agriculture, and possibly a third qualified butter-maker. The score-card will be the standard card used in scoring butter. The Extension Division will return to each contestant a copy of the scoring for such farm butter with a statement explaining the defects and how to correct them. Thus it is expected that from one scoring to another there will be a steady improvement in quality. The butter in all instances will be scored precisely the same and as rigidly as though it were creamery butter.

(7) Publication of Highest Scores-Beginning with the scoring in October the three highest scores in the State will be published after each scoring, as also the highest score in each county, providing such county score is above 88. None of the other scores will be published. Aside from the publication of such high scores, no information will be given out regarding contestants. Thus contestants need fear no adverse advertising.

(8) State and County Champion Butter-Makers-Beginning with July 1, 1917, and annually thereafter, on January 1 and July 1 of each year, will be announced the Champion Home Butter-Making Farm of the State, and of each county, providing the county score is 90 or better. The score for each contestant will be the sum of the three last preceding bimonthly scores (within the half year) divided by three, for the average score. In the event of a tie, the fourth last preceding score will be included to settle the championship. Each such champion will hold such title until the next semiannual contest elects a new champion. A prize will be announced prior to January 1, 1918, to the first contestant who wins the State Championship a second time.

(9) Method of Scoring-Each contestant will be given a number which will be marked on the bottom of the prescribed container (all precisely alike) and which will be covered in such manner that the number cannot be seen until the scoring is completed. No marks or other method of identifying the samples and containers will be permitted. The container with its sample of butter will be mailed in a regulation mailing carton with a printed or typewritten address upon it. The clerk of the Extension Division, or some other disinterested person, will remove the containers from the cartons, see that the numbers are covered and that there are no identifying marks, mix them up so that it is impossible to tell one from another, and deliver them to the judges. The latter will then place their own identifying numbers on the containers, and proceed to score the samples. When the scoring is completed and each score-card signed, the cover pasted over the contestant's number will be torn off, and the several score-cards identified according to contestants. In this way the judges will not know whose butter they are scoring; hence the results will be absolutely impartial. Visitors may attend to witness the manner in which the judging is conducted.

(10) Reports-When the sixth sample of butter is sent in for judging, the contestant will be asked to fill out a blank form describing the method of handling the cream and churning and handling the butter.

SUGGESTIONS FOR HOME BUTTER-MAKING

There are sections all over Nevada where farmers find it desirable to make their own butter. The primary purpose is, of course, for home use, but there is often a surplus which naturally goes to the market. The manufacturer of home-made butter has one advantage over the creamery. He can control the sanitary conditions under which the milk is produced. But the creamery, as a rule, has the advantage of better machinery, better facilities for handling cream, steam for sterilizing, proper refrigeration, and a more experienced butter-maker. It is universally conceded that the specialist can make a better product than one who does not specialize.

WHERE GOOD BUTTER-MAKING MUST BEGIN

The best butter-maker in the world cannot make butter of the quality demanded in the market from UNFIT cream. The steps in good butter-making are progressive and begin with the care and handling of the cow.

Does the Care and Handling of Your Herd Answer to this Test?

First-Healthy and vigorous cows, free especially from tuberculosis.

Second-Plenty of UNCONTAMINATED drinking water (that you would not fear to drink yourself) without access to impure water.

Third-Plenty of wholesome and palatable food of sufficient variety to meet the cow's requirements.

Fourth-Clean, comfortable, and well-ventilated shelters and with opportunity for exercise, when the herd is not on pasture.

Does the Care and Handling of Your Milk and Cream Answer to this Test?

First-Every container used in milking and handling the cream and milkpails, cans, separator, etc.-thoroughly washed, rinsed, and STERILIZED, either with live steam or boiling (not merely hot) water each time after use. (After sterilizing, such containers must not be wiped with rag or cloth, but let dry, preferably in the sun.)

Second-Hooded milk-pails.

Third-Cows' flanks, udders, and teats, wiped with a damp cloth before milking. Sometimes more vigorous action is needed, in which case the udder should be washed with soap and warm water until perfectly clean, and wiped dry, before milking.

Fourth-Milking done in a dustless stable or corral. (You cannot prevent bacterial contamination of milk if hay or manure dust is in the air at milking time.)

Fifth-Cooling the cream immediately after separation to 50°F. or less.* Sixth-A spotlessly clean, sweet, cool, dustless, and FLYLESS milk-house.

*NOTE-Cooling cream by suspending it in a spring or well may give good results, but is an unsafe practise, if the water is used also for domestic purposes. Even a small quantity of milk or cream spilled in a well renders the water unfit and even dangerous for use.

CAUSES OF UNDESIRABLE FLAVORS IN CREAM WHICH WILL REAPPEAR IN THE BUTTER IN SOME FORM

Butter made from the milk of cows handled in accordance with the two foregoing subdivisions will be of the best quality if the butter-making methods are correct.

Undesirable flavors in butter and poor keeping qualities may be traced to one or more of the following causes :

1-Foods having a strong odor fed just before or during milking time.

2-Cow hairs and filth falling into the milk from unclean udders and flanks.

3-Barn odors when cows are kept in unventilated and filthy stables.

4-Dust and filth blown into the milk.

5-Metallic taste, from rusty pails, cans, etc.

6-Improperly sterilized containers.

7-Impure drinking water.

Hooded Milk-Pail

8-Failure to "chill" cream to 50°F. immediately after separation.

9-Unclean, dusty, warm, smelly, or fly-invaded milk-house.

10-Pouring warm cream in with cold cream.

11-Cream held for more than three days. Better churn every other day; once in three days at latest.

HOME BUTTER-MAKING

As it is presumed that every home butter-maker understands the general processes of butter-making, we shall present here merely those points in butter-making which serve to perfect the art and insure high quality in the product.

RIPENING CREAM

The object of ripening or souring the cream is to get the desired flavor and to make the butter-fat particles come together more easily and quickly. Cream will ripen naturally if kept at a temperature of 70° to 80° in three or four days, but it will ripen quicker and have a better flavor if a starter is used.

Home-Made Starter-Select milk which has been produced under the cleanest possible conditions. Cool it quickly and put two or three quarts into a clean jar. Cover with two thicknesses of cheesecloth. Keep in a warm place, about 80°, until it thickens. Stir the thickened starter until it will pour smoothly like cream, then pour it into the cream, which has been heated to about 70°. Stir the cream occasionally while it is ripening, and, when it has become sour enough, cool it down to the churning temperature.

Commercial Starter-Better flavors can usually be obtained by using commercial starter. A commercial starter is a pure form of lactic-acid bacteria which has been specially selected because of good flavor. It can be procured in liquid form, powder, or tablets, from any dairy supply company. To use commercial starter, heat a quart of sweet milk to 180°, cool to 80°, then add one tablet or a given amount of powder according to instructions which come with the starter. Keep