How To Buy And Care For Butter

As in the case of milk, in order that the housewife may judge the quality of the butter she purchases, she will do well to look into the cleanliness and sanitary condition of the dairy that produces it. Too much attention cannot be given to this matter, for if cream becomes contaminated from careless handling, the same contamination is liable to occur in the butter made from it. Butter that is produced in dairies that make large quantities of it usually has not much opportunity to become contaminated before it reaches the consumer, for it is generally pressed into 1-pound prints, and each one of these is then wrapped and placed in a paper carton. On the other hand, the farmer and the dairyman doing a small business do not find it profitable to install the equipment required to put up butter in this way, so they usually pack their butter into firkins or crocks or make it into rolls. When such butter goes to market, it is generally placed in a refrigerator with more butter of the same sort, some of which is good and some bad. As butter absorbs any strong odor present in the refrigerator and is perhaps cut and weighed in a most unsanitary manner, the good becomes contaminated with the bad. While butter of this kind is perhaps a few cents cheaper than that which is handled in a more sanitary way, it is less desirable, and if possible should be avoided by the housewife. In case butter is obtained from a certain farm, the conditions on that farm should be looked into for the same reason that the conditions in a dairy are investigated.  To be able to select good butter, the housewife should also be familiar with its characteristics. In color, butter to be good should be an even yellow, neither too pale nor too bright, and should contain no streaks. The light streaks that are sometimes found in butter indicate insufficient working. As to odor, butter should be pleasing and appetizing, any foreign or strong, disagreeable odor being extremely objectionable. Stale butter or that which is improperly kept develops an acid called butyric acid, which gives a disagreeable odor and flavor to butter and often renders it unfit for use.

The precautions that the farmer and dairyman are called on to observe in the making and handling of butter should be continued by the housewife after she purchases butter for home use. The chief point for her to remember is that butter should be kept as cold as possible, because a low temperature prevents it from spoiling, whereas a high one causes it to become soft and less appetizing. The most satisfactory place in which to keep butter is the refrigerator, where it should be placed in the compartment located directly under the ice and in which the milk is kept, for here it will come in contact with foods that might impart their flavors to it. Should no refrigerator be available, some other means of keeping butter cold must be resorted to, such as a cool cellar or basement or a window box. The way in which butter is bought determines to a certain extent the method of caring for it. If it is bought in paper cartons, it should be rewrapped and replaced in the carton each time some is cut off for use. In case it is bought in bulk, it should never be allowed to remain in thewooden dish in which it is often sold; rather, it should be put into a crock or a jar that can be tightly covered.

Attention should also be given to butter that is cut from the supply for the table or for cooking purposes and that is not entirely used. Such butter should never be returned to the original supply, but should be kept in a separate receptacle and used for cooking. If it contains foreign material, it can beclarified by allowing it to stand after it has melted until this has settled and then dipping or pouring the clear fat from the top. Butter that has become rancid or has developed a bad flavor need not be wasted either, for it can be made ready for use in cooking simply by pouring boiling water over it, allowing it to cool, and then removing the layer of fat that comes to the top. Such butter, of course, cannot be used for serving on the table. Still, consideration on the part of the housewife to just such matters as these will prevent much of the waste that prevails in the household in the use of this food.

While some housewives make it a practice to use butter in cooking of all kinds, there are uses in which other fats are preferable; or, in case butter is desired, there are certain points to be observed in its use. For instance, butter is rendered less digestible by cooking it t a high temperature, as in frying or sautéing; also, it cannot be used to any extent for the frying of foods, as it burns very readily. If it is used for sautéing, the dish is made much more expensive than is necessary, so that in most cases a cheaper fat should be employed for this purpose. In addition, a point to remember is that this fat should not be used to grease the pans in which cakes and hot breads are baked unless it is first melted, because the milk contained in the butterburns easily; after it is melted, only the top fat should be used. When butter is desired for very rich cakes and for pastry, it is usually washed in cold water to remove the milk. To neutralize the sour milk contained in butter that is used for baking purposes, a little soda is sometimes employed. Further economy can be exercised in the use of butter if a little thought is given to the matter. For instance, when butter is melted and poured over meat or fish that has been broiled or over vegetables that have been cooked in a plain way, much of it usually remains in the dish and is wasted. Such butter can be utilized again. Since butter undergoes a change when it is cooked, it should be mixed with ooked foods to flavor them, rather than be subjected to the temperature necessary for cooking. When butter is used for spreading sandwiches, it usually will be found advisable to soften the butterby creaming it with a spoon, but it should never be melted for this purpose.

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