Cambridge Butter - Sold by the yard

Cambridge "yard butter" was described in 1727 as long rolls put in long baskets, hung in the cool well and cut when at market. It's quality was described over a hundred years later as: "The Cambridgeshire butter is produced from cows that feed one part of the year on chalky uplands, and the other on rich meadows or fens, which alternation is thought to explain its excellence."

Roasted Butter. on a spit. before a fire!

Years ago I was intrigued by roasting butter on a spit. An Irish woman in Ellis's 1750 book made it many times over Christmas "to accommodate a Friend with a Slice or two, as we do Cakes or minced Pies here." Hannah Glasse had it roast over oysters, then when done "lay it on your oysters." After some recipes is a descripton of wooden spits, Ivan Day's attempt to roast butter (which convinced me not to try it), and upcoming zoom talks: Fun foods (CHoW), Spam, Expat Cookbooks, Ceramic ice pails and ice cream by Ivan Day, Dinner with Dumas (Three Musketeers), Why bees change their minds, and more.

Dog wheel for butter churn

Dog powered wheels are different enough that I have written about turnspits HERE and treadmill to churn butter HERE. This excerpt shows the mechanism of the tread-wheel.

Barrel butter churns 1758-1805

It is spring, so time for another post on butter. Over the years I have covered butter types and shapes, and a wide variety of churns. HERE. Instead of plunger churns, with the up and down motion, the barrel churns used a circular motion. Pictured is a c1900 churn of my great grandmother from an eastern PA farm.

Banqueting sweets for a Prince of Wales c1610

A very interesting online recipe manuscript with a terrific 4 page list of "Severall sorts of sweet meates fitting for a bankquett" was described in a talk by Dr. Sara Pennell. The recipes include Marchpanes, Rock Candies, Comfeits, Dryed Suckette, Marmallets, Dryed pasts, Past de Jaun, Preserves, Jellies/ Gellyes, Waferes, Bakemeates, Conseits, Serrops...

Making butter yellow

Winter butter was pale, but was enhanced with carrot juice, marigold, annato, turmeric and even egg yolks for selling in the cities.  "No one in the country will eat colored butter in winter except as the milk colors it."  The taste and color naturally improved when the cows ate grass instead of their winter diet of hay. More on grass butter HERE

Bitter butter in winter

Without a steady means of refrigeration, butter could be bitter in the winter if (according to 18th and 19th century sources) ... the milk froze then thawed, the cream was not skimmed off the milk in time, uneven turning of the barrel churn... or if the cattle ate ash tree leaves at "Michaelmas time" (Sept. 29).

People powered churns

We often think of the dairymaid charmingly churning butter in a picturesque setting (image below) - plunging the dasher into the churn or turning the handle of a barrel churn; but in 1850s Holland, other devices were created to churn 200 quarts of cream at a time. The Treadle Lever or standing see saw; and pulling down large levers...

Dogs and sheep churning butter ... on a treadmill

Dogs were workers: sheep herding, turning spits, watch dogs, and on the treadmill to churn butter in a swing or dash churn. By 1832 dog churns were common along the Hudson River. Descriptions and images from 19th century NY and New England works...

Skim milk and buttermilk

Where does each come from?  The cream is skimmed off the cooling milk with a skimmer and what remains is skim milk.  Then, after churning, the butter is removed and buttermilk remains in the churn.

Where was each popular?  Ireland - skim milk; Cheshire - buttermilk; but in southern England, buttermilk was avoided. Skim milk for calves; buttermilk for pigs.  Cream or whole milk to make butter...

"May butter" or "grass butter" lambs (or dogs) ... in Holland

Easter is generally the time when "butter lambs" are sold, but butter figures were a May tradition in Holland. In the spring, cows were sent out to eat the new grass, instead of the winter hay. Samples of the fresh - and more yellow - butter were made into shapes and given to loyal customers.

Making butter

Some of the many processes involved to make butter are shown in the following paintings and photos.  For example, after carrying the buckets of fresh warm milk, carefully so as not to disturb (churn) it, to the dairy, the milk was poured through a sieve to remove hairs and dirt, and into a bowl to cool.

Tallow from suet for candles, soap and... pie crusts

Suet (the fat around the kidney - generally beef) was clarified or rendered down - slowly cooked then strained - to make tallow "...for pie-crust, for basting and soups, as well as for frying." Recipes from an 1828 Scottish book and two Jewish manuals.

You are what you wear

Literally.  'Grotesques costumes' created by Nicolas de Larmessin (died 1694) included many tradesmen and women.  Tools and products of each trade will give a hint on what is being sold that is cooking related, such as the fruit vender.  Try to guess the others...    Click to enlarge.

Butter shapes - 2

Continuing with Dutch, Flemish and French butter in paintings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. 

The butter in a mound shape is from Pieter de Hooch's A Woman Preparing Bread, (Dutch c1660) in the Getty Museum.

Butter Shapes

Have you ever wondered what these objects were in the Dutch market paintings?  Butter was sold in various shapes, sizes, weights and 'prints' over the centuries.  The following Dutch and Flemish butter images from the 16th and 17th century show imprinted oval shaped butter. 

Garlic Butter

Not for Italian bread...but when cows ate wild garlic in the spring, the flavor remained in the milk, and the cream was churned  into  garlic flavored butter.