Day 65. Butter Working

As well as cheese-making, discussed yesterday, butter-making was a key aspect of dairying. Butter was simpler and quicker to make than cheese, and its production survived as a farmhouse technique until the mid 20^th century, long after cheese-making had been largely abandoned.

To make butter, the milk was left in shallow earthenware bowls for a day or two on a 'setlass' in the dairy until the cream had settled out. This was then skimmed off.  Mechanical cream-separaters appeared in the 20^th century. These used a series of gears to forcibly spin the cream from the milk.

 

The setlass in the dairy of Park Farm.

 

A cream-skimmer, used to skim off the cream. Any milk drained through the small holes, leaving the thicker cream behind.

 

An advert for a cream-separater, 1905.

 

The cream was churned in a barrel churn until the fat coagulated – or the butter had 'come'. This was kneaded and washed to remove all the buttermilk, which would quickly send the butter rancid. Butter-workers replaced bowls for this task in the 19^th century.

A butter-worker. The butter was rolled back and forth and the whey drained from holes at either end. 

The finished butter was worked into 'pats' then wrapped for sale –  often in the market in Stratford. When the 'farmers' markets' declined, butter was made only for home consumption, and then even that was abandoned.